With the rapid growth in web media, freelancing has become a major professional segment. But like every job there are pros and cons of freelancing. Let's take a peek at some key points.

Pros And Cons Of Freelancing

With electronic media taking centre stage in the world of mass communication and technology, the opportunities to work as freelancers have increased multiple folds in recent times. It doesn’t matter what field you specialize in, the web has opportunities for all of you. There are millions of opportunities for all ardent souls working in the field of content writing, web designing or programming. As a matter of fact, any work that can be done remotely is available for freelancing. The freelancer is actually a bounty hunter, who lives a nomadic professional life, traveling from one client and business to another. The best aspect of being a freelancer is that you can choose your work load, exact field of work and work on your terms at a comfortable schedule right at the comforts of your room. Imagine earning a handsome amount without being restricted to a chair for about 8 hours! Sounds too good to be true, isn’t it? However, just like every work-culture, there are some negatives associated with freelancing as well. Here we will discuss all those elements in our bid to help you choose your own path as a fulltime worker or freelancer.
 
Advantages Of Freelancing
  • You can work from any location you find feasible, even your own bedroom. So your comfort takes the front seat.
  • You can be your own boss, as there will be no one to boss you around in your own comfort zone.
  • You can work as per your own schedule, which means you can work whenever you want. Also, you have an opportunity to choose work which fits suits your schedule.
  • You can choose exactly what sort of work you want to do, as there are freelance jobs offered in almost all types of genres and no one can force you to work on topics you don’t want to.
  • You don’t have to worry about being laid off or risk being fired as freelancing is totally based on payment per assignment, no strings attached.
  • You can set your own wages, which means you can put your own price tag on your work and charge your clients as per your wish.
  • You can make more money than regular employees as you get paid more for your work. This results from the fact that the employers don’t deduct any taxes from your payment. Moreover, they do not have to give you employee benefits or insure you as per government guidelines.
  • Most of your income is not-taxable, although you can make it taxable at your convenience.
  • There are no dress codes or timing hassles. Since you are working at a place of your choice, you don’t have to dress formally or spend time in office.
  • You can choose your own holidays and take vacations whenever you find suitable without any hassles.
Disadvantages Of Freelancing
  • Freelancing demands strong self-motivation, as there will be no one to push you forward and ask you to complete the job on time. You will have to keep working with just you to monitor your task.
  • Unlike regular employees, you will have to work extra hard to stay ahead of competition and must keep promoting yourself through various channels, so that the employers may provide you work.
  • Freelancing forwards very little or no chance to grow in terms of career. Since you are not working in the conventional office setting, the possibility in terms of growth reduces drastically.
  • You have no job security, as the risk of being unemployed runs high. If someone is willing to do the same work at lower wages than you, be assured to be ripped off your income.
  • You will have a lot of distractions, if you are working from home. Also, keeping work separate from personal life can become a hassle.
  • You always have to be available during regular business hours in case any of the clients or a potential client tries to contact you.
  • There is always a risk that your client may pay you less, late or never for the work and then reclaiming that payment would be a hassle.
  • There are no labor laws safeguarding your job.

How to Cite

More from iloveindia.com