Three things you need to consider before becoming a freelancer

Some time ago I found myself talking with a lovely person that was pondering the idea of leaving her employer and starting out to be an independent consultant. She asked me what does it mean and what does it take to make the leap.

That started a long chat that mixed street psychology and business common sense.

I told her…

Believe in yourself

The first thing that you have to think about is yourself: there is no way you can do this if you don’t strongly believe this is going to be the right choice for you and you will stand behind your decision in 3–6–12 months time. You have to feel it in the guts because when you will struggle to find your first client and you will find yourself spending time trying to make sense of what did you do today (“Was it just calling people to know if they were interested in this and that?”) you will have to go back to that moment and find the courage to stick to what you decided and not calling your old boss or starting looking for job openings on Linkedin.

If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody will.

Being a freelancer/entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart and certainly not for everyone out there.

Oh boy… How many times have I felt the urge of being comfortably sitting in a “steady” job (assuming such a thing still exists) having a bigger organization above and around me to guide my work and tell me what to do. But at the same time I knew that I would be able to add so much more value to so many more people and companies being an entrepreneur than being an employee and I (so far) never turned back.

Have a financial buffer

Once you are really convinced that this is the right way for you (and trust me it takes time) the other hurdle you have to jump is your financial security/stability.

Whatever you do make sure you have at least 6–12 months of financial buffer to be able to go through the worst case scenario that you won’t be able to find a paying client for long. If you haven’t been able to find a client in 12 months then that might be the time to start looking for an alternative.

If you have a spouse that keeps having a steady income this is a bit easier (as long as she/he agrees :) ) but nevertheless it’s always better if you can decide what client to work for rather than having to accept a lousy one only because you need to survive.

Don’t be in the situation of *having to* accept an assignment

Those 2 things are the key pre-requirements to even start leaving your current job.

After those two are taken care off then you can start tapping into your network (in case you have one) and advertising yourself as free for hire (but please don’t put “Looking for new opportunities” on your Linkedin profile).

To sell is human

Here comes the third struggle, at least for some of us: selling yourself feels dirty. Which means that most of us don’t know what and how to sell.

To sell is a totally human thing (read this if you want more meat around the bone) but you are never selling yourself (at least in physical terms) you are always selling the product of your experiences and know-how. You are only the holder of those experiences and you don’t have to feel you are selling the package when what you are actually selling is the content.

You don’t have to sell yourself to sell your knowledge

This is another thing that took me so long to understand but once I did changed completely the way I interacted with potential clients.

Bonus point: Try it.

Before leaving your job and being completely on your own try it. Try to sell yourself as a freelancer, if it works it means you have a market.

Ps. I know that now she is a freelancer ;)

I am an entrepreneur and speaker. I tap into my experiences talking about entrepreneurship, startups, life-hacking, leadership and company culture. I love to explore the intersection between technology and humans.

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