12 Pros And Cons Of Freelancing (11+ years experience)

I’ve been freelancing for more than 11 years now, and I’ve been super appreciative of getting up every morning and working with just what I love.

That said, it’s not all easy and fantastic being a freelancer, there is a dark side to freelancing as well, but for me, the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

Let’s get into it.

Pros Of Freelancing

I want to start with the positives of freelancing. Here is an overview of everything I love about freelancing and some of the reasons why I made the switch from a 9-5 job to freelancing full-time.

Freedom To Choose Your Location Of Working

This is one of my favourite things about freelancing. I love being a remote worker. I can choose to work wherever I want to, because I just need wifi and a computer.

I’ve had periods where I’ve worked in Lisbon, Portugal. I’ve had periods where I worked in Copenhagen, where I love today and periods where I just found a coffee cafe and work there as well.

With full-time jobs, you just can’t work remotely without following the office politics and asking your superior if you can make it work.

I work primarily in my apartment, but sometimes getting out and sitting in a cafe and feeling the energy from other people is just one of the advantages of freelancing.

Grow Your Income Far Beyond Any 9-5 Job

Usually, as a full-time employee, you have your salary, and then you negotiate it once every year or every other year.

But with your freelance business, your earning potential is infinite. What I’ve learned in my freelance career is that you start low to gain some traction with clients, and then you increase your hourly rate from there.

To have a successful freelance business, you need to make yourself independent of your hours if you really want to grow your income as a freelancer.

You can do this by taking on projects, selling courses or selling your knowledge in any type of form. This is usually not possible with traditional employment, but it is freelancing.

Choose What To Work With And What Not

Another advantage of freelancing is you decide what you work with. You don’t have to take all projects that come your way like you have to with traditional employment.

This is definitely a benefit of freelancing. However, initially, you’ll most likely take everything coming your way to create some traction and get potential clients.

But once you have a healthy stream of clients, you can choose between the clients you wish to work with, and it’s a huge benefit.

What I also like is that I can set time aside to work on my own skills and improve them with courses, specific personal projects and similar because I control what to work on and what not to work on.

You Are Your Own Boss

As the title states, you are your own boss, so you decide everything that happens. You don’t need to work 9-5 if you’re more productive at night.

I like to work early, at 5 am, and then I try to finish the day early, but sometimes there is just so much work that it’s not possible, but I control that again. I can just wrap up some projects and not take new projects in.

It’s all about creating a healthy work-life balance and ensuring your workload is possible to maintain for you.

Another thing about being your own boss is that you don’t have anyone throwing tasks at you or telling you what to do. You decide, and you do whatever you want. The gig economy is such a beautiful thing.

You’re Seen As An Expert In Your Field Of Work

As a full-time employee, you’re often hidden behind the company’s name, but as a freelancer, you get all the exposure for the work you do, and that’s why you’re seen as an expert in the field of your work.

Every time a company needs some knowledge or help with a project, they want experts, they don’t want generalists, and that’s why it’s so important you stick to your skillset and don’t try to expand in multiple directions that don’t make sense for your skillset.

Of course, you can learn some basic marketing and other elements to supplement your skillset. I work as a web developer freelancer, and I’ve supplemented my marketing knowledge so I know how to market myself as a freelancer.

You’re More Flexible As A Freelancer

There are so many benefits of freelancing, in my opinion, and flexibility is one of them. If a client asks you to solve an ad-hoc task asap, you can do this.

If you want to pivot more long-term, you can also do this as well. All the options are there, and you can grab to grow a larger client base by being more flexible in the way that you run your freelance career.

I started with web development, and today I also consult on websites in general, everything from how you build it to specific choices. This I did by acquiring the necessary skillset and advocating it. You can do the same in your field of work.

Cons Of Freelancing

Now to the downsides of freelancing, because there are definitely downsides.

