Alexander Pavlutsky: I didn't consider the bitter truth about freelancers when I was a freelancer myself since.
I led the life of a freelancer that one could only dream of:
- I did not struggle for orders on the freelance exchange sites and worked in the upper price segment.
- Had a popular blog and a good reputation in a certain micro-niche.
- Thanks to this, I managed to build up an affiliate program where 300+ partners were registered and regular orders came from there.
Thus, it is not the text of an offended freelancer, who simply did not succeed.
When discussing the disadvantages of freelancing, they often talk about the obvious things:
- When a freelancer is ill and does not work, he (she) loses income.
- Often works more hours than an office employee and gets the same level of payment.
- Sometimes lives from order to order. I will not dwell on these points. That's clear enough.
But what I didn't quite understand was that after a few years of freelancing, you just stop developing and degrade. And that happens unnoticeably.
Why is that?
Because no one in their right mind will let a freelancer work on cool and important projects. Businesses require predictability, scalability and broad expertise.
- A freelancer is not predictable, because he (she) is only one.
- A freelancer cannot give x10 resources as needed since he only has his own time.
- A freelancer is limited to the expertise of one person (not a company).
Let's move on. Who does a freelancer usually work with? – with a client who wants to save a lot and is willing to carry out all risks. Often, the knowledge level of these customers is not so far from the level of the freelancer himself.
Therefore, this is an area where a specialist receives low-level and priority tasks, communicates with customers who it is more important to save money rather than to get a high-quality result. And he receives funds for this, which do not allow him to progress in expensive and education.
Is it possible to develop in such surroundings? Is it easy to handle this?
- The years of freelancing are fun and unforgettable: like a human centipede, I simultaneously communicated with customers, made orders, put out my own fires, and somewhere in between I still managed to live.
- But, unfortunately, compared to what we have now, that time seems being a little lost.
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