Freelance. Four success stories: left the office and life started

Listening to stories about freelancing, many may think that these are all jokes: such “part-time work” cannot be the main job, and the guys probably move from order to order. But freelancing is not just a job for yourself, it’s rather a way of life, and for many it’s just such a work format. Someone finds new partners and grows into something more than just a remote employee. We at Coworking 14 are convinced romantics and believe that the future lies in such stories.

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After graduating from university, about a year of work in the office was enough to understand - this is not mine. Perhaps, the team was not lucky or not interesting enough duties - I did not understand, and went into freelancing. I understood that this required a certain amount of self-organization, and it was not easy. But I persistently searched and believed in luck until I found Puzzle English, or until he found me. I responded to an ad on the site fl.ru. It was necessary to remove a video lesson with a fun-perky explanation of a topic from English grammar. I made a small and rather crooked test video, in which I tried to be as creative as possible. And he was very happy when Sasha chose me. We phoned on Skype - we were in different cities - I received instructions for work and started. And life began to spin. It was a startup, there were about five people in the project, so I ended up at the very beginning of Puzzle English.

Now I plan my own employment. I individually work on content sections that I have been entrusted to and I like the fact that my contribution is appreciated, therefore, as a freelancer, I'm not looking for anything else. It is good to know that the success of the company as a whole is the result of my activities too. And the main bonus from properly organized freelancing is reasonable time management. And this is not only the work done on time, but also enough time for rest and study for the soul. I do music, compose and play in a group, and freelancing helps me to be mobile - I can work in the car or train on the way to the next concert. And in general, this kind of employment with the proper ability to save money resources opens up a whole world of travel and even quite lengthy ones. Recently, a girl and I spent about two months in Los Angeles and did not stop working. Thanks to freelancing for this!

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Until August 2015, I worked in the office of an international company and occupied the post of marketing director. At the end of 2014, thoughts began to appear about changing jobs or the field of activity. But frankly, I was terribly tired of the daily duty to come to the office, sit in the open space (this, by the way, makes it difficult for me to work, at least mine, when it comes to writing high-quality texts or developing creative presentations). But while I was considering job openings and even attended several interviews, the way out was found by itself. I learned about my pregnancy.
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And as already mentioned above, in August 2015 she went on maternity leave. There was one plan - to rest and do nothing. But for me, this option was too complicated. Just a couple of weeks, I was offered to write a text on the website of the drug treatment clinic that is being created. Payment was decent, and I like to write, especially on unfamiliar topics (it is always interesting to look for new information and get new knowledge, and even when you get paid :)) As a result, the “content for the site” task turned into a comprehensive promotion of the clinic with the development of an advertising concept , coordinating all contractors and interacting with journalists. In parallel with the project of the clinic, a former colleague approached me and offered to cooperate on PR promotion and copywriting on a remote basis.

As a result, it turned out already 2 very large projects that were conducted in parallel. From this point on, the nurse had to be connected, as the work schedule became very tight. In the summer, the clinic project ended and on Facebook I saw a funny message asking for clarification of the differences between the press service and PR and in case of a correct answer, come for an interview. For the sake of fun, I answered, and a handsome young man sent an invitation to meet. I explained that working in an office is not mine. But he still invited to talk. After several meetings, it was decided that I would become a remote PR director and, if necessary, I would be ready to come to their office (well, with very great need). As a result, in addition to PR-support of the project, I began to travel around the regions to conferences, as well as develop an advertising strategy and promotion concept. In general, I love start-ups very much, and if I don’t even put sticks in the wheels, then this is a huge and incredibly interesting task: to invent everything from scratch, to build something from nothing! Just recently, I was approached with another offer of cooperation. Not a startup, but also very interesting, since the company has existed for a long time, but with the advent of the new leadership, we need a new strategy and positioning. At this stage I have a few more small projects, and frankly, I am thinking about opening my own agency, as it is very hard to manage everything on my own!

