Freelancing: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Freelance creative strategist Zac Martin details his experience freelancing in Australia’s advertising industry, covering everything from sleeping in on a Friday to why working from home sucks.
The following is a modified excerpt from Zac Martin’s How to Freelance in Advertising – 11,000 words for taking the leap and not being homeless.
18 months ago I took the leap and started freelancing in advertising. This is the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good
The other issue is size of the market. People don’t want to employ people who have freelanced everywhere. It becomes a decision of do I do it forever or go back to being employed.
I’ve consulted/freelanced my way around NYC for the last 8 years (feels longer than it was). Friggin awesome after working in corporate for 8 years but it was not stable. I agree 100% with EVERYTHING you said! I’m now settling into a FT role in Melbourne and giving the 9-5 another shot. But man, what a ride!
As a freelance copywriter you will be an extra expense–expect to be treated like that. And realise the two weeks they promised you to get you interested is actually 2 days. And try to work on site so they can see the work you had to do to come up with that strapline. And if you do work at home, don’t expect a thanks email when you send the work in. And the money is now shit. Only freelance if you think it’s a chance to get a full time job with them–which it rarely is
The attractiveness of freelancer in terms of money has lured a lot of people who were incredibly frustrated working in businesses, claiming their bosses were holding them back and essentially chose to not work for anyone except themselves. It’s a pure business model but if you don’t perform you just get replaced without consequence.
They then get into contracts and churn through them, thinking its ok but really does nothing other than highlight that they were the problem and are the one that needs to change.
Unfortunately, the 33/33/33 rule applies. 1/3 of them are good, 1/3 of them are average and the other 1/3 need to change
The biggest benefit of remote work is flexibility, as for me. And the biggest challenge is not to work 24/7. Thanks god there are enough both huge freelancing platform as Fiverr and Upwork and fresh newies as Beesy.pro and Hired, so everyone can choose the most suitable something.