Deciding to work as a freelancer is a big decision. But it’s a decision that more of us seem to be making with stats coming in at almost 5 million people in the UK working, either partly or fully, on a freelance basis. And one can only assume that this statistic is set to rise with the inevitable surge of uncertainty and redundancies that are affecting many sectors and will continue to have a big impact as we slowly come out of lockdown into a different world.
Whatever the reason, making the leap to working as a freelancer opens the door to a very different way of working. Gone are the days of 9-5 set hours and a consistent monthly salary. What you make up for in choosing the who, when and how you work comes alongside a continual anxiety of ‘but will I earn enough money to actually survive?’
The stats show that many of us are managing to make it work and over the past 3 months many employees have also needed to work in a similar way. Organisations have had to adjust their own working structures and patterns for employees and for the first time for some, have seen that people are capable of delivering their remit from home, often within more flexible hours as they juggle work with childcare and other priorities. And maybe that will open some eyes to possibilities of working differently and more flexibly with everyone in the future.
In the face of huge changes that will continue to happen in many organisations, freelancers may be a sensible solution for many. Some organisations facing large-scale redundancies and challenges to do things differently in order to survive will look to freelancers to deliver the work that still needs doing – paying only for what needs to be done.
As freelancers, we are agile. We are brought in to deliver a project or a service and there is a clear agreement up front as to how much that will cost. Yes freelancers may cost more than an employee when you compare a day rate based on salary alone. But freelancers’ rates include all of the extras upfront and none of the hidden costs of employment which is estimated to add around another 30% to salary costs alone depending on what additional benefits are offered by an organisation.
Freelancers don’t get pulled into the politics or spend their time in unnecessary meetings; they have a task and get the job done. There are no ‘water cooler’ chats to be had when working on your own from home and so freelancers are often super productive with their time. We are only as good as the last project that we deliver – so every single piece of work has to meet or exceed the expectations. Or we won’t be used again by that client.
Because we are not a member of staff or ingrained into the way an organisation does things, we bring new ideas and creativity and often see things that people in the business, who are too close to it, cannot. We can come in with a bird’s eye view and challenge the status quo because we’re not embroiled in the office politics or stuck in a particular way of working because ‘that’s how things have always been done.’ And that makes us valuable.
So whilst the current situation has been uncertain for many of us, including freelancers, there may be new opportunities and we can continue to add value, post lockdown. And for all of us, let’s hope that this period has opened up the possibilities of working differently. More flexibly. Whilst still delivering the job and achieving great results.