It was never my dream to be a freelance content writer. I started it as an internship and discovered that I enjoyed it enough to keep going. Eight years later, I’m still at it. In all honesty, it is a demanding career path. If you’re considering freelancing, it’s crucial to consider whether it’s your right career path! Here’s what you should know.

The deal with a freelance career

There are a lot of tasks and job responsibilities that go on behind closed doors when you’re a freelancer. Weekends and time off are scarce, and taking a vacation can be challenging since it means a drop in your monthly earnings while you’re gone. Understanding how these things and others impact your personal life is essential. The ones that surprised me the most were:

• Customers can be unreasonable: Like customer service jobs, freelance clients can be unreasonable in their attitude, price, deadlines, etc. You did nothing to deserve that; it’s just what happens. This can be hard to take, especially for newbie freelancers!

• You’ll have to get used to wearing all the hats: Unless you have the budget to outsource some of the responsibilities of freelancing, this is true: reception, lead generation, social media outreach, bookkeeping, etc. You’ll undoubtedly learn a lot about how a business operates. Still, it can be a learning curve and a headache when things get busy!

• You’re rarely off the clock: Since you wear all the hats, there’s always work to be done! You’ll have to get used to always being on the clock with several tasks to do. Part of making that work is understanding how to stack and organize your day so you can get all those tasks done as easily as possible!

• You’ll have to stay on top of trends and market shifts: This is a mistake that I made as a beginning freelancer! Whether it’s customer requests or even how business content is written and received by search engines, things change quickly. It’s important to stay on top of the trends and ensure you’re ready to shift and adjust to the market! I’d also recommend staying current on best business practices, business terminology, and so on. It helps show your client that you’re the real deal, too! I find that it also helps with imposter syndrome.

A great alternative to the corporate path

Despite those warnings and surprising facets related to the freelance career path, freelance life is still the right choice for me. I’m comfortable calling myself a professional freelance writer and stand by the sacrifices I make for my career. Do I wish it were easier sometimes? Yes, of course. That’s part of what drove me to write my book. I wanted to be open and honest about the good and bad of freelancer life.

Is freelancing the easiest career path? No. Is it the right career path for me? Yes. But I’m just one person. What do you think? Does it feel right for you? Do you have any facets of freelancer life you’d like to add to that list?

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