Well, not exactly. I mean I do start my job next week but it’s not like freelancing is all that free anyway.
Here are the free sides of freelancing:
- You do only the jobs you want to do.
- You make your own hours, set your own terms.
- You work as hard or as little as you want to.
- You can take time off whenever you want.
Those parts of it are AWESOME! But here are the flip sides to those parts:
- If your budget decrees, you take the jobs you’re offered and you’re thankful for them.
- You only get paid if you’re working. Your prospects can set terms, too.
- Again, you only get paid if you’re working. And for some working (marketing) you don’t really get paid. (Theoretically you build this into your expenses and set your terms accordingly.)
- One more time: YOU ONLY GET PAID IF YOU’RE WORKING.
There is lots I love about full-time freelancing but in a down economy, there’s lots I think I’m gonna love about a regular paycheck. My biggest concern is proving to the folks at work that I can do the job telecommuting because there’s a learning curve there sometimes. I’ve had to “train” my employers before to get them comfortable with having someone off-site and sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard and I don’t know how it’s going to be yet. Fortunately I’m kind of a workaholic so I plan to get down and get busy and get a lot done. (Most of what I’ve done up until now is get the lay of the land — there’s a lot to figure out.)
It’s going to be a little weird to have twice weekly commitments to be in an office but then again, I’ve had client meetings pretty much every week and on-site work occasionally and most of these happen unpredictably so it might be easier to do it this way even though the hours are longer. I don’t know. I also hope that my L friend who’ll be watching the kids doesn’t end up hating the job and running away and changing her number so I can’t call her and beg her to come back. (I doubt this will happen but my neuroses are running away with me today.)
Let’s see, what else am I worried about?
- That I will forget my lunch and then just try to skip it instead of running out and getting something and then I’ll be in a meeting with important board members and my stomach will start growling. Loudly.
- That I will accidentally throw away my good tights and keep the ones that fall down and I’ll have a meeting with important board members and I’ll stand up to leave and the tights will fall down and I’ll have to waddle like a penguin in order to exit the room without compromising my modesty.
- That I don’t actually know how to be around people who are not my family for more than a few hours and will spontaneously burst into song (I’ve been known to do this at home), cuss like a sailor (ditto), or otherwise offend my new co-workers.
Basically I’m worried about the whole new thing because I don’t do well with new. But as Becca reminded me, in a month or so it’ll be old and all of this worrying will be forgotten. Besides writing down my ridiculous worries is cheering me up because even though any of those things would suck, they would also be funny (and they’re also unlikely except for the first one). And then three days out of the work week I don’t even have to put on tights and can keep on wearing stretchy pants and sweatshirts and I can sing and cuss all I want to.
I’m also excited about working because during the second interview I started fantasizing about being off-site some. It’s fun to work at home, sure, but it’s also fun NOT to. And even though my hourly rate dropped by a bunch when I took this job, the trade-off is no more marketing and someone else is finally paying the employer taxes. (Paying taxes when you’re making a full salary as a freelancer SUCKS. We pay quarterly and we pay a lot because I’ve grossed more than Brett does nearly every year since 2002.) It’s going to even out to where my take-home is about the same, I think, only it’ll come on a reasonable schedule instead of according to some magical calendar we’re not privvy to.
Wow, I am totally up and down in this entry, eh? Imagine what the inside of my head looks like!!!
p.s. I know some of you are still working hard to make the freelance thing work or are thinking about making the freelance thing work and I believe you can do it. The key is to have another source of income while you get up and running whether it’s from a second job or from a partner’s job or a tidy little settlement. Anything to get you through the months where the clients are slow or the checks aren’t arriving.
Possibly related posts:
I think you’ll do great. They are lucky to have you!
“That I will accidentally throw away my good tights and keep the ones that fall down and I’ll have a meeting with important board members and I’ll stand up to leave and the tights will fall down and I’ll have to waddle like a penguin in order to exit the room without compromising my modesty.”
Hey, will it make you feel more or less neurotic to know that this has actually happened to me? I tried to fall back behind the crowd and pull my stockings back up. Fortunately the men were clueless enough to know what was going on, and the woman was kind enough to be sympathetic (though she did find me amusing).
