Bust some myths about freelancing

What

There are so many myths about freelancing - and many (if not most) are flat-out-false at worse, or “it depends” at best. These myths are both positive and negative, and are often come from a skewed perspective of what self-employment means, or trying to set freelancers apart in some way.

Make sure you take time to interrogate the myths, by choosing more impartial sources of information, conversations with other freelancers, and taking a moment to just consider the likelihood of the myth.

Why

It’s important not to take a skewed view on what freelancing is and isn’t - and recognise that everyone’s experience will vary. There’s no singular model for self-employment, and everyone’s take will depend on their own context and agenda.

There are lots of people who are determined to sell you on the dream of freelancing - quite often because there’s actually something they want to sell you: a course, a community, a book, a subscription - and as a result, there’s lots of overly optimistic pitches about how self-employment, entrepreneurism and freelancing.

Likewise, there are no shortage of heavily negative takes on freelancing too, from it being isolating, no regular income, issues of late payments, ghosting etc.

The reality will naturally lie somewhere in the middle.

How

• We’ve built a list of myths below, to try and dispel them - have a read through, and take a more objective view on each perception of freelancing.
• Make sure you’re reading and researching a broader set of content - not just “hustle culture” type sources. Start to follow a wider group of freelancers who balance their posts and have less to sell.
• Take some time chatting with other freelancers, and ask them questions about their take on each of the myths. You can find some more detail on that task here.