5 Freelance Myths Busted From the Start

I was watching Mythbusters on TV the other night, where  Jamie mentioned that you could actually think of a myth for every single thing in the world, My thoughts immediately turned to Freelancing. After quite a bit of thought I compiled a list of 5 Freelance Myths Busted straight from the start. Let’s not lunge around to much and get straight to business.

1. Freelancers work much less than in-house Designers

Being a Freelancer definitely doesn’t mean you work much less than a In-house Designer, it actually means you work more. Yes, thats correct you work more than a In-house Designer. Reason being you don’t have set working hours and you don’t have colleague’s to help you out with little things. You have to do everything yourself.

2. Freelancers are unsupervised, they never get their work done on time.

This is a common statement from clients that hire their first Freelance Designers. I can tell you though that Freelancers are really professional in what they do because they have to make a living from their work. This means if he/she doesn’t work and finish the clients projects, he/she doesn’t get payed. Without payment he/she can’t eat, feed the family or pay the bills which ends up with being homeless, without a job. Mainly for this reason Freelance Designers are Professional in their field and get their work done on time.

3. Freelancers don’t have a social life, they spend the entire day on their own.

This isn’t true at all. Freelancers usually take their work to Coffee Shops, or Group Meetings where they interact with people or work together whilst being social. Weekends, depending on the business you run, you can have a lot of social interaction. Just because you work alone doesn’t mean you live being alone.

4. Freelancers only Freelance because they can’t get a real job.

This is definitely a Myth that should be thrown as far away from the word “Freelance” as possible. The only reason Freelancers Freelance is because they know how difficult and irritating it is to work for a Boss or to have a 9-5 job with a company. Other reasons could include that they have already gone through the employment phase and decided to go rogue with the designing career or they have better motivation to work alone than to work in a company environment and being told what to do by a boss.

5. Freelancing is a lot less stressful than working for someone else.

This definitely isn’t true, maybe in some aspects yes, but that undermines the fact that you have to get your own clients and source your own work. If you don’t do that you won’t be earning a income this month. We have already gone through the steps to what happens if you don’t get a income – No Money>No Food>No Bills>No House>HOMELESS. Their is a lot of stress riding on a Freelancers back, but I can say that its definitely the best feeling to be the Owner of your own company or to Freelance by yourself.