20+ Pros And Cons Of Freelancing

Making the decision to start your career as a freelancer can be an extremely personal choice. Considering what pros and cons freelancing brings can help in guiding the choice.

However, one of the undeniable facts is, according to the Freelancing in America survey, there were 58.7 million in America in 2018 who had started freelancing, as compared to 2014, it turned to 3.7 million.

There are 1 in 3 people doing freelancing. And it’s more in the younger generation instead of, the older one.

Well, if you are considering freelancing, here are listed pros and cons to understand.

Advantage Of Freelancing	Disadvantage Of Freelancing
It’s fast to get started	It takes time to build it
It is relatively affordable	It can be irregular
There is a need for freelancers	You have to be organized
It allows you freedom and flexibility	Pay can be lower
It operates on your own terms	It has a lot of distraction
Have work and life balance	You need to find right personal time
Higher-income potential	There is a risk of not getting paid
You have responsibility	It causes isolation
It develops your skill	It needs investment
You get references	You need to be responsible for everything
It breaks the monotony
You are your own boss

Table of Contents

Advantage Of Freelancing

People who do freelancing are essentially considered self-employed, as they can work with different clients at any time.

There are benefits such as being your own boss, the opportunity to get the financial rewards, setting their schedules, and deciding how things will be carried out.

Here are some of the pros that you should consider :

tips for starting your first time freelancing

Becoming a Freelancer Is Fast And Relatively Easy

If you have the skill and plan, then it’s easy to start with this career. You require skills to start the service and find potential clients.

Then it’s quite fast to launch your career as a freelancer. It essentially requires you to find and attract clients.

However, it can slow it down if you don’t have the right skill to look for the client. This is not a difficult thing; you just need to learn a little bit with extra work beforehand.

Even with having little experience, this can help in starting your career.

Freelancing Careers Are Affordable

Many freelancing ventures can start with relatively low or zero, reunited initial investments.

If you have the service or skills to offer, then there are good chances that you just need to have the technology, equipment, software, etc

If you know the development, then you can build your website of yours and start attacking the clients that can help you with lowering costs.

There Are Increase Requirement For Freelancers

There is increasing demand for reliable and good-quality freelancers.

With the current state of economic climates, there are a lot of businesses that do not carry as much stuff as they used to have.

As a result, there are more tasks and activities which they outsource to freelancers.

Businesses are seeing the reasons why having remote workers is helpful. That is the best time when you should start taking advantage and help in building relationships with the companies who are looking for freelancing.

Freelancing Allows You To Have Flexibility And Freedom

Well, one of the advantages of freelancing is that you are free to choose how you want your schedule to be.

It’s on you when you want to work, where and how you can carry it out as it fits you. This is a major bonus when you choose to freelance.

When you are employed under companies as an employee, you don’t get such freedom. Freelancers have independence as compared to employees.

No Looking Over Your Shoulder Situation

Another major benefit that you get when you are a freelancer as there is no boss you have to give answers to.

Here are no such situations of being micromanaged. All controls are in your hand, and it’s on you how you want to make your decisions.

There are no more shared offices or cubicles. Along with that, there is no worry or concern if someone is watching over your shoulder.

You Operate On Whatever Terms

Other than the clients, there is no one whom you hold responsible for answering. This allows you to work on the terms that you have.

So decide whatever hours you fit to work when you want to start when you want to finish. Being a freelancer, you have the freedom to operate your work on your terms.

Choose Your Own Work Environment

Since there is no dependency, you are not bound to a certain work environment. You can choose and adjust it as you want.

If playing music helps you in better working, here you can do it. Drink coffees, take lunch, and do whatever fits your productivity.

You can choose to work from different places, days and other things.

Freelancing allows you to have control over your work environment.

You Balance Your Work And Life

Freelancing allows you to enjoy the balance between work and life.

It enables you to spend time with family, less sitting in traffic and commuting.

You can choose what and how you want to carry out the work. You want to sit in a coffee shop or park.

You can even travel and work too.

Design Your Work-Life Which Matches Your Need

Enjoying your work-life balance also helps you in designing work and life balance. This can help you in using your hours. So use it part-time or go fully.

The choice is completely on you, allowing you to have the flexibility to attain the life you want to do.

There Is Always a Higher Potential For Income

How much you earn depends on what kind of clients you have, but you have the freedom to choose, change and go for a whole different set of clients who are paying you well.

Because of this, freelancers have the potential for earning a higher salary than anyone who is employed with a similar job.

It’s not surprising that freelancers tend to earn three times more as compared to their employee counterparts.

Also, the rate is not set by someone; you have the power to choose the rates according to you.

If you are offering a high quantity of goods and meeting the needs of the client, you can increase your amount as you go.

