Unit 14 Report Title: Working as a Freelancer Author: William Hughes I certify that work contained in this assessment was researched and prepared by me. Learner Signature: William Hughes
1.1 Introduction Freelancers are self-employed workers who do not work for one singular company but rather work for many companies, doing small jobs. Freelancers usually do not work under a traditional paid per hour of work salary but rather on a pay on work completed salary. Freelancers often tend to find their own work as opposed to them being given it, but if successful work is done for a company once, then they may contact them again. Many freelancing jobs exist including, graphics design,web design, 3D modelling, artistry, programming and more. Traditional employees often earn benefits like insurance and sick leave whereas freelancers do not.
1.2 Benefits and negatives of freelancing A benefit of freelancing is that you get to be your own boss. This gives a feeling of control over what you spend your day working on, and how you build your own career. You also don’t have to speak to a supervisor, manager or colleague or hold team meetings. However, this also means that you are on you own if you need help with something. As well as that, as there is no one to run decisions by for opinions other than the client, you could make bad decisions that end up making the final outcome worse. You will still need to communicate to your client but this can be difficult at times as the client could be busy and you rarely can talk to them face to face. As you are your own boss, you will need to pay for your own supplies and resources. As well as that if your job requires certain software, you will need to pay for access for it.
A negative of freelancing is that if you are easily distracted, then work could be difficult to complete as there is no one watching over you making sure you do work. Therefore some people could get behind in work creating a backlog of work to complete. This creates a rush to complete work as quickly as possible leading to rushed, low quality work. A benefit and negative is that freelancers do not work under a traditional paid per hour of work salary but rather on a pay on work completed salary. This is useful as if high quality work is completed quickly, then the money earned per hour could be very high. However, this means that if it it takes them too long to complete the work, than the money they earn could be very little compared to the amount of hours that went into it. Therefore, freelancing is potentially more risky than a traditional job as the amount of hours you work is dependant on you. Work too many hours and your pay per hour equivalent goes down, work too little hours and although your pay per hour may go up, the final quality of the work will be lowered. This also means that your cashflow is not consistent. You may receive weeks of stable pay and work, but soon after get very little work to do and therefore very little income. This can cause a problem with monthly payments like mortgages. A negative of freelancing is that you have to find your own work to complete. This can be especially difficult when you are first starting as a freelancer as your name is not popular and your portfolio is small. It is important to promote yourself and share your portfolio in order to get work from companies. Websites such as Fiverr.com exist that allow freelancers to post their skills and prices on a large board for clients to search through, although they take a fee for each successful job completed so it is worse in some ways from manual networking. Freelancers can also promote themselves by sharing their business cards. Business cards give a short summary of information of the freelancer in a visual way. They tend to include name, email, phone number, skills and a logo. They are small (A5),cheap to print and easy to share to multiple people quickly allowing for large outreach at minimal cost.
A benefit of freelancing is that you can complete your work wherever you want, be that your room, a coffee shop or elsewhere. This allows for a degree of freedom that is not granted from traditional jobs and workplaces. Work can also be completed at any time, as long as the work is completed by the deadline. This means that freelancers can work only when and where they work at their best.
A negative of freelancing is that you have to pay your taxes directly and sort out how much is yours, and how much is the tax office’s. This is time consuming, boring and complicated work. If your taxes are not correctly paid in the right amounts, you could be in legal trouble. Some freelancers choose to pay someone to calculate taxes for them to save time and frustration. You will have to pay for income tax, the amount of which is determined by how much you earn. If you earn less than £11,500 a year then you don’t need to pay any income tax, whereas, if you earn anywhere from £11,501 to £45,000, then you will need to pay 20% income tax. The more you earn, the more income tax you have to pay. You will also need to pay for National Insurance if you are earning more than £6025 a year and are over 16 years old. National Insurance costs £2.85 a week. However, if you self-employed and earn more than £8164 a year then you pay 9% of your total profits for the year instead. All freelancers have a right to a pension. A pension supports you during your retirement by giving you an income each month. For every £100 you put into your pension fund, the government will put another £25 into it. It is important to start saving for your pension as early as possible in order to have large pension to support you. 1.3 Summary Freelancers are self-employed workers who work for multiple companies doing small jobs. They are often paid per job completed and have to find their own work by advertising themselves and their portfolio. Many freelancing jobs exist depending on skills. Freelancers do not earn benefits unlike traditional employees. Freelancing allows you to be your own boss and control your career. Freelancing is not a fit for people who have trouble focusing on work in out of work environments as freelancing can be done at any time and in most environments. Freelancers tend to advertise and promote themselves using business cards,freelance websites and networking. Freelancers have to pay their taxes directly which is difficult and time-consuming work. Freelancing can potentially be more profitable and comfortable than traditional work but this depends on the person freelancing and their skills.