top of page
Writer's pictureTarnea

What becoming a freelancer is REALLY like.


Our social media timelines are flooded with image upon image of successful entrepreneurs, making it look so easy. Now, I’m not hating over here, but I want to tell you what the journey is really like…Or at least some of the things I experienced.


Just a thought.

My freelancer story began with an idea (or at least in my case, it was more of an impulse - read about this in my blog ‘I made the change’). Most startups tend to think about the end result first, they imagine themselves living that lifestyle that only being your own boss can give you; that freedom, living life on your own terms, by your own rules.


The tricky part comes when you try to make that thought a reality.


Coming up with a plan.

Having a plan when starting your own freelance business is essential. If I’m being honest, I didn’t have a plan; I was just winging it. I had an idea of what was required, but I didn’t really know.


The idea of writing a business plan can be very intimidating, but in my opinion, it doesn’t need to be a vast formal document, the way I did it was that I wrote down what I wanted my business end goal was and worked backwards writing down the steps I thought I needed to take to be able to make it a reality.


I wrote down the following bullet points that I felt I needed to achieve to set up my business:

  • What am I going to call my business

  • I need to register my business

  • Finances

    • Do I need a business bank account?

    • Taxes; wtf are these, and how much are they?

  • What service am I going to offer?

    • How much do I charge?

  • I need a website

  • How do I promote my business?

  • How the hell do I get clients or a contract?

Keep in mind that this is just a guideline, and it’s not set in stone. I can almost guarantee that it will change. And even the final outcome of your business is likely to be different than what you initially thought.


How much should I charge??


I hear this all the time! To be honest, what I learnt was that there is no hard and fast rule of what you should charge.


I set myself an overarching goal and started with that. I decided that I wanted to make double the annual salary that I was on at my previous permanent employer. Why did I set that goal, I hear you ask. Just being completely honest, I came up with that number as a bit of a middle finger to my last employer. I had visions of bumping in to one of my ex-employees and asking me what am I up to, and I could throw it back in their faces! Lol! :-) (I can be petty at times)!


I felt it would be easier to charge my clients a day rate instead of hourly. As always, I turned to Google for help!


I found a UK online salary calculator and typed in my desired annual salary, and it gave me a breakdown of that figure where it showed hourly rate, weekly rate, and daily rate.



There are so many around, so find the right one for you. What’s strange was the thought I had once I was provided with my date rate….’Wow, that’s a lot! Can I charge that?’


It’s funny how much we undersell ourselves, our talents, our service. I had to make a mindset shift, and I imagine some of you will too. Just know that you are offering whoever you work with a solution, you are a specialist in your desired field, you have to cover your expenses, you know what you deserve, and there is nothing wrong with asking for it.


What the f*** do I call my business?


Ok, so I am freelancing. I’m a creative marketeer. Surely I have to come up with some super obscure, creative, marketing style business name…right?!


WRONG! Call your business whatever the hell you want to.


There are a few recommendations when it comes to this; for example if you are a copy writer, name your business something like ‘Smith’s Pet Shop’ may be confusing when you are marketing your business, and someone is looking for a pet shop but stumbles across a freelance copywriter.


However, it is worthwhile thinking about what you want your freelancer/business journey to become. For example, if your ultimate plan is for your freelancing to turn into an agency, you may not want to name it after yourself; you might want to come up with something a bit more obscure. Once you have picked a name, it’s worth checking across various social platforms, website registration sites and company registration sites such as Companies House to see if there is another business with that name.


Once you’ve picked your business name, REGISTER IT! I registered my business name for 99p. (Side note: I didn’t have money saved, so I did everything on the cheap when I started).


Do whatever works for you, and to be fair, your business name is not set in stone, and even once you have registered your business name legally, you can change it.


Now I need somewhere to promote my services.


You need to decide how you plan to promote or sell your services. There are so many different outlets for businesses to use that it can be a bit of a minefield.



I decided I wanted a website (mainly because I love the web build process), and I picked one social media platform; Instagram. When starting, I knew that there was no way I would be able to consistently create content for 5 or 6 different social media platforms and work on and look for projects whilst also ensuring my website is up to date.


Take the pressure off. You don’t need all of that when you start out on your freelance journey. To be honest, you don’t need anything like that. You can start with just an email address and a phone.


The ‘F’ word.


No, not the four-letter ‘F’ word that flies out of your mouth when you’ve realised you accidentally liked’ an Instagram post from 49 weeks ago after a massive stalking session.


I’m talking Finance. I’m not going to lie to you; I thought all I needed was a business bank account, and I was sorted. But when you work for yourself and have a registered business, there is so much more involved.


Luckily there is a lot of information and support out there for business owners.


I referred to the HMRC that gave a step-by-step guide on working for yourself.


However, even with all of that, there were several times I had flashbacks of myself sitting in the back row of my maths class, doodling in my notepad and wondering why I didn’t pay more attention to Maths at school. Due to that, I decided to hire an account, but there are so many online tools such as Xero and Sage where you can manage your business finances yourself. It’s about what works best for you and what you are the most comfortable with.


Blog coming soon talking about business finances.


The BIG question...


‘Can I do this?’


I am quite a confident person, but I can’t lie; this question ran through my head multiple times whilst setting up my company.


Leaving a position where you are receiving a regular monthly salary to start your own freelance business with no guarantee that it will work, to be honest, is terrifying.

I experienced many feelings of doubt, worry and regret making this decision to work for myself (and I still experience phases where I question what I have done and my ability), but what I now focus on is what drives me.


I want the freedom to work for myself, be my own boss and work on projects that I have a genuine interest in and love doing. That alone pushes me to continue on this journey. When I get a great testimonial or feedback gives me that boost and confirmation that I can do this.


It’s common to experience self-doubt and to be honest, that shows just how important this is to me and how much I want this to work for me.


I’m not like them.


Whilst I LOVE social media (in particular Instagram), it can be the devil.


You cannot help but compare yourself to those accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers. But the fact of the matter is these accounts all started precisely where you are. And the key is that it’s not about the number of followers; it’s about providing valuable content that aligns with the goals of your business.


There is this fantastic freelancer account that I follow. This lady actually lives not far from me, and whilst she appeared at the time to be at the beginning of her freelance journey also, but she felt so much further ahead than me, more accomplished, more organised than me.


While I loved her content, I realised that it was making me feel bad about myself and where I was on my freelance journey. I found myself scrolling through her feed and feeling like I needed to do what she was doing and what I was doing was not enough. But the fact of the matter is, I’m me, and I am not this lady, and her business is not my business whilst we do a similar thing are very different.


I needed just to be me and embrace everything about me, and if I am selling myself and my services to build my business, why am I trying to be like someone else? So I ended up unfollowing her - whilst her Instagram account was excellent, it wasn’t helping me.




Just to finish up, I’m going to keep it real with you; you will experience high highs and low lows when starting your freelance business journey. The key is to understand that you are not alone, and I can almost guarantee all successful freelancers have experienced this also.


Reach out to other freelancers and widen your community of people. You can reach out to me for support and advice on your freelance journey.


Don’t forget to join my mailing list and receive new blogs, tips and much more straight to your inbox.


Bye for now!


6 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page