Is Freelancing Viable Career Path?

The job of the future?

If somebody had asked you a few years ago if freelancing is a viable career path you would probably say that they are out of their mind. Maybe at that time you wouldn`t even know what freelancing is. And I would not blame you. In the past freelancing was pretty much just a small niche career option that only a few people have chosen.

But all of that changed with the exponential growth of internet networks and users. The COVID-19 pandemic only contributed to the increase in the number of people working from home and accelerated the trend of increasing the number of freelancers. The Intuit 2020 Report, published in 2011, predicted that more than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce would-be freelancers, contractors, and temp workers by 2020. According to them  80 percent of large corporations plan to significantly increase the use of flexible workforce.

Becoming a freelancer can be challenging for some, especially if you don`t have any experience. So experience is a must, especially in the field that you are interested to work in as a freelancer. Other two things that you need is a computer and internet connection. All of that probably sounds appealing if you have some experience in this area. Working from home, having your own working hours, working when and where you want. Heck, you can work from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection. But now comes the important question. Is freelancing a viable career path? Can you really make a living by just working as a freelancer? And should you try your luck by starting your own freelancing career? And is it really the job of the future? Well, let`s find out.

Should you be worried?

Freelancing on the paper sounds all nice and dandy, but is that really a case?  Naturally, there are really a lot of benefits that come with being a freelancer. But there are also some negatives that could impact your freelancing career.  And of the most common is not getting paid by the employer.

If you know somebody that works or had worked as a freelancer, then you have probably heard stories about how they got scammed by their employers. There are some shady people in the freelancing job sphere, but luckily they are just a minority. Most of them will promise you a big payment for just a little bit of work. And if you are a novice in this field, then you will probably accept the job and feel happy that you need to do the only a small amount of work for a decent payment. Bust more often than not, job offers that sound too good to be true are just that. Too good to be true, or on the other hand, it is a scam that is just waiting for a poor novice freelancer to get caught on it.

Another problem is that there is a high chance that you probably won’t get a steady and long-lasting job. More often you will get the one-time-jobs or ones that will last few months or so.

After all of this, you might think that freelancing career is just too risky to get into. But I can say with big confidence that that is just not the case. And this is why.

Freelancing is a viable career path

And why is that? Well first, there are more and more freelance jobs on the market. More than ever before. There are also a lot of respectable freelancing websites that connect freelancers with the potential employers. Also, those sites provide the safest way to get paid for the work that you have done. And they usually have a scoring system in which you can give a grade to your employer, and they can do the same to you.

Does that sound appealing to you? Yes? Then listen up. If you get a lot of good grades for the work that you have done for your employers, then your freelancing career can only move forward in upworth direction. Not only that you will get a lot of work, but people send you offers for your services because they will know that they will get only the finest quality of work by employing you. And the best thing is that you will be able to choose what jobs you should accept and which are just not a good choice for you. Probably because of the low payment or uninteresting topics. In a way, you will become your own boss. If you reach that point in your freelancing career then only sky is the limit.

You should give it a go

If you are still not sold on an idea then listen up. You can just try it, it is free. There is nothing that you could lose. Even if you don`t end up making it in the freelancing job scene at least you have tried. But if freelancing just clicks for you, then you have a viable job opportunity that could change your life as you know it. And if you have any of the skills in demand, you should definitely try a freelance career.

Here are 5 questions to help you discover whether a freelancing career is for you:

If the answer to these questions is “yes,” freelancing can be a career for you.