Going From Freelancer to Employee

There are so many blog posts out there about switching from being a full-time employee to a freelancer. I should know—I wrote some myself.

But back in December when I made the decision to accept a job (a full-time job as an employee!), I started Googling (because that’s who I am). Here are a few of my searches:

• “advice for going from freelance to employee”

• “what to know going back to being an employee”

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, I suppose, but there isn’t a lot being written out there about people who go from freelance to being an employee. A lot of this is because the SEO for these search terms is dominated by people selling courses (big surprise) and a lot of this content is about switching to being a freelancer (and hey, why don’t you buy this course to help you learn how to get clients??).

People who are quitting freelance to go back to being an employee aren’t a money-making opportunity. And that’s just fine.

For me, being a freelancer was really challenging, it was outside of my comfort zone, and it helped me grow a lot as a person and in my career. Was it my forever plan? Absolutely not. I went into it absolutely knowing that. ⁠It was simply something I had to do to make money for the time being, because I found finding a job really challenging—I had really strict guidelines I wanted when it came to being both a parent and an employee.

Freelancing can be really hard. Working for yourself is not the way the Instagram gurus like to portray. Have you ever seen those ads where those same gurus brag about selling 6-figures worth of services in a month? Well, someone has to do 6-figures worth of work if they sell it--so that means they work a lot... and that’s if they’re being honest about how much they sell their services. (The truth is probably that they aren’t making that much money. There is a huge controversy right now with coaches being exposed for not making the big bucks they said they did—which basically renders their services null and void. Shockingly people who work a lot and make a ton of money at their jobs typically don’t spend time bragging about it constantly.)

This is all to say: lots of people go from being freelancers to employees and thrive because of it. If you like me are doing Google searches to see if anyone has lived that, I hope you find this and know you're not alone. ⁠

I did want to share a little bit more about what I’ve been mulling over when it comes to this big change in my life. Let’s dive in!

1. Working for yourself isn’t for everyone (and we have to stop pretending that it is).

Here’s the thing: it’s totally ok to be “just an employee.”

I feel like the mood on the internet is often that working for someone else is useless and your career is only valuable if you start your own business. I just simply don’t believe that’s true. We all find ways of feeling valuable. If owning your own business or freelancing is something that calls to you, by all means, go for it! But if it doesn’t call to you, there isn’t anything wrong with that.

As well, you might really think you’ll thrive freelancing, but then find that you don’t like it—and that’s ok too! It takes a certain personality type, to be quite honest, and some people are just better at it.

Freelancing isn’t better than being an employee. Different things work for different people and encouraging everyone to freelance or own their own business to the detriment of their personality or stress level is… bad.

2. Being a freelancer uses more energy on a wider variety of things.

Not only was I managing client’s social media and writing a ton of copy week-to-week, I was also acting as an account manager, a bookkeeper, and a project manager. It was way more mental energy every single week and for 75% of those tasks (like organizing my time sheet, invoicing, keeping track of my books, and more) I wasn’t being paid because it wasn’t client work.

Plus, at least 50% of my mental capacity went towards worrying about my taxes.

It was a lot. It was super stressful and I felt like I didn’t know how to handle it. A lot of the information on how to handle these things is, surprise, behind a paywall these days; there is no one giving clear cut, good advice on how to manage that level of stress. It’s understandable, but it makes freelancing as a profession a lot harder for people who might thrive in it. And it makes people like me, who are high stress anyway, more likely to leave freelancing.

3. I actually have more time now.

So it turns out, not working weekends hugely improves my mental health? Not having to wake up at 4am every weekday to get massive amounts of scheduling and invoicing done is a huge stress relief?

And being able to set my hours and say, “I’m gone at 5pm!” is another huge relief?

This is to say: I actually have more free time now than I ever did in the past year of freelancing and that’s really, really exciting.

3 Skills Every Freelancer Needs

Welcome to the Diversifying Your Skills series! Learning new skills in your life and career can be really rewarding—but challenging at the same time. What does it mean to realize you’re missing a skill for your career or, worse, life? How can you best learn new skills? I’ll be answering those questions and more in this weekly series. You can read all posts in this series here.

