Any donwsides of going freelance?

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In many ways, I feel better off if I worked freelance. I've visited many animation & graphic agencies and I didn't' like any of their environments at all...

The downside of freelance writing (my hobby) is that there is no one to bounce an idea off of before you put it on paper. On the other hand, there is no one looking over your shoulder to steal your ideas.

It could take a while to find your first clients and even your second wave of clients. Or it could happen very easily. There are a lot of external factors and luck factors.

In time, you might find yourself missing colleagues. Maybe loosely network over the Internet?

You might want to link informally with other freelancers, so you can have someone to ask questions and confirm your feelings when you get that 'not quite certain' sensation.

Otherwise, the downside tends to be having to find ones own clients instead of getting work handed down to you from others - and of course the uncertainty that comes from billing clients directly instead of taking home a regular paycheck.

yes.

1. you have to look for work (or clients) constantly.

unless you are unusually skilled in the area of networking, making people comfortable with you, presenting your positive traits, maintaining relationships with people, etc. (and who with AS is?) you will have trouble.

2. roller coaster income

3. no health insurance (probably)

I think it's very easy for freelancers to end up charging too little.

I remember reading in a business book, and the guy was talking about being a consultant and he said, he wanted about 20% of the people who liked him, who liked his service, who were inclined to use his service, to opt not to use him because of cost. He figured this was about right.

Of course this does not address the far more complex question of starting it up and bootstrapping it.

that's a tough call. you can charge less and have more clients, or you could charge more and have fewer clients (and presumably, more free time) .. i guess it depends on what service you're offering, how easy it is for you to find your clients and how loyal they are ... and other factors.

you're definitely right in that it's difficult to assess how much money you will need to make. an important point about being freelance is you need to make more money than you need, incase it has to carry you through lean times.

it's very difficult to budget when you don't know what you will earn from one month to the next.

Seems to me that working for someone leaves you (relatively) free to concentrate on doing what you are paid to do, i.e. to draw pictures or write books.

If you work for yourself, then you've got to do everything. Run a business, find clients, convince people, wear the losses, stresses, communications.

There might be a middle ground. Contract or consult work, your own business to provide product or services for a specific larger company. You still have to do some things, just not everything.

And add to this in the United States, someone who's self-employed pays both halves of social security tax, both the employee half and the employer half, so instead of 7.65%, the self-employed person pays 15.3% social security tax, plus whatever income tax you'd normally pay (after knocking 7.65 off the top, the tax code is fair in this specific regard).

The self-employed person can do fancy things like an S Corp. But please get a good CPA or maybe an EA for something like this.

So, a boss who's a halfway reasonable individual? I'm all in favor of that! I just wish there were more good jobs. A lot of luck factors, a lot of external factors, sometimes it's relatively easy to find a job, sometimes not.

And I like that middle ground you propose.

In addition, I also like the idea of a side business where a person keeps his or her job. And perhaps only makes the step when he or she is confident there are the customers right now to spend the extra hours on.

I'm not sure about social security in my country, but I do know I'm already sick of having to leave the house every time I go to school since my college doesn't have a dorm and the nearest flat that the college sponsors is just overpriced for what I can do.

I'm just finding a way to fly and so far graphics are the only job I can bring money with....

Downsides of going freelance:

No health insurance

No free pizza and beer party on Friday after work.

No one to blame mistakes on.

In doing research for my blog articles I came across some information on dealing with slow paying clients which can be a bane of many freelancers. Here is a link to the post if you are interested.

upsides of going freelance:

doing something and then being paid for it 2 or 3 months later is fun

I found the pizza and beer preferable to the sushi and saki party. I was working at Sega then. And soda was available too.