Are you an Aspie that freelances?

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I feel the only way I can earn an income is through freelancing; however, it terrifies me. I'm worried the stress of socializing with clients will overwhelm me and cause another shutdown. For those that freelance:

• How did you begin freelancing?

• Were you already skilled in that area or did you need to learn a new skill?

• Do you freelance in multiple areas?

• What's the worst part about freelancing, and how do you overcome it?

• What's the best part about freelancing?

• How did you begin freelancing?
I printed business cards, and hit the pavement. Door to door. AFter I had 3 clients, the referrals brought in the new business. I'm computer-focused for the past um... 30 years. My model was simple: get in the door, figure out what they do, how they do it, and how technology can help them do it better.

• Were you already skilled in that area or did you need to learn a new skill?
I was already very skilled.

• Do you freelance in multiple areas?
IT & business consulting.

• What's the worst part about freelancing, and how do you overcome it?
Having to go meet new clients. I force myself to get ready, get dressed--regretting every second of my decision--and eventually put one foot out the front door, then turn on auto-pilot.


• What's the best part about freelancing?
Setting my own hours. I need time and energy for my obsessions. What I now know is "recharge time." I can start work at 6AM, and be home by 3 (or never even leave home!) so I have time to recharge before my wife comes home so I have time and energy to talk with her.


Motivation when what I'm doing doesn't excite me is challenging. But I like my hobbies, and my work finances my hobbies/obsessions, so that's the trade-off. I resent it, but I do it because I have to.

I started early, for the moment I'm a freelance techie and starting to love it. I began hacking, scripting and modding in middle school and haven't stopped. Of course, I can't program everything, but I'm pretty versatile, enough so that I generally can come up with some way of making money. The toughest part for me thus far has been teaching my family and friends that I did in fact do this overnight, because overnight is just when I like to work. The best part of freelancing? Hackathons! Two days ago a team of coders I worked with prototyping an iPhone app placed 2nd in an Intel/Plantronics sponsored event. We won two fancy Windows tablets and advanced to the next round, CES Vegas! What I love is the look on people's faces when I tell them I skipped my senior year of high school.

I have thought about freelancing but feel I would have problems trying to figure out how to find clients and how to do proper estimations of how much time and resources it would take to get a job done. The whole marketing sales and financial aspect also freaks me out.

I do best in a steady secure job where I can just focus deeply on the work and not have all this external s**t to analyze and cogitate on.

But everything today is going in the opposite direction: you need to do more multitasking, more networking, have more EQ, etc. It's more and more Aspie-unfriendly I am afraid.

A mentor would be great to guide me along - but who the hell mentors anyone today when everyone is out there fighting over the same scrap.

I've been freelancing in graphic design for about two years now, and the main issue I have is a shortage of clients or projects. There have been a few, but I haven't earned enough money to create a sustainable income. Full-time work at a firm or business would be the ideal thing for me right now, but there's not been much luck so far in landing it.

I got fed up with working for someone else, and lacking the feeling of freedom. I started my company and signed up with a consultancy broker, then waited for an assignment that matched my skills, got it and "just did it". It was a bit of a rough ride at times but the experience was extremely valuable. I'm now at my second assignment if you don't count my own projects.



Already skilled. For this second assignment I wanted to get into a slightly different area, but the client was sceptical to this and wanted me to work with things that matched my proven skill. In my experience most clients want you to have a track record.



Yes, I work for my client three days a week, and the other two work days I work on my own projects that I'm hoping to be able to live on later on.



The bookkeeping. Setting aside a couple of days a month where I just get myself to plow through it.
The feeling of being the "odd one out" in the work place, as there are very few consultants on my current assignment. The feeling of not being able to fit in like "everyone else". The questions and sceptical looks some people have when I talk about my own projects ("can you make a living from that?"). Have stopped talking about them unless I feel the other person might find them interesting.
The feeling of loneliness sometimes. Trying to socialize a bit more on my free time now.



Ahh the freedom. Being able to go home early from the client some days, as they're only paying for the hours I'm there.
The feeling of independece your own company gives.
Sending invoices for work done.

• How did you begin freelancing?

I quit my job with no plan

• Were you already skilled in that area or did you need to learn a new skill?

Well, I work as as a translator, so I knew both my languages very well and chose to translate in the medical field and I have a medical degree, so it all worked out well in the end, but freelancing itself requires many, many other skills like time management, sales, marketing... so I had to learn a hell of a lot.

• Do you freelance in multiple areas?

No.

• What's the worst part about freelancing, and how do you overcome it?

Being scammed. I work almost exclusively via the Internet which I am trying to change, but yeah, being scammed has happened a couple of times. Fortunately you learn quickly.
The social isolation also sucks sometimes but I am working on that now.

• What's the best part about freelancing?

Everything else - not having to go into an office, not having to deal with people and their issues, no small talk, no drivel, no ass-kissing, no being told you dress/talk/act weird... it's frikkin nice, Good luck!

• How did you begin freelancing?

Approximately 7 months ago I quit my job because I couldn't deal with working in person every day with one of my co-workers and after months of worsening behavior on my part I finally snapped and quit one day.
They hired me back as a work at home independant contractor, which I still do for them to some extent.
Since then I've done work for other a couple other companies on my own, with good results.

• Were you already skilled in that area or did you need to learn a new skill?

Already skilled, but still needing to develop more, and more in depth, skills to be truly successful.
Fortunately I learn hands on very quickly, so I've been picking up more and more skills as I go along.

• Do you freelance in multiple areas?

For the most part, no, although I do a lot of different things in my area of expertise (IT, currently specializing in back end web development, but I do some tech, sysadmin, and security work as well, and I'd like to get into smartphone app development in the near future).
I wouldn't, however, turn down anything at this point so long as it paid decently, was something I felt I could do or quickly learn to do, and wasn't objectionable in any serious way from my perspective.

• What's the worst part about freelancing, and how do you overcome it?

The worst part is not knowing where that next project/job/paycheck is coming from and sometimes running out of essential supplies like food & weed (Yes, the weed is essential, no, I'm not an addict. It's medication that allows me to concentrate on work rather than my obessions and eat & sleep on a regular basis, helps ameliorize the constant low level pain and discomfort I'm in, and keeps me from acting like an ass most of the time.)
I still haven't quite overcome that yet.
I'm still struggling to make ends meet but I'm hoping that my next project, assuming it happens (fingers crossed, meeting on Sunday), will give me the time, resources, and stability I need to update my resume, start applying for a steady (preferably work from home) job with benefits as well as more freelancing gigs, and allow me to afford a security deposit on a place of my own because apparently I really need to live by myself and not with anyone else. (No joke, no one likes living with me and I don't like having other people in my living space at all. Since I can't currently afford a security deposit, though, I have to rent a room and that means roommate(s), which never ends well; my current situation has proven to be no exception to that.)

• What's the best part about freelancing?

Working from home, setting my own hours, and not having to interact in person with others on a daily basis.