It’s easy to wax poetic about being a freelancer. There are so many pluses: I can take days off whenever I want*; I can schedule my time however I please*; I can choose what work to take on and what work to pass on*…

What are those asterisks for you ask? Sorry, let me check the footnotes…

* You can take days off, except the days where your clients expect you to be working, especially if they email you, call you, text you, or check in on you.

* You can schedule your time however you want, but you’ll need to factor in when your clients are awake and working as well.

* You can choose what work to take on and what to pass on, but you’ll always have to consider word of mouth and how much money you’re making each month.

So, yes, there are many pluses to working as a freelancer! We don’t often talk about the not-so-fun ones: that it’s easy to say you work for yourself, but you kind of aren’t. It’s more like you’re working for multiple bosses, all with different needs, and schedules, and communication styles.

This isn’t to shit talk freelancing without reason. Some days I love being a freelancer; some days I just wish I had a normal job (like when I wish I had an account manager who could take on all my client meetings!)

One thing that we often don’t talk about with freelancing is that you need more skills than just the ones you’re selling as services. Yes, you’re a good writer, or a good graphic designer, or a good strategist. But are you good at… bookkeeping? Do you have a customer service voice? Let’s chat the 3 skills that every single freelancer needs.

1. Bookkeeping

Here’s an embarrassing story: mid-way through July, I all of a sudden realized I should be paying my estimated taxes into the state and federal government. I sort of abstractly knew this was a “thing”, but for whatever reason thought that my first year of freelancing, I didn’t need to do this. (This is still a bit of a hazy point; lots of accountants say that is the case, but other accountants say it’s not. The government doesn’t really list that… but all I know is, I don’t want to be penalized or investigated for tax fraud. And you probably don’t either, right?)

It goes without saying: you need either to learn bookkeeping now so you have a good record of your invoices (or use a simple invoicing software like Square) or hire a bookkeeper or seek out a bookkeeping software. I recently looked into Bench and while I really like them, I wasn’t quite at the point financially where I needed their help. If I had more clients and more invoices, it would definitely be top of my list.

Right now, I primarily use a combination of spreadsheets, my Square invoices, and Quickbooks. I don’t have a ton of expenses yet, so that’s not a huge concern to me. On top of bookkeeping, having a great accountant who you can call and ask questions is huge.

2. Customer Service

Do you know someone who says stuff like, “I won’t ever have a job where I have to work customer service again”?

I used to say that all the time when I worked retail and food service. I actually really loved working both in retail and food, but the customer service aspect was always challenging for me. I’m not super assertive and especially when I was younger, I struggled to establish boundaries.

That being said, it turns out when you’re a freelancer, you’re every part of the job: client management, customer service, service provider, CEO… everything. It’s all you, baby!

So if you like me said you would “never work customer service again”, I have really bad news for you.

Providing good customer service when selling your services can be really challenging. It’s hard to take feedback, especially if you’re an expert in your field—a client hired you for that reason, so it’s hard to make changes based on their desires. But balancing client requests and your expertise is important and learning to communicate effectively is huge! It’s all about good customer services, uses the right language and tone, and providing a great experience on top of great services.

3. Organization

How organized are you?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how organized is your desk?

More bad news, if you answered “oh shit, I’m not organized at all”, you’ll need to learn some organization techniques soon! You can read my series about getting organized here.

Being organized will make your life so much easier at the start of your freelancing career. Rather than realizing mid-way through the first year that you’ve lost a contract or don’t remember where you put the notes you took at a meeting that you need. Here are a few of my tips:

• Buy a filing cabinet or filing box. Create folders for every client. Any printed contracts or notes go in here. (Create this same system in Google Drive; call it FILING CABINET and create the same folders.)

• Create an tagging system for your email inbox.

• Clean off your desk and keep it clean.

• Keep a notebook for each client. (I buy notebook packs I find on sale at TJ Maxx or Marshalls.) All notes for meetings I keep in this one notebook!

It’s pretty easy to set up a system to start organized now. It doesn’t have to be boring or a huge chore—just something you do to keep yourself organized and sane. I usually set aside a few hours each week to get organized, update my invoices and hours, and make sure all my tasks are organized in Asana.

