FreelanceM.ag

Make no mistake, freelancing can be a lot of work.

We’ll be the first ones to tell you that success at freelancing comes from a mixture of attitude and effort. Freelancing isn’t easy money, but the freelancing lifestyle does have some definite advantages.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed as a freelancer right now, it’s easy to forget some of the very real advantages that freelancers enjoy. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day struggles of freelancing.

If you’ve forgotten why you freelance, we can help.

In this post, we’ll celebrate those freelancing advantages by remembering what it was like to be an employee.

Reasons to Be Thankful You’re a Freelancer

Be thankful you’re a freelancer. It’s a great lifestyle.

Here are some of the “perks” of freelancing that you may have forgotten about:

1. No costly commute. Driving to a traditional job can cost you both time and money. As a freelancer, you get to pick where you work. For most freelancers, that’s in a home office. If you freelance, your commute can be as simple as opening your office door.
2. No office politics. One of the unfortunate aspects of traditional employment was office politics. No matter how much you liked your job; there was always somebody with a hidden agenda. Often, office politics split the workplace and impaired productivity.
3. No embarrassing office Christmas party. Almost everyone hates those mandatory office get-togethers like the annual Christmas party or the summer barbecue at the boss’s house. But when you work for someone else, you feel obligated to go. As a freelancer, your social life is your own.
4. No buying things from the boss’s kid’s fundraiser. If you’ve ever bought cookies or candy you didn’t want for a colleague’s fundraiser, you can relate to this perk. As a freelancer, you only support those fundraisers if you really want to.
5. No boring company meetings. While it’s important to get everyone on the same page, I’m not sure why companies still schedule these meetings. I’ve never met anyone who enjoys them. As a freelancer, you are the organization. No need to get the others on the same page.
6. No dress code. Did you ever get irritated by the corporate dress code? No more. As a freelancer, it’s okay to wear your pajamas to work if you want to (as long as you’re not going to meet with a client). There is no freelancer dress code.
7. No office gossip. It never fails. There’s always someone in a traditional office who feels the need to share personal information about the other workers. Most other employees live in fear of being fodder for these rumors, but as a freelancer there is no office gossip.
8. No early mornings. Did you ever work for a boss whose biological clock is just not on the same schedule as yours? If you’ve suffered through 8:00 a.m. staff meetings, you know what I mean. (No, bringing donuts did not make it better.)
9. No more rushed lunches. As an employee, you got exactly one hour for lunch. When you factor in the 15 minutes it took to drive to a lunch, the fifteen minutes to drive back, and the fifteen minutes to get waited on, that left very little time to eat. No wonder you brown-bagged it most days.
10. No fear of being laid off. The sad truth is that one of the most common ways for companies to save money is to lay people off. Many employees live in fear of being the target of the next annual corporate layoff. As a freelancer, you don’t need to fear being let go.
11. No begging the boss for a raise. Traditional employees are often limited in how much they can earn. If they want to earn more, they have to ask for it or switch to a different job. As a freelancer, you determine how much you earn by how much your charge for your services.
12. No noisy office mates. As an employee, were your office walls paper thin? Could you hear every word your colleagues on either side of you said? Office noise is a problem for many traditional employees, but as a freelancer, you control your environment.
13. No inconvenient overtime. If you’ve ever had to miss an important event in your personal life because work suddenly and unexpectedly scheduled you for extra hours, you should appreciate freelancing. As a freelancer, you can arrange your work schedule to accommodate your personal life.
14. No coworker interruptions. Imagine sitting at your desk working hard to meet a looming deadline. Suddenly, a coworker pops their head in your cubicle and starts making meaningless small talk. This scenario used to happen to me all the time, but as a freelancer there are no coworker interruptions.
15. No claustrophobic windowless cubicles. Speaking of work environments, what’s up with cubicles anyway? You’d think by now that most employers would realize that most employees hate them. Yet, walk into any big company and you’re likely to find them.
16. No work calls on vacation. At least not unless you want to take them. It’s not uncommon for an employee to be “on call” during their vacation. Like you really want to sit in the hotel room and attend work meetings while your family is out relaxing and having fun.
17. No silly team-building exercises. You’re going to like and trust the people you like and trust. It can’t be forced. Yet, many traditional employers do just that by forcing employees to attend team-building exercises. Sometimes they work. Often, they do not.
18. No office favoritism. Did your boss have a favorite employee? Was it you? I thought not. Ouch! The truth is that bosses are only human and tend to gravitate toward some employees more than others. That’s only natural, but when it means that employee gets better opportunities, it’s not fair.
19. No micromanagement. Do you like bosses who hover over you and second guess you every chance they get? Of course, not all bosses are this way. I had some great ones. But unfortunately, there are still a significant number of micromanagers out there.
20. No limit on opportunities. What direction do you want your career to take? If it’s been five years and you’re still not making any progress, it’s been too long. As a freelancer, your opportunities are up to you. You can take your career in whatever direction you want it to go.

Your Turn

What are your favorite “perks” of being a freelancer? Share some of the things you like the most in the comments.