“Eat a live frog first thing every morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day” – Mark Twain. This phrase symbolizes productivity and in this case, eating a live frog can be an important thing that you need to do in freelancing.
Another term for independent employees is “freelancer.” For some people, freelancing is a dream career. For others, it may be stressful and demanding.
In this article, you will learn the advantages and disadvantages of working independently.
The number of freelancers in the USA is estimated to reach 79.6 million by 2025. 90.1 million is estimated to reach by 2028. Working independently is a type of self-employment. The work is based on a contract or project basis. Freelancing can be flexible and comes with many benefits. It becomes popular for different reasons. One reason is the location independence. The other reason is the schedule independence. Freelancers choose the workplace and time to complete the task individually. They take into account and adjust their work to the deadlines set by the customer.
Advantages of Working Independently
Location and Schedule Independence
Working independently may become a dream career. You are free to choose when and where to work. You have the freedom to choose your clients, have your schedule, and work anywhere. Flexibility and freedom are appealing. They help you grow and improve your skills. This is a great option for those who like to work from their homes. There are no geographical restrictions in a freelance career, so you can work from anywhere.
If you are self-employed, you can set your working hours. You can take breaks as often as you like. Finally, you can have more time for other things.
Skill Development
Professional development is an essential part of any growing career, especially if you’re a freelancer. During the process of professional development, you grow as an employee, acquiring new qualities for yourself.
Working independently allows you to focus on what you love to do. If you focus on a particular area, you will become an expert in your area of expertise.
Self-learning is one of the most important skills you need to have as a freelancer. An employee may be trained by an employer. As a freelancer, you have no one to rely on but yourself. Moreover, learning new things and improving your skills will help you prosper in your career.
Client and Project Independence
Working independently differs from other job categories. As a freelancer, you are independent on client and project choice. You can gain experience in different organizations. You can refuse any client or not start a project if the conditions and tasks do not satisfy you. For instance, there may be situations, when you may not trust the clients. Also, you may not like the terms proposed by them. Freelancing lets you be free in choosing which clients and projects are appealing to you. This is a privilege when you focus on the projects and clients that interest you. You feel more relaxed and do what you want to do.
Individual Player
Freelancing is a great option for those who like working on their own. Do you often feel that you are tired after a day of long discussions? If the answer is yes, then you’ll most likely work best in solitude.
Working independently lets you regulate the amount of communication. Especially, if you have an introverted personality, then freelancing will be a great choice for you. Being an introverted freelancer, you meet your clients in one-on-one meetings. So, it doesn’t have to be a set of long and large discussions.
Freelancing is perfect for you, as you reduce the social burden to a comfortable one. Therefore, you start living according to your schemes.
Disadvantages of Working Independently
Billable Hours
One of the main dilemmas of working independently is calculating billable hours. It is very important to set the price by the quality you provide. Besides, you should stay competitive in the marketplace. As a freelancer, you may have problems with payment accuracy. Luckily, there is now a software that helps in solving this problem.
WebWork Time Tracker lets you set an hourly rate to your contracts to mark them as billable. The product automatically generates the amount to pay based on the number of tracked hours. WebWork tracks accurate billable hours that can ensure trust and certainty between you and your clients.
Distraction
As a freelancer, you have freedom in choosing your schedule but you may easily get distracted. If not addressed, distractions can lead to inefficiency in the entire working process. With the help of effective software, you will be on the right track. WebWork has an app & website monitoring feature that helps you differentiate productive from non-productive apps & websites. Whenever you enter a non-productive website, such as Facebook, WebWork will send you a pop-up so you do not get distracted. Furthermore, you will focus on using apps & websites that suit your work theme.
Isolation
Freelancing may be challenging for team players who prefer working in teams. For a communicative person, working independently may be hard. WebWork helps you by offering a work-life balance feature where you can choose activities that you need more time for. For instance, if you lack communication with your family, friends, or children, you can choose these options. Then, a pop-up will appear to remind you to spend more time with them.
Task Organization
Lastly, you may have problems with differentiating important tasks from less important ones. For being productive, you need to organize your tasks. It may be hard for you to focus on one task while working independently. You may have many projects, each having different deadlines. That is why, you need software that will help you to organize your tasks accurately. WebWork helps you to assign tasks, and lists them as open, in progress, and done. This way, you can track the status of each one. You can set deadlines for each task by choosing priority (normal, high, urgent).
Conclusion
When working independently, you receive both advantages and disadvantages. Freelancing means having flexibility and freedom. But it also means dealing with distractions and task management issues. The disadvantages have solutions. So, you can use WebWork to overcome upcoming challenges. Moreover, the pros and cons of freelancing will help you decide whether to work independently or not.