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Lesson Learned: Perks & Pits No.3

Its been almost six months since I’ve posted a “perks & pits” post. This post in reference to life as a freelancer and the situations that I can categorize as either a “perk” or a “pit” of the whole experience. When I write these posts, it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the things that are making me happy and maybe some things that need attention to.

So now I’m officially 7 months into full-time freelance life and here’s my list of perks and pits. For more information click millsriversdaschool .

Perks:

1. Evolving:   Allowing myself the flexibility to evolve as a designer/freelancer and to experiment with new opportunities and skill sets. I’ve learned a lot about pieces of my career that I’d like to put more attention towards.

2. Friendships:   In these past 7 months my online friendships has sky rocketed. It’s amazing how your online friendships influence your successes.

3. Gaining Confidence to Say “No”:   With time and experience I’m gaining the confidence to say “NO” to projects that aren’t perfect for me or my business.

4. Shopping & Expensing:   Now that I’m running a business out of my home, there is a gained freedom to shop for props and other “business requirements” that I can later expense.

You can keep reading to see the “pits”
( Photo )

Pits:

1. Cloudy Surroundings:   With the season changing to winter, I’m feeling the effects of the gloomy days even more. So much of my business is reliant on natural light and my energy levels go up and down with the cloudy/rainy days.

2. Taxes:   I’ve mentioned this before, but the realization that my taxes could buy me a really nice car is really depressing.

3. Missing Something:   As I figure out the legal requirements to be a self-employed individual I can’t help but have this feeling that I’m missing some really important information or doing something all wrong.

4. Blog Neglect:   There are those days where running a business wins out on producing unique content for you blog.

You can read past Perks & Pits posts here and here.

15 comments on “Lesson Learned: Perks & Pits No.3

  1. I love this post thank you. I agree pretty much with all of your points. Do you like working at home alone in your own surroundings better than among others? I find that I am way to distracted and plus as you know design is an art and not something you can just do when someone ask you have to be in the mood (well I do anyway) I would hate to have to do certain projects daily, etc.

    1. I love working from home by myself. I have found that I can cut the amount of “working” hours I put into a day by eliminating the need to rely on others in my workspace. There definitely are days where I am distracted, but the beauty of freelance is you have the flexibility to work on projects your passionate about!

  2. “There are those days where running a business wins out on producing unique content for you blog.” This is me this week. I am trying to manage my blog life as much as possible but somehow this business and that full time job thing keeps getting in the way. 😛 I’m so glad your perks list is longer than your pits list. Freelancing is definitely right for you!

    1. Thanks Angel. I hear someone recently say that it’s trying to figure out how to juggle versus finding the “right” balance. This made a lot of sense to me. Have a great rest of the week!

  3. I always love hearing from freelance designers what works and what doesn’t for them, along with their tips and tricks! I’m not a freelancer, but definitely associate with these points as a blogger – especially the online community – the friendships I have made online these past almost 6 months have been incredible!

  4. For legal stuff, have you checked out Small Business Bodyguard? (http://smallbusinessbodyguard.com/) I haven’t had a chance to go through the entire thing, but it’s awesome! It gives you so much information, and really gives you peace of mind when it comes to covering your bases. Well worth the investment. Just wanted to throw that out there, maybe it could be helpful? Legal stuff overwhelms me, so I totally understand!

  5. It’s funny how, from the outside, freelancing looks like the dream situation. So thank you for bringing me back to reality with the pits you’re experiencing. I still think it’s the perfect job situation for me but, we’ll see. I have a little bit of time yet to think about it. 🙂

    1. From my side, I’m still seeing this working arrangement as a dream situation. The pits are very little compared to desk jobs I’ve had in the past. Hope it all works out for you and wishing you the best of luck!

  6. I can completely relate to all of these, especially blog neglect; even though I love blogging, many days it’s just so hard to take time away from my directly work related task to blog.

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