ask the readers: what do I need to know to successfully freelance?

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes:

I work in a field that leans heavily towards freelance gig work these days, but I’ve been lucky enough to work in-house for a firm since making a career change into this industry six years ago. I’ve done a bit of freelance on the side here and there, but not a lot, and I haven’t been self-promoting as a person who’s looking for work because, well, I wasn’t! I had a full-time job that I loved!

Well … now I’ve been laid off as my firm downsized, and I’m going to have to go freelance on pretty short notice. Obviously I’ll be job searching as well, but it’s hard to overstate just how much this industry is based on self-employed freelancers these days; my in-house job was a real unicorn situation, especially in the U.S.

I’m staring down the prospect of not just looking for work, but also having to come up with new habits and systems and routines. For years, I’ve been clocking in and using my company’s systems and collaborating with a bunch of great coworkers and doing the work I was assigned. Now, all of that is going to have to be self-directed, and I’m going to have to self-promote and invoice and all the rest, and any collaborations and anyone checking my work is going to have to be something I arrange, and I’m going to have to figure out how to motivate and focus myself without that structure.

Any tips from the readers? What works for you, what do you wish you’d known, what’s overrated, what’s good when you’re starting out vs good for when your business is more established?

The comment section is open!

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