16 Comments 10 May 2011

Rachel England is a PPH freelancer, journalist and the newest columnist to join the PeoplePerHour blog. In the first of her pieces she explains how she got into freelancing (spoiler: it was the hard way). Here she is in her own words: “I’m a freelance writer, cake maker extraordinaire and champion salsa dancer, I’ve got multi-tasking down a pat and get kicks from orderly filing. Also known for fibbing about dancing ability.”

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I am a reluctant freelancer.

There, I said it. I’ve freely admitted to the world that freelancing is not something I actively pursued, nor was it something I ‘fell into’. In fact, it was foisted on me.

After falling foul of job cuts back in 2008, I was stupendously lucky and found another job some months later (seriously, smack bang in the middle of the crippled economy’s darkest days – it was nothing short of a miracle). I was recruited to cover a period of maternity leave, which was initially for nine months. This was extended to 11 months, and then to 13, and by the time month 15 rolled around they were making very positive noises about keeping me on full time. And of course, I went with it. I didn’t have a firm contract, I lived one month to the next in a state of uncertainty and when they said jump, I’d eagerly ask how high. But I was confident they’d see me right in the long run.

Nope. Imagine my horror when I was sat down and told, after a year and a half, that the next month would be my last. And so began the frantic and ultimately fruitless job search. Despite the economy’s (glacially slow) recovery, jobs – especially in the hugely competitive media industry – were, and indeed still are, limited.

I did not leap, arms wide open, into freelancing. I was pushed. Without a parachute.”

So, down the freelance route I went. But did I want to? Hell, no. Complicated tax forms, financial insecurity and unending isolation? No, thanks.  But I could either go it alone, or jump ship and pursue an alternative career. And given the amount of blood, sweat and tears I’d invested in getting as far as I had, I chose the former. But I did not leap, arms wide open, into freelancing. I was pushed. Without a parachute.

How many other freelancers have the same story? Well, in the months following March 2008 – when the economy started to crumble – 1.2 million people registered as self-employed, and in the last six months alone self-employment has reached a record high, with 4.03 million individuals in the UK working for themselves. Meanwhile, we’re being told that high unemployment levels are holding steady, or, as the National Office of Statistics reported last month, increasing – admittedly by a tiny-sounding 0.1 per cent, but this still equates to 143,000 people.

Redundancies increase, self-employment figures increase; literally millions of people are being given a metaphorical shunt into working for themselves. No doubt many of them will be less panicked about it than I was, but nonetheless sacrificing the regular pay check is a daunting prospect, especially if you’ve no choice in the matter.

What do you think?

Top five things I’ve learnt about freelancing (in no order):

• Conducting a phone interview with an important person, while wearing your pyjamas, feels very wrong.
• No matter how prepared you are for rejection, it still stings.
• Until you learn to switch off, you’ll feel guilty every moment that you’re not working.
• Talking to yourself will become a normal part of your day.
• It doesn’t matter how you organise your invoices, you’ll struggle to find the exact one you need at a moment’s notice.