There’s lots of information out there about setting up as a freelancer – more than I remember when I started around 15 years ago, but one thing people rarely talk about is the transition from employee to self-employed. Not the practical things you have to do, but the shift that goes on in your own head.
Decision paralysis
Now you have all the freedom to do whatever you want, but it can have you second-guessing yourself and not knowing where to start 🤯
Self-doubt
Maybe you’re confident in the service you’re providing, but there’s everything else that you have to learn. Or maybe you took a different direction and you don’t have the years of experience to draw on when questions or challenges come up 😟
Nobody monitoring where you are
But rather than this leading to days relaxing on the sofa, it leads to extra hours and no social life – at least this was my experience at the beginning! I was having fun and determined to do a good job. But if it hadn’t been for my dog at the time, I might not have left the house 🐾
Your professional identity
This is too big for one paragraph, but it took me some time to figure out who I was – and this is still evolving. But when I was figuring this out, people with more experience or even more dominant opinions affected me more in the freelance space than people way above my pay grade affected my confidence in the employed world. Because in the freelance world there is no structure, you have no colleagues or superiors, and you really have to figure out whom you want to listen to!
No policies
I came from a job that had a lot of structure. If this happens, this is what comes next. And even if you don’t know what that is, someone else will have usually seen a similar case before. Building these processes, knowing where my limits are and how I want to respond in some general situations – ahead of time when there’s no pressure – helps to take the emotion out when it’s for something real.
Change
It’s inevitable whether you’re employed or self-employed. But trying to bring about change in a large organisation can take a while. Now I’ve become more curious to try things out to see whether I like them, whether they land well, whether they make sense for my business. I think a mixture of curiosity and consistency have been the driving forces for me so far and they will help to keep moving and reinventing to stay current and relevant.
And last but maybe most importantly
Colleagues are important in employment. You find the people who can help, the people who get you, and those who make you smile on a tough day. But these people become even more important when you’re self-employed. I love not sharing my office. I have many meetings and I enjoy those, but I also enjoy working alone when I’m doing my other tasks. But connection is important and I didn’t learn this straight away. Someone to bounce ideas around with. Someone with more experience to save you time and show you what worked for them. Someone just to listen when you need to talk about something. Find your people and be that person for others. Because working alone doesn’t need to mean working without connection or support – which I definitely see happening at my networking events. Not just during the meetings, but the conversations people have afterwards.
These are all things that changed, but that I didn’t even think about until I was some way into the process. And I don’t remember anyone talking about them before I set out.
If you were employed before freelancing, which differences surprised you?
More from English with Kirsty
If you’d like more articles like this and other news from English with Kirsty to be delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up for my newsletter.
