- Shiny things they tell you about freelancing
- Dark side of Freelancing they don’t tell
Shiny things they tell you about freelancing;
Let me list down good things people tell you about freelancing;
- You get freedom
- Can work from anywhere
- Complete project at own pace
- Work while sleeping
- Earn in dollars
- No tension
- Get rid of 9-5
- Enjoy more and work less
- Work on what you love
Now all of the above things seems awesome and when you think about those you feel good but, but you do not know the whole truth so let me share the few heart breaking truths about freelancing.
Purpose is not to demotivate you, sole purpose is to inform you that it’s not what they tell you to sell their courses or manjan (Pakistanis say)
Dark side of Freelancing they don’t tell;
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Health Issues;
90% freelancers have following health issues, you can put on your social media and they will tell you;
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- Back Pain (it’s because of sitting still for hours and hours)
- Eye sight issues (because of screen time which is 12-14 hours)
- Headaches/Migraine (because of lack of exercise or less movements)
- Sleep issues (Coz they are working late night and do not get proper sleep)
- Anxiety/stress/stomach issues because of the above
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Freedom;
What freedom? When you have a deadline to deliver the project on fiverr or upwork or any freelance platform that if you do not deliver in time, you will get 1 star review which will kill your profile.
Even if you are chilling in northern areas of Pakistan say Kashmir but what, when you cannot look at view but open your laptop and work as you have to deliver the project
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Financial instability;
If you are doing job & you receive your salaries late or you are doing some business and you receive late payments from clients, you can understand the stress of getting late payments.
In freelancing this is very normal, sometimes payments get delayed not weeks but months and you do not have stable income to cover your expenses and you go get loan until you get your payments.
Also, there is no fixed salary that you will get paid at that specific time of the month, sometimes you earn more and sometimes no projects for months and you are dependent on old projects.
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Work-Life Balance;
Many people say that freelancers have work life balance but in reality you don’t get to meet your friends as you have client waiting or the deadline is around the corner.
The pressure of finding new clients, project delivery in time, five star reviews and less time to do exercise leads to burn outs and start hitting personal relationships too
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Alone
Trust me you don’t have any collegue who will handle your today’s meetings, you have to do it alone.
You don’t get to meet people everyday, its you and your screen every day which isolates you from the real world out there.
Freelancer may know many people but it’s limited to screens, your networking and human interaction lowers down.
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Can work from anywhere
You cannot actually, the things I have in my office/room/table, I cannot carry all the time everywhere. Can I?
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18 hours of work instead of 9-5
You have to work until the project is over or delivered, you are not going anywhere else you will get 1 review and that 1 review will damage future orders.
