The Pros and Cons of Freelancing

"Freelancing" is a term used across industries all over to describe a form of self-employment wherein you work with a mix of clients on your own hours, not employed by one set company or person. You can either go full-time with freelancing, or do it alongside other work. This can be done either from home, or if possible from office space/personal studio. What separates freelancing from being self employed is that, for freelancing, you earn your money from each individual job, compared to a salaried wage. 

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As a freelancer it is imperative you have the following skills: 

Communication - invaluable, as you cannot work effectively with a client if you struggle with communication, as this will have an effect on everything in your project, from the brief to the final outcome.
Management - you will be your own boss, so you must be capable of organisation and highly disciplined when it comes to multitasking and potentially working on multiple projects at one time.
Creativity - being creative means you can fix problems outside the box within your projects, and also allows you to have a lot more freedom with projects as you can create higher quality end results.
Research skills - the ability to research and write is very necessary as you will need to fit a brief and come up with concepts for tasks, so presenting this well and with information backing up choices is extremely beneficial.

To promote yourself as a freelancer, there are many ways to go about it, but most importantly you need to create a presence for yourself, both in person and online. You need to network at events such as festivals and conferences, as well as join relevant online spaces to meet likeminded people with similar goals within your field, such as a Discord server or a LinkedIn community. Marketing yourself and what you are providing is a must - having a business card with your details and specific niche within the industry is a surefire way to effectively market yourself to multiple people in a short amount of time when networking in person at events. Having a strong social media presence is always a bonus, as you can use it both to communicate with potential clients as well as showcasing your portfolio, making your skills accessible and easily viewed by anyone interested.

Self promotion is essential to being a freelancing. As said by Oleksander Stukalo on lemon.io, "If your business doesn’t have a Facebook or a Twitter page, it doesn’t exist. That’s true for entrepreneurs — and useful for freelancers. Look for potential clients everywhere, including social networks." With no online presence, there is nowhere for clients to find you without meeting you in person, restricting your reach which will cause you to lose money. 

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Having a good reputation and positive relations with others is vital in keeping clients and gaining potential clients as a freelancer. As you start out, word of mouth both virtually and in person will allow people to figure out who you are and what you can provide. As much as having physical skills that are desired is a major benefit to getting clients and jobs, having personal skills such as empathy and ability to create positive connections are just as valuable, if not more. Being able to get on with clients and provide them a job is what will lead to positive reviews, which in turn is appealing to those looking to have a specific task done - they will turn to the person who is both technically skilled and a friendly face, so being pleasant and professional with clients is an absolute necessity. 

This then ties into how to establish a business, as clients will want to return to a friendly and skilled freelancer over someone who isn't pleasant to have work done by. Personal connections are major in establishing a business, as having relations with those within the industry allows you to build up your reputation and branch out to other clients. 

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As someone going into the animation industry, being a freelancer is appealing to me. The pros of being able to work on my own terms, from my own home and taking only tasks I am interested in are incredibly good to think of. I would love to have full control of my tasks and clients, allowing to work my niche of character concept art and also allowing me to not just work in animation, but with video games as well. Although these positives are exciting, the very real cons of being jobless for months on end if i don't have a steady stream of clients as well as struggling to manage if there are too tasks are very dissuading and would put anyone off freelancing.

Working as an indie artist compared to working with AAA companies does mean a lot more freedom and license when coming to working with clients, and having that autonomy is very important to me personally. However, the money and job insecurity is a very big problem which could hinder me and others in my position a lot, as this can affect livelihoods, and can leave you jobless for months unless you have another back up.

To conclude, becoming a freelancer is a very appealing career move for many due to its extensive lists of positives, however the negatives of the nature of freelancing can turn many away. The likelihood of burn-out is high when trying to manage too many tasks in one go, which is a big factor in deciding whether to stay freelancing or to move to working for someone else. The trials tribulations of the industry can be worth it, or it can break you - and freelancing only heightens these. 

References:

Stukalo, O. (2024), How to Sell Yourself as a Freelancer (online) lemon.io. Available at https://lemon.io/blog/the-best-way-to-sell-yourself-for-a-freelancer/