The truth about FREElancing exposed! #NationalFreelancersDay

Did you know that there is a National Freelancer Day day? I found out years ago, and I had my head down working that it very nearly passed me by. Freelancing is something many of us do for a living now. And with there being more and more opportunities for us nowadays there seems to be a growing pool of freelancers! That being said, there is a truth about freelancing that should be more widely available than it is.

Freelancer

That’s what I am; both as a blogger and in social media too. It is a liberating job, and has been a wonderful way for me to work so that I can see my kids grow up. And they are doing it all too quickly as well – so fast that if I hadn’t made that decision to leave my job when my now nine year old boy was little, I would have regretted it.

However, just because I am a freelancer doesn’t mean that the work I do is any less valuable, or takes any less time than someone who is employed by an agency, or a press organisation.

The FREE in FREELANCER means:

• Flexibile,
• Reactive,
• Engaged, and
• Energetic.

It allows us to be all these things, when we want to be, for our clients. But it doesn’t mean that we work for free.

That final E does NOT stand for EXPOSURE.

The freedom that having this role gives me means that I fit the work in when I can, when the kids aren’t around. It can mean that I have been working at 1am getting something done after spending some of the time previously trying to calm my son down after a nightmare.

Please don’t think that working with a freelance blogger, social media consultant, photographer, graphic designer, etc means that they will engage to work with you for nothing automatically.

Would you work for free?

Imagine spending three hours writing an article. Would you then be happy to be paid by way of a Facebook status or Tweet?

Would you have worked for three years to build up a strong brand, social following, and email list, to be told that there is no budget for you to create that recipe we chatted about, so can you do it for free?

Sometimes it is OK to work for free, of course it is; but it shouldn’t be the default position for working with a freelancer.

Let’s start a dialogue expecting to have to show the value to the freelancer in what you are offering them. And not just trying to get something done for nothing.

As always, thank you for reading this post and I hope that you enjoyed it. Check out some of our posts from the Working Mums series below.

If you are a freelancer or work with freelancer I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter below! Let me know what you feel the truth about freelancing means to you.

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 Helen 

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