The freelancer’s survival guide

Before you start

Some people just dive in but as we’ve pointed out often in our articles, that’s not the best idea when you want to be a freelancer. Preparation is truly key, and you should have a few things in your rucksack before you get going: 

• Enough money on the side to get you started and to bridge periods of unemployment (you never know). Also, don’t mix your personal money with your freelancing budget. If there was ever a bad idea, this would be it. 
• To guide you through the financial landscape of freelancing, you need a good accountant. We’ll repeat this until we’re blue in the face. 
• You should have some professional experience already to know what kinds of projects you want to work with, as well as technologies, sectors, and so on. On the other hand, you need to know your strong suits in order to market yourself. How else will you convince people you’re the (wo)man for their job? 
• Some sense of knowing how you’ll ‘sell yourself’ and brand yourself out there to get the jobs you want. Personal branding, if you will. 

In other words, like all entrepreneurs, you should have a business plan in place. 

From the get-go

Nailed the job interview and probably got the job? Awesome, but don’t forget to have every detail and agreement written down in black and white. Nothing as painful (or even catastrophic) as realising you haven’t got promises on paper. No matter how good you think or feel a conversation went, you should always get a contract that clearly states what both parties can expect from the collaboration. We don’t just mean fees, by the way. You should have an idea of what they expect from you in terms of working remote or on location, what the term of payment is, what the end goal and longevity is of the job, et cetera. 

As you might’ve guessed, you need to have quite some negotiating skills when it comes to your contract. Feel like you’re lacking talent in this department? Know that you can reach out to addon for help, be it for simple coaching or leaving the entire thing up to us. We got you covered. 

While you’re at it

You might think that you’re settled once you’re on the job. That’s not entirely true, though. We urge you to keep learning and developing your skills. Update your CV while you’re on a project as you’ll probably forget about a lot of the things you’ve learned when the time comes to look for a new one. 

We’ve heard some freelancers just jump on the first new opportunity that comes along and while we understand the reasoning (and possible anxiety) behind it, we strongly advise you not to. Think first. It’s better to wait for the right one than to just grab the opportunity for fear it’ll be the only one. Find a balance between too many random assignments and too few specific ones that fit you. 

Finally, become a true time manager. You’re in control of your life now, in all its facets. It might seem fun, and truthfully, it can be. However, don’t forget that sick leave and holidays and all of that are your responsibility now. Be careful to grant yourself enough spare time to recharge your batteries, but not too much either so you don’t get yourself into (financial) trouble. 

Last piece of advice? Enjoy the ride and surround yourself with people who can help you. Freelancing can be a wonderful adventure, so once you go for it, make it count! 

Hey! We are addon. As we want to keep our personal and human values high, we welcome anyone who wants to contribute to our story and mission. Don’t be shy to contact us: we’re approachable, available and we can’t wait to meet you!