It’s not every day you’ll end your day on a high, and some days you’ll really think about whether it’s worth it or you should just get a 9-5 job. I’ve been there myself, but I continue to tell myself the pros outweigh the cons.

You Have Multiple Job Titles

One of the biggest disadvantages of freelancing, in my opinion, is the fact that you need to do everything.

You don’t have a colleague that takes care of the finances and another colleague doing the marketing, and you have to do everything.

If someone is late on a payment, you’re the one who has to spend time pursuing that payment and following up with the client.

All the accounting and bookkeeping you have to take care of until you have funds to outsource it.

The freelance economy is great, but this is an important element to remember when choosing to go freelancing.

Even though I see myself as an experienced freelancer, I still do my own accounting as I feel I have a better overview of the business expenses and regular income.

You Need To Do Accounting And File Your Own Taxes

As mentioned in the previous con, you have to do your own accounting, and if you don’t know how to do it, then you’ll have to learn it unless you have the funds to outsource it.

I didn’t know anything about accounting when I started freelancing, so I had to learn it all, but there is software to help you automate a lot of it and stay true to the law. The thing you’ll spend the most time on is slow-paying clients.

For your self-employment taxes, you need to take care of this as well. Remember to fill it in on time. Remember to report VAT on time and follow the regulations for your country.

If you don’t follow the regulations, then you’ll often get fined daily, so it quickly becomes expensive to miss these deadlines.

You Don’t Have Any Job Stability

As a business owner or a freelancer, you have no job stability, it’s all up to you to create a flow of clients that brings income.

As a full-time employee, you just meet and start working, but as a freelancer, it’s entirely different. You will initially experience irregular income and lack of work, but it’s part of being a freelancer.

I don’t experience this any longer, as I’ve learned how to plan for the future with the right type of clients, and you’ll learn the same over time.

There are 2 types of work; projects and hourly-rate paid tasks running. I personally like the second most as it creates some stability, and I’m protected by contracts, but you need to go for the type you want. As a freelancer, you do have the freedom of clients.

You Pay For Your Own Time Off

Now as a freelancer, you have a lack of employee benefits, one of them being your vacation paid for.

It’s very simple if you don’t work, then you don’t generate income, and this is completely fine. You just need to plan for this.

I love my work, and I can’t let it go, so I usually work a little on my vacations, but it’s not always healthy, so ensure you have some savings. This will help you when you want to take a vacation.

I think for my own case, I don’t need that much vacation as I can work from where I want. So I travel while working, and that covers a lot of my vacation needs. But sometimes, you just need to pull the plug and relax somewhere.

You Have To Market Yourself

Some freelancers love this, so I couldn’t figure out whether to put it as a pro or con. But as this list is based on my own experience, it’s a con.

You need to figure out how to get your clients by yourself, and you need to figure out how to broaden your reach.

All this you need to do while still working for your current clients, so it can become challenging as there are only 24 hours a day.

Often you’ll neglect this as you feel it goes well with your current clients, but you always need to have a pipeline of clients, so when you finish with your current clients, then you have the next clients to move on to.

You Are Just By Yourself

If you’re the type of person who needs a lot of interaction daily, then you can still do freelancing, but I’ll recommend you find a co-working space.

I’m an introvert, so I really enjoy I can work from home or in a hotel somewhere.

However, even though I’m an introvert, I can sometimes feel isolated, and to solve this, I simply go to a coffee cafe and work for a day. This is back to a pro of freelancing, and I can work wherever I want.

Another thing is that you don’t have a team to collaborate with or get feedback from. You need to learn how to thrive alone and still improve as a person and freelancer.

Wrap-Up: Is Freelancing For You?

Look these points through, and then ask yourself if the pros outweigh the cons for you. We’re all different, and we don’t all match the freelance life.

But if you can see through the cons, and feel the pros vastly outweigh the cons, go for it. Start freelancing slowly on the side of your 9-5 job, and then work towards being a full-time freelancer.

Here is a full comparison of being a full-time worker in a company and a full-time freelancer.