3 Tools You Need for Freelancing

Some people choose a freelance career. It becomes the best choice for them. They have time to prepare, to create a workflow, to research and get ready for the path they’ve chosen.

However, some of us don’t quite have that going for us.

Have you ever seen those memes on TikTok about puppy dog eyes girls (I can’t add that emoji to my blog post, but you know what I’m talking about!) versus bruh girls? I feel like those memes could be easily applied to lots of things, but especially to “those who choose freelancing” versus “those who fall into freelancing.”

Those who choose freelancing have a great Instagram aesthetic, great topics for their Reels, and a workflow ready for invoicing, keeping time, charging clients, and more.

Then, there are those who fall into freelancing: crash landing into tax season, knocking over everything in a coffee shop trying to figure out invoicing, late night panics about chasing invoices or getting new clients.

You get the drift.

This blog post is for the people who fell into freelancing—people like me. I haven’t shied away from the fact that freelancing wasn’t really something I chose, but really the only option forward at a certain point. After I got laid off, it felt like I was starting my career all over again. I was exhausted and burnt out and I just plain didn’t know what to do. Freelancing opened up as an option and I went after it—pretty much only because searching for jobs, and the variety of biased rejections I experienced, were soul crushing.

When I started freelancing in earnest, I didn’t have a process. I didn’t know what I needed. And unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the research I needed to do—I just kind of had to figure it out on the fly.

So, for those currently in the process of freelancing, let me make it easy for you. Here are 3 tools you need no matter what kind of freelance services you offer.

1. Bookkeeping Software

Surprise! You’re now your own bookkeeper and HR person! You’re going to need some kind of bookkeeping system. So far in 2020, I have kept myself afloat using a combination of Square for invoicing and a spreadsheet. I don’t have a ton of expenses—and because 2020 is the way it is, I don’t need to have tracked my mileage at all (because I haven’t driven… anywhere?). However, I already have a bettering bookkeeping system lined up for 2021.

One note here: you should definitely start a separate freelance banking account now. Get all your payments sent and/or deposited into this account; make all your purchases out of this account; and pay yourself out of this account. This will really simplify your life. (Unfortunately for me, right when my freelancing kicked into high gear, banks closed and I couldn’t open a separate bank account until JULY! My books are a mess, send help.)

2. Time Tracking Tool

Clients will often want a breakdown of how you spent your time on a project—even if you’re being paid by the service, not the hour. (Although you will frequently be paid by the hour!) My favorite tool for this is Clockify, which I’ve mentioned before. I like it because it has a Chrome extension where you can start your timer from anywhere. Plus, you can set up multiple projects underneath a client, which is great if you need to invoice differently for certain projects. They recently introduced a Dark Mode and while that’s not my thing, I know for many people, it makes a huge difference for them!

3. Email Marketing

You’ll probably need to send emails to clients in some form, especially as you get more clients. If you have a website and start marketing, it’s good to have your email marketing plan set up now, rather than later.

I have used all of the email marketing tools out there but my favorite is Flodesk. The only downside to Flodesk is that there is no free level—it’s only paid. However, most people have sign up codes to use to get it for 50% off for life. (That’s a pretty good deal.) The templates are gorgeous. Plus, it’s the same price for however many email addresses you end up having—whether is 100 or 100,000. In comparison, MailerLite and Mailchimp charge over a certain number of subscribers and emails sent per month. You can sign up here and get 50% off.

Hey, Freelancers: Know Your Worth

I originally posted this on my old blog, Ellipsis, over 3 years ago. I think it's time to share again, as it is still totally apt. If you're a new graduate, or new to the freelance world, it can be so hard to get those first few clients. But don't be tempted to sell yourself short! 

Ever since I started freelance writing, I have struggled with charging a reasonable rate. What is my writing worth? What is my experience worth? I recently started using Elance and oDesk, and I've been shocked by the amount of writing that clients request... and how little they want to pay for it! 

There are a multitude of freelance writing platforms out there. Unfortunately, they all have their pitfalls. The number one problem with all freelance writing boards, especially Elance and oDesk, is their pricing. Since clients are allowed to charge whatever they want, with no standards being required by the websites themselves, the prices end up being shockingly, well, low. If you're a business in need of writing, it seems great. But if you're a writer in need of income, it sucks. 

