6+ lessons that I managed to endure for myself after 5+ years of freelancing

Transparency of business has always been one of my top priorities. At the same time, for me, a huge disadvantage of the online business world is how easily the impression of doing work without any special effort is made. But in reality, everything is quite different, which is proved by my experience and the stories of those I know.

This article is about my “career” as a freelancer, from the very beginning to this day. I will write as it is, so fasten and stock up on coffee - I promise you an interesting reading-journey with interesting plot twists!

In 2009, I was 20 years old, I was full of enthusiasm and desire to leave the countryside in which I grew up.
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So I moved to Austin, Texas, with my then-spouse, and the companies did not wait for us with open arms - there were no jobs. More precisely, we settled in the suburb of Buda. For those who grew up in an urban environment, this may seem silly, but we had no idea about the outskirts of large cities. Because when you live in the middle of nowhere, in which public transport does not go and you have to travel anywhere for at least 15-30 minutes, the outskirts of the big city "will completely go away."

At that moment, I knew that I wanted to start freelancing, but I planned for some time to work in regular work. Here is a good place for the first turn of the plot: on the day of our arrival, we got a problem with the car (ordered the cylinder head gasket to live long). It cost us $ 1,200, which, of course, did not roll on the road. And we just moved to the suburbs, where there was no work within walking distance or bicycle access, public transport was also not expected. Double fiasco.

My husband found work outside the home, but I took on any projects on the Internet that I could only find. (Well, not exactly any ...) I started working for several content farms (ultra-low rates for writers - up to 15 bucks for 500 words). Fortunately, I read and write / print very quickly, so I managed to earn some money - a little, but for several months they helped us out.

The problem was that for those materials that I wrote, my authorship was not indicated. As a result, I worked for content farms and did not see any opportunity to change them to something else, since I did not have a portfolio.

First lesson: If you are going to get a low-paying job, think about the consequences.

Do not rush at all that has fallen, just to pay the bills, because this is a quick way to exhaust yourself. In my case, it was necessary to perform only the work under which I could put my signature, in order to then use it for obtaining more profitable orders.

And it is not surprising that I was exhausted by my writing. At about the same time, my girlfriend (who is still one of my best friends, it is funny that the incident with her was the turning point of this story) on Twitter asked for useful tips on organizing. I had the courage to send her a strikingly long 3,000-word email in which she outlined her entire project planning process. Her answer was something like: “Wow, you know that this is not normal, right? Not everyone is capable of it! You should definitely be a project manager! ”

Project management? What is it? Not all people manage to be organized? Seriously?

Second lesson: What is obvious to others is not necessarily obvious to you.

For several months, I studied the ideas underlying effective project management. In between, I continued to write, and then I got an internship at several web studios. I worked for them to learn the basics, and they got a free employee. Everyone is happy. It turned out that I got along well in this area, and I smoothly switched to freelancing related to project management.

The next couple of years I had a business model a la hodgepodge. I was involved in freelancing in the field of project management for online businesses, advised individual entrepreneurs and conducted classes / seminars on improving productivity / organization. I was also the admin, although I never looked for such a position - it was originally a temporary occupation.

(During this period of my life, I also broke my leg, moved three times in a year and divorced. Yes, my life is far from boredom).

Business is always a struggle. Those people for whom I worked as a project manager or those whom I tried to convince that they needed relevant services were chosen instead by a highly qualified administrator. More than once it happened that I worked with very successful individual entrepreneurs, organized their work, set up all their systems, hired personal assistants to work, brought them up to date and taught ... thereby depriving myself of the same work. It was not easy for me to sell my skills, given the fact that many entrepreneurs either stoically refuse to help in organizing their business, or don’t sweat and live quietly in the mess. (Here I would like to note that I know the people to whom this is suitable, and, most interestingly, things are going very well for them. So it’s just so real to work. It was just not easy for me).

The third lesson: It is easier to sell something tangible than a service. You also need to make sure that your customers do not just need what you offer them - they really want to buy it.