As a solution, I recommend pants. I haven’t worn stockings prety much since then. Didn’t Hillary make pants an acceptable business outfit for women yet?
“Fortunately the men were clueless enough to know what was going on”
Fortunately they were clueless enough to NOT know.
I was about to say that the only realistic worry is that you’ll forget your lunch–and then you said it yourself. I forget my lunch constantly, including a really awesome lunch just this week.
But then you can have lunch with me! Seriously, we need to have lunch!
I do the things in your third “afraid of” bullet too. All the time.
can you explain something to me Dawn?
What does a freelance writer really do?
How does it make you money?
Do people pay you to write about a certain subject?
or do they give you their writing and you edit it and they pay you?
I don’t fully understand what a freelance writer does.
I really wish I could be one though.
BTW you really sound like a good friend of mine about the idea that you could ’spontaneously burst into song’. I have a friend who does that sometimes actually, its very endearing.
Not to add to your anxiety, but . . . last spring I ventured out into the “real” world for a networking meeting. We had a great visit, delicious lunch, I felt like a grown-up!
When I got home I realized that I was wearing two different earrings LOL!!
Mommy Moment, Senior Moment, who knows??
You’ll be fine!
Okay, put on the good tights right now. Once you’re sure you have the right pair on your body, throw the falling down ones away. And there you go, you’ve cut one worry right off your list! Or maybe that would just give you room for a new worry…
But really, it’s going to be great! Good luck!
You’ll do awesome. It seems just the right balance of both home and work (site). I think you are going to love, love, love it. And they are going to love, love, love you.
Believe it or not it’s obvious by this post that you are going to do incredibly well. They ARE lucky to have you. Congratulations Dawn!
I have a co-worker who bursts into song and it’s just fine. Cursing is also good. You could practice Elizabethan curses when you’re home and work on making those second nature. “God’s wounds,” is one. What you won’t do is offend them. It’s not possible.
Your tights will be fine. If they’re aren’t, people will forgive: My dress slipped off my shoulder once and we all proceeded as if nothing happened and I shrugged my shoulder back in place. It was very silly!
Lunch: I bet there’s a mircowave & a ‘fridge. Stock up on some cup o’soup, microwave mac n’cheese, or noodles. Buy some canned fruit with a pull-ring opener and keep the can in your desk at work. If you spend $5-7, you can establish a little emergency cache of food.
You? Cuss like a sailor? I’d have never thunk it. Makes me love you all the more.
You’re gonna rock this new gig, I just know it! Break a leg, babe.
Cindy, I wanted to answer your questions.
What does a freelance writer do? Depends on the kind of freelancing writing. I’ve supplied content for magazines, web sites, brochures and scripts for youtube videos. Pretty much if something needs to be written, a freelance writer might be the person supplying it.
How does it make you money? I get paid by the word, by the project or by the hour depending on the client.
Do people pay you to write about a certain subject? Sometimes. Most magazine writers pitch an idea first but sometimes an editor will come and ask you to write something. Most corporate writing — brochures and things — they come to you with the topic and the project.
Do they give you their writing and you edit and they pay you? Sometimes. I’ve been paid for both editing and proofreading but mostly I write.
How long has it been since you last worked outside the home? I officially started doing so in a professional setting in September (I’m not counting the months I worked at Starbucks, as it really wasn’t the same). It had been 8 years for me since I’d last worked in an office and I was very nervous about it. I know I have different issues with freelancing than you do and didn’t reach the same levels of success, but overall I have LOVED working outside the home again. Child care has been a hassle and has had to be renegotiated a few times, but in general it’s been wonderful for me to get regular paychecks, regularly see other adults and *not* have to continually drum up new work. I hope you will find as many positives in it as I have!
Holly, the last out-of-home job I had was when I was managing the kids’ program at the shelter in 1997. I quit when Noah was six months old (I was bringing him to work and once he started crawling, it was all over). I do think I’m going to like the set up but it’s going to be weird to have in-person co-workers again. Weird in a good way I think but still — weirdness!!!
(posted on blog and via email)
I have to laugh at the picture with this post – from my pathetic little cube in soulless corporate American, that clothesline is looking mighty good to me!
Hope the new job is TERRIFIC! It sounds wonderful, and you will be, too!