After 7 Years, I'm Quitting Freelancing and Choosing to Work Independently
Times up - I'm choosing to work independently now.
I started to freelance back in 2013 when I first learned to code. It was the allure of freedom, travel, and being my own boss - you know everything you read in the 4 Hour Work Week that made it seem like the dream lifestyle.
And for many years it really was the dream...
I had a unique path you can read about on my website Travel Developer.
For the past 7 years, I've worked and lived throughout Central America, Bali, Australia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Morocco, South Africa, France, Portugal, and probably a few other places I'm forgetting.
I'm actually currently writing this from a perfect little villa, steps from the beach in Bali.
For most people my lifestyle is ideal.
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it...
...it's just...
It's time to tell my clients to go f*ck themselves 🖕
Yeah.
I'm over it.
Maybe it's the realization from the coronavirus pandemic that 95%+ of the world is working on absolutely pointless things, or a bit of introspection after my grandma passed away...
...I'm completely done working on projects I don't agree with whether it be morally/financially/time allocation/etc.
It's put me into a 0-BS mode where if I'm hearing buzzwords thrown around by people that don't know shit, and seeing others put on the fake 'busywork' routine, to sound busy rather than actually being efficient and getting shit done...
...I absolutely cannot deal.
Maybe this was a long time coming...
Some of the other things that turned me off were the more obvious...
- No health insurance
- Clients demanding immediate work / then severing ties at their discretion
- Constant dealing with contracts to try to avoid getting screwed
- Delayed payments
- Things I could've gotten done in a day take weeks or a month of back and forth bs
- Getting content - seriously over asking for 1 line of text for weeks
I've saved up a bit of 💰 and I'm ready to work independently.
To build pet projects that I believe in or just have an itch that needs to be scratched.
It's been a great learning experience but it's time to use my skills to do independent work and see if I can really build the things in my imagination.
I anticipate I may need some money so I've decided to ween myself off over the course of the next month and set a high rate for any and all work requests. For example...
Starting June 1$250/hr for design, dev, SEO$500/hr for consultingContracts with a minimum of $2500/week
It's bold and on the high end for me - but I'm really trying to deter people unless I'm making enough money to outsource dev on my projects.
For the next 6-7 months - I'll be working on my own projects...1 per month (will be outlined in a new post to come next week).
I think the choice to work independently also stemmed from having a great client the past 6 months.
The hours were long at times, and my boss was a nightmare - but they paid great and consistently while allowing me to work remote.
If more companies go remote - which it seems like COVID-19 is accelerating - then the need to be a freelancer to work remotely is going to diminish.
And that's probably for the better...
