Is Freelancing the Answer to Job Security?
With the US economy is a recession and the unemployment rates getting larger by the month it’s no wonder that many Americans are questioning their own job’s security. Personally, I find myself looking into a cloudy future with respect to my current 9-5 job. I could literally be out of a job in under a month! Planning ahead I’ve already begun my search of the various online job search tools available to find my next full-time position, but I’m hardly worried about my financial future. Why?
One word….Freelancing. I’ve been doing part-time freelance work through the site Rent-A-Code for the past 4-5 years and earned a couple hundred dollars a month when I chose to take on work. I’ve always thought of how great it would be if I could just do freelance programming as my full-time job. No commute, no co-workers, no boss. It sounds like a great life, but never having lived it it’s hard to say. Yet finally the economy and job market may give me the opportunity to embrace this lifestyle and see what I can make of myself.
So the question remains is freelancing the answer to job security? Well in some respects yet and others no. It’s true I could never lose my job because I’m self-employed at that point, but it also means that I need to get a steady flow of paying jobs to keep the money coming in and the bills paid. I know that if I am to succeed at freelancing full-time that I’ll need to pull in $2000-$3000 a month and that I’ll need to push myself to take bigger and better (paying) jobs.
Am I worried? No! The internet provides me with so many different ways to bring in income that I know that the worst case is that I just break even month to month until I find a full-time 9-5 position. Better yet, the best case is that I make far more than I would at my full-time 9-5 positions and embrace a lifestyle that from afar looks attractive….only time will tell.
Are you a full-time freelancer? Do you have any dreams of making money online as your only income? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. I’d be very interested in knowing more.
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1
July 10, 2008
Hi Erik! Thanks for commenting on my blog. Looks like we can learn something from each other. I found your website looking for info on eBay niche affiliate sites.
I will subscribe. Looking forward to reading more stories.Freelancing is cool, but what is way cooler is freelancing while having one or two passive income sources. I got the freelancing on track, now I’m going for the passive income.
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2
July 10, 2008
Hey Adrian, I’ve also subscribed to your blog. Yeah I’ve had some success with the eBay affiliate program, but I’ve moved on since then to work on bigger projects (might be going back to it soon).
I’d also like to establish some passive sources of income and have quite a few ideas. What I figure is while I have downtime between projects to start launching some passive income projects to help me on my way.
Look forward to exchanging ideas.
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3
July 10, 2008
Well as you know I am a full time freelancer. I have been for a year now, but I don’t rely on just writing as a source of income, or even my main source of income. But nothing beats writing a great article and getting paid to do it.
But working for yourself you just can’t rely on one source if income because that could dry up very quickly. Since I have a twin, it’s easy because I can write articles and run our blogs while he works on programming projects for clients and ourselves. That right there gives us 3 streams if income, so if writing is slow one month we can fall back on coding and monetizing our blogs.
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4
July 10, 2008
Thanks for commenting Alex. If it comes down to me freelancing full-time I think I should be alright as I have a number of projects I took off of rentacoder. Not only that I I’m also constantly working on sites of my own so I know I can generate enough income to at least pay the bills (I hope!) It’s a matter of how much more can I generate and at what cost.
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5
July 12, 2008
I started freelancing on the side about 2 years ago, and started making more money than I did at my regular job. So, for the last year I’ve been freelancing full time and loving it.
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6
August 26, 2008
Freelancing is a two edged sword , if you ask me . Even though it gives you the freedom of being your boss , not always that is a great thing . As a freelancer you are now in the competition yourself as opposed to your company / brand . thus often your bids value might be cut down , and there would be cheaper freelancers .
However , what you gain in freelancing is somewhat different ,…. you learn to handle finance, marketing as well as meeting timelines and pushing yourself at the same time -
7
August 28, 2008
OWD is right. I’m a lazy procrastinator, so if I were my own boss then I’d probably still be a lazy procrastinator. It would be nice to have my own freedom but I would probably not be as motivated or make as much as I do now.
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8
September 3, 2008
Hey Guys, nice to meet you here, find the page pretty interesting.
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9
September 10, 2008
Hi,
No freelancing is not the permanent solution of any business deal.There are so many service providers who doesn’t make any prompt response for his project.
Regards
Gopal -
10
October 16, 2008
In my experience, most freelancers are more reliable than employees. Becasue they know what it takes to succeed.
Tony Bradley
CEO -
11
October 21, 2008
Freelancing sure is changing up the situation in relation to job security, because it is providing people with a different kind of freedom, which is one that allows them to have a backup plan in case their non-freelancing position is removed or lost.
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12
March 5, 2009
In this time of recession, more companys are looking at freelancers so they do not have to pay government contributions saving them money.
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13
April 24, 2009
Freelancing is definetely an option in these troubled times.You could actually talk about your experience in http://www.angstcorner.com,a website specifically for recession victims.Am sure it would motivate many to consider this option too.
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14
June 9, 2009
I do not understand why anyone would care if the freelancer. The offer of jobs on the internet is so great that the person who wants to work is not definitely the winter. I was a freelancer for two years and I can tell you that I had much better earnings for the same job I work now.
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15
August 7, 2009
great article, thanks…
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