A Job Isn’t Giving Up

[ZF Lee]

I don’t look at this like a permanent thing, and I don’t look at it like an alternative to freelancing. It also isn’t really a stepping stone for most. It’s survival checked off so you can aim your mind to higher things. Remember each need must be met before you go on to the next.

It's interesting because SOME freelancing jobs can turn into full-time jobs, given the right-minded client and the nature of your work.

Even on 'freelancer' platforms like Upwork, you can still find lots of job posts with specs that fit a 9-5 scenario more than a side gig. I'm talking jobs that ask if you can have Zoom meetings on a fixed schedule, and also steady work.

That's just the benefits of an interconnected world with the Internet.

I've had copywriting clients ask me if I were interested to work full-time, which meant a tad more consistent pay, more regular work. My mistake in many of those cases was to try to draw 'boundaries', and argue to myself that I needed more flexibility and couldn't take their more restrictive terms (ala gig-worker style). But they were actually OK jobs, if I could do away with that silly mindset back then.

I think freelancing seems to get a bad rep these days because of the gurus asking folks to constantly SELL and rope in new clients. Which was the exhaustion that Kak warns to avoid, IMO.

From what I've experienced so far, I find that if you are spending TOO much time finding new clients...and NOT KEEPING the ones you already have...it's just as bad as job-hopping.

I'd rather stay with 1-2 good clients (or 1 JOB), than hop around money-chasing like a pimp.

And isn't that what the sales process was supposed to do?
To land you with the right people to work with. Just like how you'd send out a resume, to filter out the companies.

Even in a 9-5 route, that doesn't mean you won't need to spend time selling.
You'll still be selling to your boss, by virtue of the results you put forth (even if its as mundane as the burgers you fried at MCD or the windows you finished washing a day)

 

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[Kak]

It's interesting because SOME freelancing jobs can turn into full-time jobs, given the right-minded client and the nature of your work.

Even on 'freelancer' platforms like Upwork, you can still find lots of job posts with specs that fit a 9-5 scenario more than a side gig. I'm talking jobs that ask if you can have Zoom meetings on a fixed schedule, and also steady work.

That's just the benefits of an interconnected world with the Internet.

I've had copywriting clients ask me if I were interested to work full-time, which meant a tad more consistent pay, more regular work. My mistake in many of those cases was to try to draw 'boundaries', and argue to myself that I needed more flexibility and couldn't take their more restrictive terms (ala gig-worker style). But they were actually OK jobs, if I could do away with that silly mindset back then.

I think freelancing seems to get a bad rep these days because of the gurus asking folks to constantly SELL and rope in new clients. Which was the exhaustion that Kak warns to avoid, IMO.

From what I've experienced so far, I find that if you are spending TOO much time finding new clients...and NOT KEEPING the ones you already have...it's just as bad as job-hopping.

I'd rather stay with 1-2 good clients (or 1 JOB), than hop around money-chasing like a pimp.

And isn't that what the sales process was supposed to do?
To land you with the right people to work with. Just like how you'd send out a resume, to filter out the companies.

Even in a 9-5 route, that doesn't mean you won't need to spend time selling.
You'll still be selling to your boss, by virtue of the results you put forth (even if its as mundane as the burgers you fried at MCD or the windows you finished washing a day)

As long as it’s truly a temporary means to an end that allows them to focus on actual entrepreneurship, that’s great.

Aspiring to freelancing full time, as if it’s some accomplishment, on an entrepreneur forum, is bothersome.

That’s why I generally attack the concept here. It has more to do with the venue than the action itself.

The assumption is they are ready to look higher when they arrive. Then they look laterally to freelancing and get star in their eyes. It’s not entrepreneurship.

 

[mikecarlooch]

Dun Dun Dunnnn.....