Advantages of the Freelance worker
by Sergio Ordonez at 3:21 pm on Freelancing
After writing the article about disadvantages of the freelance worker there was people that commented about my pessimistic vision of the situation, and i repeat, this work is for rebel people, nonconformist, ambitious… it has many inconvinients but also many advantages. I wouldn’t change it for any other life style.
Now we are going to talk about the advantages of workings as a freelance.
Fire your boss
Boss: that guy that appears at 12am, 5 minutes after the secretary appears with a suspicios “i just woke up” face, and that hurries you because "we are late"… when you have been working for 4 hours in the office, looking at the wall because nobody gave you a list of the thing you have to do.
Fire the useless boss!!!! Now you are your own boss, so you have total control within all the aspects related to your work.
I don’t want to wake up early
This is my favorite, who says you need to get up early to work? I hate doing it!!!!!! When i do it i lay down 4 hours until my body decides to start… it’s unnatural!!
That’s over, this is my schedule:
11:00 i wake up
11:00-14:00 work
14:00-16:00 rest
16:00-19:00 work
19:00-00:00 rest
00:00-03:00 work
03:00 i go to sleep
I prefer to work in 3 hours intervals during the day, because it’s more productive, and staying up late working while i listen to my favorite radio show. During the night there are no distractions so those are the most productive hours, besides, i coincide with my United States and Australia clients.
If you are productive, you’re worth it
What’s that of investing 8 hours every day? doing anything, being productive or not… how do they help? being productive doesn’t care, you have to be 8 hours and that’s it… even if you’re only looking at the wall.
If you are a freelance worker, forget about that. I establish my working day according to my objectives, when they are complete my working day is over. Some days i work 8 hours, some 4 hours, and others i don’t even work.
What’s a car?
I love it when you go to a work interview and they say the job consists in 8 hours a day… it’s like if you had a teleportation machine Star Trek style. Now you are at home… now you are at work!!!
And what happens with the 2 hours a day you use to come home and go to the office, looking for parking or going home to eat? Aren’t these direct consecuenses caused because of the job? Luckily you get a couple of hours to rest, but you use 1 hour in the road, and you end up eating at the bar in the corner… at the end of the month you see how much you spend in the gas and food, and luckily you can invite your boyfriend or girlfriend to dinner.
If you are freelance and you work through the internet, the biggest travel you’ll do is from the lounge to the bedroom. And the food? Well, to your granny’s home, that’s good enough to travel.
And a tie?
Summer… south of Spain… 4 in the afternoon… 40ºC in the shadow… and you’re wearing a tie… without air conditioning…
From now on you can work with your Freaky Superman shirt, with matching underwear… or without it 
Better alone than with bad company
And the relief of not having an annoying coworker?
That one with bad breath, that smokes all the time, that works with the music at the max volume, that wastes half morning talking with the secretary but when the boss comes he looks like the employee of the month.
We don’t have those, if you decide to have a coworker, you choose it, and you are with him if everything goes well, otherwise, he’s out.
No more photocopier
If you are a wage-earning graphic designer, you sure have a close relationship with the photocopier, or even worst, with the coffee-maker!!!… why would they hire someone when they have you to do it?
From now on you are an authentic graphic-web designer, illustrator, writer… or any other area in which you want to work. They pay you to do what YOU decide to do.
Goodbye boredom
If you were a wage-earning graphic designer, i’m sure you know how to vectorize an already designed logo, you probably did that a thousand times by now.
From now on forget about those slave tasks, if a kind of work doesn’t suit you, you just reject the offer. Creativity is what gives you the money and it’s fun.
From SOSFactory i make from illustrations, logo and web design to packaging. When you have so many areas to choose it’s difficult to be bored.
Fell in love only with the ones who like you
When you work as wage-earning worker, your task consists in making your client happy, regardless of your preferences… in my opinion, another mistake.
Think in this: in your city there are thousands of boys / girls, you choose only one from all of them, you chose it according to your feelings, you love him / her and even like that there are some times that the relationship is impossible… why should we expect that the relations with our clients will always be possitive?
The main characteristic of freelance workers is the passion for what he does, not the necessity of making big money. Now you choose the clients, luckily you wont need many of them, and you will be able to choose the ones that have more affinity with you. This ones will give you more satisfactions, with them the work will be cool, easy and profitable… forget about the rest, they will only burn you.
Curiously the clients that pay more are the ones that like your work, and you as a specialist, don’t think that because of working cheap the will like you more.
My work office? In my head
Who says my work office has to be a chair in an office of my city?
My office is in my head, luckily it’s always with me, i can work in bed, in the beach, while drinking a beer in the square of my city…
When my girlfriend had to go to study to Berlin i went with her, and my income was the same… in any other job i would have to choose between my girlfriend and my job.
United States Salary in my country
Another advantage of having a virtual office is that you can work for any client in the world, cheers internet!! We can have salaries of United States level in Spain, or even better if you live in South America or India.
A lot of people accuse us of overloading the market, my opinion is that the one who is worth it, make progress, and in little time has the salary of a local designer, so we compete in the same conditions.
Another question are the businesses that hire people in underdeveloped countries, exploiting workers, where what matter is the quantity of work and not the quality. They don’t have the intention to progress… they are the authentic parasites of the industry.