Hitting First Year Mark of Being A Freelancer
By: Nuralia M
Tags: Writers On Writing, Writing, Freelancers, Freelance Writing, Writer

I won’t lie to you: for the first few months, I barely make any money at all.

Imagine your income plummeting from being at 100% to somewhere between 20–30%. If you are lucky, you probably get upward to 50%. But who are we kidding? Life isn’t that easy.

Sure, working as a freelancer sounded romantic — you arrange your own schedule, you are the boss; you manage your time; you are not under anyone’s supervision, etc. But here is the truth of starting as a Freelancer: YOU ARE BROKE and not making as much money as you are used to.

But just like the writer Nicolas Taleb said it; monthly salaries is an addiction. I don’t know about you, but I realised how much junk I accumulated over the years from the privilege of being paid a monthly salary. The moment I became a freelancer, I had to scale back and not in a cute-ish “oh I can’t go have brunch with you guys this week” — it’s selling your unused clothes, some of your most precious books, skipping the car loan payment for a month (or two), renegotiating your rent with the landlord to an extended date, and many more I can’t be bothered to write here.

I kept at it. I talked to my parents about my dreams instead of fulfilling theirs. My parents have always been a firm believer in climbing the corporate ladder as proof of success. Both spend a quarter of their lives being loyal to only an employer. While I changed employer every few years. Mostly for lack of stimulations (translation: I got bored) and occasionally, because of personal reasons (translation: I am a difficult person and it ain’t easy for colleagues to get along with me).

by NeONBRAND on Unsplash.com

But through it all, this journey taught me plenty. I have become financially savvier in managing money; I had taught myself multiple skills by watching hours of YouTube videos; I have connected with people I would never dream of connecting with before, but most importantly — my skin is unbelievably thick now.

I also learn that when ideas are stuck, you force yourself to produce some regardless of what it takes. I have been known to walk aimlessly past midnight muttering to myself or rollerblading down the hallway in the afternoon to get my ideas unstuck.

Despite that, I still call BS on people who romanticise freelancers. We are not hippies at heart, nor are we people who run with a wild imagination. We are just like any of you — employed but not under the promise of being paid a fixed monthly salary. I gotta hustle because while you can take your sweet time getting to the office; I use the non-existence commute time to pitch myself before I work on current projects.

The exhaustion is equivalent to your commuting to work. Except, I get to do it at home in pyjamas and I can’t just mindlessly put myself out there. I can’t be staring glazed at the screen while I shoot emails to potential clients. I gotta stay sharp. I gotta be on my feet all the time. I won’t trade it for anything else, but I also won’t paint a pretty picture of being a Freelancer.

However, I can sign off at 3 pm and start the happy hour by 3.05 in the afternoon watching reruns of Vikings with my cats. Now that I think about it, maybe being a freelancer isn’t that bad despite the constant accounting going in my head of how am I going to pay my rent next month?