6 months as a Freelancer

By Iain Rabbitts - Freelance Principal Engineer

February 10, 2024

After I had been a freelancer for 3 weeks, I wrote about the top three things I have learned.

Don’t feel guilty that you are not working every hour God sends.
Working with friends is fun.
Don’t be afraid to say you can’t start a job immediately.

After 6 months would I change these three things and how easy has it been? So, let’s take each one of these and see if it still holds.

Not feeling guilty about not working

I don’t think I have ever found this a problem (believe it or not). What I try to focus on is making sure that my clients get value for money when I am working and making sure that I get the time I need to recharge my batteries. Do I get a day off a week? Not always, but equally I don’t necessarily work a whole 40 hours in the week. Sometimes I work longer weeks and sometimes shorter weeks. In the end am I happy with my lot? – Yes.

What it has allowed me to do, is to do more around the home for my wife and to start volunteering with the Coastguard. I volunteer in the Comms Centre in Mechanics Bay in Auckland. Today (Friday), for example, a call was put out for some support in the Comms Centre. As I didn’t have any appointments or deliverables, I was able to put my hand up without getting permission from anyone or taking leave. Whether it is admirable or not, I get a kick out of it and am having fun that would be more difficult working for someone else.

Working with friends is fun

I have so many friends! I guess after working in the water industry in this country for 25 years, you build up a bit of a network. I am working all around Aotearoa New Zealand, from Invercargill to Kaipara and, in the most I am working with people I have known for anything up to 25 years. It’s pretty cool. It’s also cool meeting colleagues of the people I have known for a while and making new contacts. A big thank you to all the people I am working with, it is a blast!

So will I work with new people and new clients. Of course I will, but given my current workload, I am not in a position to help anybody else for the next 3 months or so. My friends seem to be keeping me busy at the moment.

The other aspect in working with friends is making it easy for them to work with you and you with them. Specific projects are easy with a defined scope and outcomes. But what about all those phone calls and half day little jobs that you get asked to do. It’s a pain to try to get a PO for each occurrence. So, don’t. With people you have worked with for a long time, raise a PO for an agreed amount for non-defined scope and charge against that. Or better yet, a retainer is a great approach for both of you.

Don't be afraid to say you can’t start immediately

This is really important and is the key to getting your life balance right. There are only 168 hours in a week, and you can effectively work sustainably long term for about 40 to 50 hours per week. So don’t commit to more. In reality, the whole point of going freelance is to increase your amount of leisure/free time, not to work harder. It’s also okay to say you can’t help (either through capacity or capability). It’s better still, to say you can’t help, but you know someone or some organisation who might be able to help the client. So, building up a network of likeminded, varying skill base individuals and companies helps you and helps the client.

The only other thing I would add to the above list is, Value Yourself! When you were working for your previous company, they charged you out at a rate. Don’t drop it. If your clients were willing to pay that for the outcomes you delivered before, then they are willing to pay the same for the outcomes you will deliver.

Have my views changed after 6 months? Not really. About the only thing that has changed is that I now have a new Panama Hat for the summer as the Fedora was a bit warm.

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