The worst part about freelancing

I decided to become a freelancer out of a desire to work on whatever I want without having someone near me telling me I can't do it, or that I should focus on something completely different.

My love for technology also helped me quite a lot, and since sitting in front of my computer for hours and hours was never a problem for me, I thought freelancing is gonna be easy.

However, there are a few things I didn't take into consideration when it comes to freelancing, a few aspects that I realized were important only after I started working.

I realized, in time, that having a normal job may actually be a lot easier than being a freelancer, especially if you are an artist. That doesn't apply to everyone, of course, but there are people who would rather spend 8 hours a day at a job then another 2 or 3 hours at home drawing or creating art, than to be full time freelancers.

The reason a normal job may be exactly what you need is because freelancing requires you to divide your attention a lot more than you think. It sounds like all you have to focus on is creating whatever you want to create, or coding whatever you want to code, or whatever.

But then you'll also have to focus on promoting yourself and what you do. There are too many people on the Internet, and just because you create something, no matter how good, it doesn't mean people will notice immediately. You'll have to promote yourself, and, if you want to do it right, then you'll probably have to invest more time on doing that than on anything else.

Then there's working with clients. If you love doing that, then great, good luck! But if you don't, and if all you want to do is create, then it's gonna be pretty hard for you to sustain yourself. I've been working on Graphic River and Creative Market for quite some time, and while I am close to having 1000 design packages in total there, I'm nowhere near being able to sustain myself using only those two websites.

Working on anything related to 3D isn't an option either, since I'm not that good at it yet, and writing can be something I can do for money, but with so much competition out there, I find it hard to believe I'm gonna be able to "make it" and make as much money as I need every single month anytime soon.

So, sometimes I have to work with clients, even if I don't really want to do that. Being paid for doing a specific thing is sometimes good and easy, but I would rather spend my time working on something completely different, like my projects in Blender or something related to writing.

All those are examples from my own personal life, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who thought about freelancing, and even tried doing that, who can relate to everything I said. Freelancing sounds fun, until you realize that being a freelancer is not always about doing whatever you want for as long as you want.

Actually, having a normal job may be a lot better in a lot of cases, mostly because your boss is responsible for most things, while you'll have to take care of a few tasks every single day.

If you work as a programmer, you'll solve problems and you'll code. You don't have to worry about creating interfaces or even art, about promoting your product and about dealing with customers. Your main job is to code, and that's what you'll do most of the time.

If you work as an artist, you'll create art. You don't have to code, you don't have to solve bugs, you don't have to promote the product created by your company or to deal with clients. Your bosses are responsible for all that, and your main objective will probably be creating art and nothing more.

All that doesn't mean freelancing is horrible and you should never think about becoming a freelancer. However, you should keep in mind that there's a lot more to do if you work for yourself than you think, at least at first. Maybe in time, you'll be able to forget about all those small responsibilities and just focus on what you do. But until you get there, prepare to work less on what you want, and a lot more on what you have to.