The journey of a freelancer, and should you be(come) one too? [ACCESS article]

Hi, my name is Natália Leal. My ‘introductory article’ for ACCESS was published in the 2020 June Volunteers’ Newsletter, so I won’t repeat all that was written there. 

Like many of the ATN members (and others), my path has not been a straight one (check my story here). I have evolved with time and so have my choices. I am still a Career and Life Coach, whose primary clients are Expats, and I continue to be an ACCESS volunteer with the Utrecht Helpdesk team (IWCUR).

The main difference in my life over the past 3-4 years though is probably my effort (not always too convincingly) to find my ground as a freelancer, a one-woman company 😊 I had spent the previous 20 years of my career being an employee, whereas to succeed ‘by yourself’ you need quite a mindset shift. Most of my ATN colleagues are also freelancers, and some of our volunteers might wish to consider this option too, so here are some of my reflections on the topic.

1.      What does it mean?

Freelancer (in the Netherlands, also known by the term ZZPer) is a term used to refer to self-employed professionals who sell their products/services, directly to their ‘consumers’ (which could be a company), instead of exchanging their time/labour for a salary from an employer. In the Netherlands, it also means you need to be registered in the Chamber of Commerce/KvK as a solo entrepreneur (a fairly easy and cheap process, I found) and start submitting regular VAT reports (a bit extra bureaucracy, but again rather easy after the first one).

2.      It takes courage to live in uncertainty, yet anyone can do it

Not having a monthly salary means that your life can be, financially, very irregular. You might have really good months, and others with absolutely nothing, zero, nil; sometimes you can go on vacations abroad, others you might want to reflect better on that extra pack of friet. And it’s not always easy to understand why it varies and what you can do about it.

Living with this kind of uncertainty can be very scary, especially in the beginning (is your anxiety level rising just from reading this?!), but it actually invites you to develop quite a few useful traits: you plan for the long-run (not just the ongoing month), you learn to manage your savings and spending, to solve your own problems but also to ask for help, you need to continuously innovate. More importantly, you develop a different type of mindset: you need to think more often out-of-the-box, be creative, see the potential in every challenge and recognise the full value of your services and expertise (not just your time). It takes some practice but anyone can do it!

3.      Failing (forward) is a requirement

Unless you are starting this journey with a very well-defined and ready to sell product (not sure if anyone ever did that), you are going to go through a possibly long period of developing and testing new products/services. And, unless you take some action and really dare to try, you’ll never know what works and what does not. Design, test, fail, improve further… In a sense, you realise that unless you are failing frequently, you are not trying hard enough. In fact, failure becomes just a necessary step in your learning process, one that can help you develop amazing services that your clients will love. And this is very gratifying 😊

4.      You have to be good at 2 jobs: whatever is your ‘profession’, plus being a business owner

This means that you cannot simply be good at being a coach, designer, lawyer, consultant, etc. You have to think and act like an entrepreneur, a business owner as well. Yes, too many people roll their eyes when they realise ‘Oh, I need to think about making money too?!’, as if this was a lesser merit endeavour. In my opinion, it is an essential one, one that you stopped delegating to your employer.

Being good at 2 jobs at the same time is taxing: I started by investing in becoming a more confident coach (that part worked already!) but I ignored the second part for the first few years and that costed me a lot, literally. It has only been more recently that I started giving more attention to sales and marketing, without presuming those were bad words. I realised I needed to treat the latter with the same passion I invested in coaching every client. So, while money isn’t everything, you do need to consider your long-term plans and financial situation… Make sure you dedicate time to sales every week, consistently. Otherwise, what’s the point of helping others, if you are struggling? Focus on what can bring in income; other stuff that keeps you busy can take second stage (for me, volunteering is still high on my priority list).

While I have learned that I can live with very little, I am not aiming for low. When dreaming, dream big! 😊

5.      You are (almost entirely) free to live your life

For most - I dare say - this is the greatest advantage of being a freelancer. After years feeling like I was living according to somebody else’s schedule and priorities, now I get to set my own. I decide when I go on holidays and for how long; I choose the clients I wish to accept or refuse; I decide what are ‘normal’ working hours or what a ‘full week’ means; I decide whether I work online, in person or both.

Once you get this freedom, it will be very hard to go back… the financial certainty of (even an interesting) job will barely ever surpass the freedom you get from being a freelancer. You are really the one driving your life!

6.      How do you measure success?

This is probably the toughest one. We tend to look at others around us, compare, and then judge how well we are doing (or not). In my opinion, a business (or any lifestyle) that is not financially sustainable cannot be deemed successful; yet, your degree of success is not proportionally related to your income level.

As a Coach, I have learned to design my own definition of success and it means: keeping a healthy work-life balance (I aim for working less than 30 hours per week), consistent with my core values (more about core values here), keeping my purpose in mind, and setting clear long-term goals while being flexible about my approach, constantly learning, and having all ‘security issues’ covered (no worries about having a roof over my head, food, clothes, local travel and an annual holiday somewhere).

Yes, you get to dictate your rules and what success means to you. Nobody else!

What about you? Could you be a freelancer too? Do you have other reflections you’d like to share on the topic?

Check some extra info about registering in the Netherlands here and send me a message about it; maybe we can get a group of ATN members and/or volunteers exploring how to start or get further down this path…

In the end, remember: anyone can be a freelancer! You just need to start with the willingness to try - and fail! - and keep going… It is scary but also super exciting and rewarding! 😊

Is this your next step?