Everything went wrong at the end of 2013. In addition to the seven-month epic associated with long-term treatment of broken nerves (nervous breakdown, treatment, bad reaction to drugs, withdrawal from drugs - breaking, in short the gloom), which exhausted me, I lost my main client for whom I was managing projects. The company unexpectedly turned the business. I earned 75 percent of my income from them. I was depressed for weeks in a "depressed corkscrew." I was completely exhausted - my work always goes slower in the winter than usual, and then I did not have the energy to earn the same money.

Lesson 4: Do not put all your eggs (or even half) in one basket. This will lead to disaster.

Then I decided it was time to take a break and find my first “adult” job. And here we return to the second lesson. I applied for vacancies related to the management and work of the administrator, and passed interviews. But inevitably during the interviews I was asked about the experience and skills in the field of marketing. In one of the interviews that I still remember, the extremely sweet recruitment manager told me directly: “You know, I like you, but I don’t think that you are suitable for this position, if we are talking about talents ... Can I ask why you are not applying for marketing positions? ”

I didn’t imagine myself in marketing at all, but I properly polished my resume and got results. I started working in December, but at the end of the month I received another job offer, which attracted me a lot more, so I switched to a new employer. In the new workplace, I was engaged in marketing in social media.

Work in the agency was ... informative. I absolutely do not regret working there, but since that time I have enough stories left to cover the chapter in my memoirs. Imagine a story similar to the one shown in the film “The Devil Wears Prada”, but with a far greater infringement of rights. I began to develop my escape plan after a single unpleasant incident (when I was selected for a trip to the doctor and requested to bring evidence from him that my problems really cost the working day spent - firstly it is illegal, and secondly this behavior is a complete disgrace ). As if I was scalded, I began taking freelance part-time jobs in the hope of gathering an army of clients as quickly as possible, so that I had the opportunity to say goodbye to my environment full of stress and insults. At that moment I was working full-time, doing 2-3 hacks per day on the side on weekdays and 4-5 per day - on weekends. Plus, I posted news and relatively regular posts on my blog. All that I can add about this period of my life - I drank a lot of coffee.

When I realized that I wanted to return to freelancing, I initially planned to take up product management / consulting / seminars / creating business models for products. I also wanted to find something among marketing-oriented jobs, because I liked what I did at the agency (but not all of what comes with full-time work). I found several writing jobs and immediately took up them. And I began to receive other offers. And to my surprise, everything went well - in May 2014 I left work.

Fifth lesson: Sometimes it is useful to get a job.

In fact, I learned a lot by working full-time. That was enough to write a whole post about the experiences and lessons that this work gave me. Even in spite of the fact that someone considered a defeat the fact of my going to work with a full working schedule, I don’t regret it a bit.

Despite the fact that I took a few jobs related to marketing, writing activity remained the main source of my income. I thought that one half of my projects would be related to marketing, and the other to writing, but in a few months only the last was left.

A year has passed, and now I am a full-time freelance writer (besides that I do many other things because I like to feel busy). The funny thing is that I worked as a project manager to earn money that allowed me to work as a writer. Then (as now) I would like to give all my time to writing ... but for some reason (probably because of my bitter experience in content farms) it seemed to me impossible.

The sixth lesson: Learn to be silent and earn.

The work should not be hard and exhausting for you to pay money for it. And you do not need to persuade people for hours that you really stand at the rate specified in your price tag. Sometimes getting a well-paid job is as easy as saying: “I’m a writer, here’s an example of my work, let's talk”.

Last lesson: Those who build a cloudless career in freelancing - rather the exception to the rule.

Most freelancers with whom I know will tell you absolutely crazy stories of their business, especially if they started in their youth or were forced to take on freelancing (or jump into the pool with their heads on their own before circumstances put them together). If I had the opportunity to repeat everything all over again, then, of course, I could quickly build a profitable and stable business. Well, nothing, but it turned out an interesting story, is not it?