What Exactly is Freelance Working?

"I want to learn freelancing!"
"How can I become a freelancer?"
"Please teach me freelancing work!"
"Can I be a freelancer?"

One way or another, all these questions above are incorrect, or misunderstood.  As with the present fad, everyone wants to "be a freelancer" or "learn freelancing".  Nope! You've got it all wrong, actually.  "Freelancing" is not something you learn, it's more like a career choice that you are making in your life.

No, you do not actually learn freelancing, you embrace it as a career option.  You use your skills and your area of expertise to become a freelance worker, because that's only a medium of working and earning.

Let me make it simpler - there is no particular work that you have to learn to become a freelancer worker, a.k.a., a freelancer.  There is work available in the online marketplaces that will use your particular set of talent and knowledge precisely.

Here's the formal definition, if you are looking for one: 

"A freelancer or freelance worker is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term." 

See?  It doesn't mean that you have to learn a particular work, but only that you are approaching the job market in a different way. Instead of looking for a fixed job where you have go to office everyday, you are going to have the freedom of looking for new jobs every day, every week, or every minute.  Instead of having to work for the same business, the same company or the same boss every day, you can work for 10 new employers in a year, or even a month - or even more, if you want to.

Writers, poets, actors, directors - almost everyone in the media - designers, painters; these people are mostly all freelance workers, did you stop to think?  They get paid for their particular skill and talent, not from the same employer but from different ones.  Actors play different roles for different movies, get directed by different people; the directors too, are hired by different studios and different producers for their films.  These are all freelance workers who are constantly working for different people, enjoying their freedom of being able to choose projects, employees and even working hours.

As a Marketing Graduate, you will probably be looking for a job in the corporate world, where you have to follow a strict guideline and work for promoting your employer's business/service/product.  You will look for jobs in reputed companies that will pay you well, give you an office with a view, a hefty salary, fixed working hours, a designation and a social standing, in exchange for your time and effort.  When you choose to be a freelance worker, you can give the same effort and use the same skills to promote your employer's business/service/product, but with some important differences:

• You won't have a office to go to every day; 
• You won't have fixed working hours; 
• You might be doing the same job for a number of employers, as per your wish; 
• You won't have to stay exclusive to one employee (if you don't want to). 

Same goes for others who are interested in freelancing.  If you are an Accounting Graduate, you can do the same work for a company overseas that you would have done for a business in your neighborhood.  Instead having to go to work everyday, you can work from home while communicating via emails, messages, voice and video chats, instead of face-to-face communication with your employers.

These are just two examples that I used to establish my point; my actual point here is that freelancing is not a particular set of skill or knowledge that you need to learn, but rather a way of using what you know for a job - or for multiple jobs - according to your preference.

Freelancing is a career choice where you get to make the important decisions in your profession - which employers to work for, which projects to take and which to reject, where to work and when to work, how many hours to work every day, how long a vacation to take each year, and many more!

So is freelancing the right choice for you? Find out more in my next post!