Being a freelancer and making big money is difficult. Since a freelancer is a person who is forced to sell himself. It is much easier to leave the office of an already established specialist who is known and invited to freelance consciously. This is essentially a kind of rating. If we talk about your projects, then I have a rule. I take only long-term projects, thanks to my specialty. I am not a designer who is invited to draw a mock-up of a leaflet and that’s where it all ends. My tasks are not always limited to a couple of months. In essence, my services are PR, marketing at an outsourcing, but not according to the principle of a PR agency on a subscriber, but according to the principle of a full-fledged employee who is not in the office, but always in touch. I still do not see the minuses of such work. The only thing that sometimes bothers me is the dazzling telephone and the wild amount of mail in 5 boxes.

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Greetings to all, I am the head of the design studio Arlion studio, and in this article I want to share my story as I began my career in freelancing.

I am a designer by education, specializing in environmental design.

For a long time he worked as a designer in an architectural firm in St. Petersburg, at the position of first technician architect, and then leading architect, designed apartment buildings.

Of course, the position of a leading architect sounds solid, but in fact this is a rather boring and trivial work. However, while I was studying at the institute it suited me, there was stability, and that was exactly what I needed at that moment.
But at the end of the uni, I somehow got bored with working in this direction, I wanted more creativity and more money. I began to look for additional orders for the development of design projects. The problem was that I had a fixed schedule for the main job and it was difficult to go to meetings with clients, and it was scary to just leave.

This went on for several months until one of my former colleague called me to work as a designer, he had a repair company, it was at the end of 2011. I hesitated for a while, but then I agreed, and immediately after the new year I quit my old job. The working conditions at the new place were very free - it was possible to work at home, which was very convenient for me. But I did not receive the promised golden mountains - having managed to work there for only a couple of months or four months, the company of my friend very quickly went bankrupt. Thus, I unexpectedly became a freelancer ie as a free artist, having worked for a couple of months at home, I adapted to such an activity and did not cause me discomfort to work for myself and complete independence. For the short time that I worked in the office of my friend, I managed to implement 4 projects, and it was they who became my first portfolio.

As soon as I started working for myself, the question immediately arose where to look for orders?
The first thing I started to do is to stimulate word of mouth, notifying all my friends that they are carrying out design projects. When word of mouth stopped bringing customers (this happens with this channel), I started registering at various freelance sites, knocking at my experienced colleagues in the hope of getting at least some order. In this mode, I worked for 2 years, and as it turned out, the life of a freelancer is not as beautiful as it seems, in fact, it is much harder than the life of an employee, then I realized that I couldn’t build my business alone.
I decided to find a partner, and together with him we began to build our joint business, but this is another story, and I will tell about it in another article.

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My name is Alexei Glazunov, my wife and I have been living and traveling in different Asian countries for 5 years and working on the Internet. But it was not always so.

Once upon a time we lived in St. Petersburg, worked in large IT companies, in good positions. Were engaged in sales, and more than once regretted that we do not have "freelancers" professions. "Of course, if we were designers or programmers, we would have left the office a long time ago." Simply put, they made up excuses for themselves.

The turning point for us was our honeymoon trip. We took a vacation, added a couple of weeks at our own expense and for 40 days we went on our first long journey - in Mexico and the USA. In Las Vegas, they arranged a wedding ceremony, and went on a journey through the canyons of Utah, Arizona and the Pacific coast - it was unforgettable!

We began to sausage (in a good way) after 15 days of travel - for the first time in our life we ​​passed over the mark “2 weeks away from home and office”, and we liked it! By the end of the holiday, after 40 days, we returned home and knew that our life would no longer be the same.

At home, we figured we had a cash supply for a few months of life, submitted applications “of our own accord,” bought a one-way ticket and flew off to spend the winter in India.

There were many unrealistic impressions and emotions, and in order not to keep them in ourselves, we started a blog in which we described our adventures and shared our experiences.

After a while, our savings ended, but did not want to go back home. By that time, the blog began to bring a small income, and besides that we received letters from travel publications with offers of cooperation, so we did not have to look for customers - they found us themselves.

As the popularity of the blog grew, the number of incoming applications increased, so the majority now have to refuse and now we work only with large resources, choosing only those topics that are interesting to us.