It's not uncommon on Elance or oDesk to see ads for 10-100 articles for barely over $20. 10 articles is a lot for $20. 100 articles is ridiculous. As well, I recently saw an add offering $1 for every 300 words, and they wanted 10 600-word articles. Let's see, that evens out to about $20. Not worth it. I've received messages after applying to jobs asking if I'll take $10-20 for a 500-word article. There is no nice way to say "no, actually, my writing is worth more than that." Because, honestly, how do they know? 

Writing is the single most important part of any business. It really is. How businesses communicate and represent themselves, how they manage their reputation and how they present their knowledge as community leaders is incredibly important, especially in the age of ZMOT. Some businesses seem to be pretty slow on the uptake though. They want the benefits of content, of social media marketing and of blogging, without having to pay for it. Maybe because it's a trend, they don't think it has any real value. It also seems to hinge on the fact that writing is "easy"--we do it every day, don't we?  

Except, it's not. 

It's hard work to write an article for a company. It's hard work to do all the research necessary, to ask the right questions, to understand their community, to understand their customers, to find the write words, to tailor the language to their audience. It takes time and patience and practice. It's worth more than a penny per word. And it's definitely worth more than $20 for 500-words!

For new writers -- students just out of college or people like me, who have a lot of writing experience but not a lot of experience being paid for it -- can easily get conned into charging too little. "Well, I am new," we say to ourselves, applying to receptionist jobs and trying to scoop up freelance jobs offering $1.50 an hour. That's not fair though. If you paid for a degree -- in Journalism, Creative Writing, English, or anything else -- you've proven yourself as a writer. You've earned your degree. Therefore, you have earned your right to charge what you think your writing is worth. You might not be able to charge the highest rates quite yet, but you deserve more than minimum wage for writing.  

So, what is your writing worth? 

I charge $35 an hour for freelance projects under a certain number of words. For longer pieces, I charge a base price of $250 and then $25 per hour on top of that $250. It sounds like a lot, right? It's really not, though. For high quality writing, for the right words, the right image, the right phrases, it's worth it. If a business understands and acknowledges that writing is worth more than pennies -- if they understand that their business's reputation and place in the market is dependent on writing -- it's worth it. I have a lot of experience writing. I've written for businesses, for magazines, for academics, for social media accounts. I've written articles, bylines, ebooks, Tweets, Facebook posts, and FAQs. I've written blog posts and wish lists and everything in between. I'm a writer. It's what I do. My writing is worth a certain amount and I'm not embarrassed to say that I charge accordingly. 

It's easy to think, "Well, I can take those low prices and just write a lot." It's really easy to think that. But if you're writing a 500-word article for $20, how many do you need to write to make a mortgage payment or to pay your rent? If you're rent is as low as $500 a month, you'd have to write 25 articles. But remember, you have to pay taxes on all your income through freelance. So reserve about 20% for future taxes. Then you'd need to write about 30 articles to make your rent payment alongside saving to pay those taxes. How long does a 500-word article take to write? Let's say it takes you between 3 hours per article. That's 90 hours just to make your rent. Are you planning on sleeping? What about eating? What about all your other bills? The average full-time worker works about 160 hours a month. That's a lot. So you'll be working half that much just to pay one bill. Add in car payments, insurance, power and water bills, student loan payments... Possible? Maybe. Enjoyable? No. 

The bottom line is this: to be a freelance writer, it's more powerful to have personal connections. It's nice to have oDesk and Elance as back ups. My number one tactic is to email local businesses and try to network and get my name out there as a freelance writer. By being friendly, by networking and following local businesses on Twitter, I find I'm more able to make genuine connections and find businesses that are willing to pay for quality writing. 

What does this mean for someone who is just trying to get into freelance writing? 

1. Don't depend on freelance writing boards! 
2. Make connections in your local community. Email PR firms, attend networking group meetings, and get some business cards printed. 
3. Set a rate and stick to it. It might not be the highest rate, but base it off your experience and what you need to survive.