No One Client At One Time

Freelancing also helps in choosing more than one client. So you can work on multiple projects and manage things so it won’t jeopardize the quality.

This allows you to maximize your income. Well, what kind of skills and experience are on hand.

Being Single One To Be Responsible

Freelancing is similar to running a business. It’s exciting but challenging too.

Here you get the opportunity to learn different aspects which are involved in running your business.

Here you are the person who is responsible, not just for the project but for everything regarding the business you do.

It includes a charge of money, financials, attracting clients, and managing the overall running freelancing.

This helps in rewarding as well as motivational effects. You are the one who is liked directly by what you work and what you get as a reward.

You Get To Broaden Your Reference Base

Working as a freelancer also gives you the chance to broaden your reference face as you work with many different clients.

It helps you in exposing yourself to new experiences and opportunities. This can develop your skills and make more potential clients attractive to you.

There Is No Traveling Needed

Most freelancing jobs allow you to work directly from your home. This is one of the biggest advantages.

Those who are working from home can turn their 9 – 5 to 7 – 7. Those additional four hours can be frustrating, and it’s not productive either.

You have to travel, drive your car, use public transport and spend hours in traffic.

A freelancer has the freedom to protect those wasted hours by doing something that they like.

No Dealing With Colleagues Or Coworkers

A Lot of time, colleagues are not someone who you feel comfortable with. And they might be the easiest to get with.

As a freelancer, you have the opportunity to work with whom you want. If they are messing it up and you are not getting the tune with them, you can dump them and find someone else to work with.

Disadvantages Of Freelancing

Well, even though there are a lot of benefits that freelancing gives you, however, there are some cons that are important to know.

There is a huge chance that with all the benefits, freelancing may not be the right choice for you.

Here are the disadvantages that you need to know about.

Freelancing Requires To Build The Base

Building and growing the clients to the level where it can support all of your needs and family. It might take some time.

Also, you need to do a lot of networking and work to get yourself well known within the freelancing industry.

The demand for the services will depend completely on your skills. Depending on skills, change in the industry, and demand for the service.

Freelancing Might Be Irregular

It’s important to understand that freelancing comes with ups and downs. It can make it difficult to sustain your regular cash flows.

Also, your workload can become huge and might get low. This makes it somewhat difficult to receive a regular paycheck.

You need to take risks and overcome the stress that it might cause.

It might get stressful at times, so it’s extremely important that you understand what your limits are. Not just that, you make sure that you have the lifestyle in your mind.

However, it is possible that you need to manage your slow periods.

You need to do the budgeting for times when things get hard, it is essential to be ready.

Freelancing Need You To Be Organized

When you have different projects and clients, you need to be super organized, or you won’t be able to manage your workload.

Time management is an important skill when it comes to being a freelancer. It’s important to make sure that your work quality is top-notch and meets all the deadlines.

You also require effective contracts and paperwork. You need to keep up your work and make sure everything is going to be effective.

You Need To Work Under Pressure To Meet Deadlines

As compared to any other business, freelancing also has its ups and downs. You need to understand how to manage and deal with work when there is pressure to meet deadlines.

You have to be able to understand how to deal with it. You have to fit the marketing, advertising, sales, legal work, and financials.

There are plenty of free and premium Socrates; this can help in staying on track keep helps in organizing and managing social media.

Sometimes You Are Getting a Lower Payment

Due to a large number of freelancers out there, the competition is too high in order to get your clients noticed. It’s helpful that you are lowering what you are charging.

Therefore, if you use a low-price strategy for making sure to keep it short-term, so you are seeking the right price, not sticking with lower ones for too long.

It Has A Lot Of Distractions

When you are your own boss, you need to work from home. However, you need to handle different things. Some are great bonuses. But you also need to deal with different distractions.

There will be a distraction, dealing with things that could be dismissed if you are working from home.

how to not get distracted as a freelancer

It’s on you to manage your track and keep things going.

When you are working from home, it makes it easier to catch up on personal calls with friends or family members.

So you need to have a schedule and a way of dealing with all of the distractions.

It’s Difficult To Switch Off

On another hand, when you are working from home, it gets difficult to switch between your professional and personal time.

You can end up spending all the time on your work or you might sit down to watch tv or with family.

So you need to find the right balance and distinguish between work time and personal time.

It’s easy to get sucked into working and enjoy your free time with friends and family.

There Are Some Risks Of Not Getting Paid

With any business, there are always risks about getting paid for work or not. The same goes for the freelancing industry, and it’s extremely common.

This means that it’s extremely important to keep on those clients who have owed money.

Make sure that you are sending the invoices as you are done with them.

It Cause Isolation

Well, one of the major disadvantages that you get from freelancing is this job isolates you and makes you feel alone.

Freelancers are required to spend a considerable amount of their time on products and are alone.