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Under the Hood

The agenda was simple, being financially independent and freedom of changing your work style was my top priority in Jan 2021. This year January, I took a new step in my life, a big and bold decision to stop my perpetuating month-end paycheck and shift towards a self-employed individual.

In today’s story, I will be sharing the only reason Why you should try freelancing as a career once in a lifetime.

How It all start?

First of all, today’s story is not only for developers, it's for an individual who wants to taste the self-employed or financial independence. The story will revolve around how freelance shaped me, helped me and why you should give it a try. The goal is simple, to be financially independent and how to achieve it within the next 2 years was my plan in Jan 2021.

The very first step I took is freelancing because definitely, we need some money to sustain and do what we really love to. So I start serving some clients as a software developer only. I have experience in development so I play on my strength.

What do I confront, instil and achieve?

To be honest, I failed in freelancing, I failed because I thought I can make a good decent earning through my clients and meanwhile I can work on my project. But getting clients is not a cakewalk especially when you are only starting after the month-end paycheck trap. Pressure to deal with people, money, business and work that’s where your real work-life balance is put on check exclusively.

The logic is simple, if you won’t wake up too early you might lose one client and work time, and if you don’t stay a little late on discord grabbing some 12 hours timezone difference client then again you are running out of money. The game is a bit different now than the usual 9–5 job, my child and you experience this only makes you stronger, disciplined and focus.

Where do I fail?

Initially, I got my first client from the USA, he wants me to develop a Twitter dashboard for his team to manage the single business Twitter account. The project is quite big he expects me to deliver the design to frontend UI and database architecture to him within one month. Which luckily I did, unfortunately, the entire project was a scam and he blocked me from all social discord(where we get in touch) and stole my one month including my first $4K 😁✌🏼.

I didn’t share this story to demotivate you or to scold anyone or blame someone. I share it to instil some vigilance regarding scams you will encounter or witness in the freelance domain.

I fail because I didn’t ask for an initial amount as a token of booking, to be honest, I get a bit excited and without dealing with any off-track business work I invest all my time in delivering the requirements.

See, I am not telling that you should not pay much attention to delivering the requirements instead I’ve learned the way to make a balance between the business and dealing with people/customers. Wherever you go or work there is an 80% probability that you have to deal with people, and doing 9–5 limited jobs we often lack the skill to deal with multiple types of people.

I fail because of multiple ways as follows-

Too many expectations from freelance, for example, it's a myth that you get more free time in freelancing, no not at all.
Always take initial upfront cost before starting any project.
End your relationship with clients on a good note, because word of mouth is still the best marketing in the world.

Why freelancing?

That’s where the story should end, isn't it 😊. Freelancing helps me to grow financially(I start saving money for future perspective), deal with people(at least with some kind of people), discipline and work-life balance(now I really don’t spend too much time working) and the last one important thing are you keep on learning new stuffs while freelancing(this is must and keep going factor for me).

I personally start doing all the shit I want to do in life and pursuing freelancing helps me to come out of my comfort zone a bit.

Conclusion

I will be pursuing freelancing till I failed to an extent where I can’t survive anymore😁. And you will surely get to know that new story too as I am Journalist by blood and sharing stories is my forte.

Until, next time, have a good day, people.
Keep developing
Shrey
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