Michelle Lim from Michelle Freelances talks about the challenges she faced when she took the jump from a routined job to freelancing. Despite, she feels there is still enough satisfaction to keep her going as a freelancer.
1.What was your last employment and why did you leave? What is the main attraction of being a freelancer?
My last employment was with a publishing company where I worked on layout & art direction for a corporate lifestyle magazine. I was there for 5 years before I realised that things have started to become too routine, and I found that I was losing my passion in what I do. This being my first job since graduating, I decided to do something on my own because, if not now, when?
The main attraction of being a freelancer is definitely the flexibility in time management, and escaping the 9 to 5, not to mention the traffic jams. But of course, such appealing prospects come with some challenges.
The most challenging aspect would definitely be maintaining the flow of jobs to make a comfortable income each month.During my first 3 months of freelancing, I had to rely on my savings because most of the work I’d done have a 2-month processing period,while some clients require a lot of chasing before payment can finally be received. It isn’t easy at first, but I’m lucky that things panned out well fairly quickly after that.
The first rule of being a freelancer – have savings, lots of it. The other is to have a steady stream of clients you’ve worked with before (and often) before quitting your job. As to how I overcame the challenge of maintaining my monthly income, I took on a retainer contract with a client. This ensures that even without any other jobs coming in, I’d still be able to pay my bills each month.
Her blog mishventurer.com talks about her travels and how it feeds her passion to create.