The Mother Of All Lists

For a lot of people, going freelance holds the same inviting, elusive air; coupled with moving to the country as Something You Will Do One Day. Here writer and editor Hannah Silver shares some home truths.

1. There’s no commute or anyone breathing down your neck, but just like moving to the country, it’s not all roses around the door and better quality of life. Unexpected loneliness, at first, can make you feel like you live in beautiful isolation even when you’re holed up in a Hackney flat.

2. Live by the Guides motto and be prepared. Before you take the leap, make sure everyone knows you’re doing it and that you’re looking for work. It’s a lot easier to be freelance when you’ve already done your time in the industry. Keep your contacts close.

3. You need good WiFi. You really really need good WiFi. Be prepared to have a small breakdown if it breaks / you move house and have to wait weeks for it, spending your evenings on your laptop on the pavement in Hoxton Square stealing the free public one (ahem).

4. Now if we’re lucky we don’t have to work 9-5. We have to work all the time. We’re sold the dream of our days being our own – and they really can be – but the increasingly blurred lines between work and leisure come with their own disadvantages.

The main one being, you can never switch off. In my early twenties, I’d race out of work the second the clock hit six and not give it another thought until ten am the next day. Every freelancer will laugh, slightly hysterically, at the thought of doing this now. Weekends and evenings are your new Monday morning – a time to get shit done.

5. Your emails WILL OWN YOU. You can’t miss a commission – what if they never try you again? (Or so your paranoia will tell you – in reality, once you’ve found a regular job they tend to be loyal.) You have to respond speedily to clients – word of mouth is e v e r y t h i n g.

6. Just a note on word of mouth – I have got every single job in the last ten years through word of mouth, whether it’s recommendations, people moving jobs and employing me in their new capacities, PRs hearing of roles and telling me to apply etc. I’m not great at networking, and you don’t necessarily have to be, but once you have a job, do it well and be nice…

… but don’t let them take advantage. Don’t be so frightened they’ll go to someone else that you let them walk all over you. Know your worth and charge it. Don’t back down. For example, if they keep coming back to you with amendments and you end up doing the same piece of work 15 times, say something – and learn from it. Next time, tell them to begin with how many edits you can offer.

7. Money. If you’re not sure what to charge, join freelancer groups and hover / ask questions. Look on Facebook, for a start. I’m a member of a female freelance journalist group on Facebook who are militant about getting the rates you deserve – if you take a lower payment, it impacts negatively on every freelancer.

Don’t go above and beyond. I learnt the hard way that if you start replying to emails on a Sunday night, people start expecting you to – and you don’t get paid extra for it. Quickly, a brief note on a Sunday can become a client emailing you on Friday at 9pm and again, tartly, on Sunday morning asking you if you’ve seen the below? Don’t do it! Work at this time by all means, but consider lining up emails to send on a Monday morning. Stick to office hours for correspondence which will help set boundaries.

Say goodbye to maternity pay / holiday pay / weekly birthday cakes.

8. Ride the wave. There’ll be times you have so much work on you’re crying into your computer at midnight wondering how you’re going to get it done.And there’ll be times when you have so little work on you’ll be crying in toour computer at midnight wondering if you should jack it all in. In both cases, you’ll survive. If you need to find something else to tide you over, than do.

9. Personality change. There’s something about freelancing when you have kids, in particular, that makes you feel unnecessarily apologetic. It may turn you into a serial liar. Baby unexpectedly woken up and screaming over the monitor while you interview the CEO of a huge luxury brand? Your colleague has brought her baby in. Slogging up the hill inHackney Downs with buggy, dog and scooter when client rings an hour later than they’d said? You’re just running into a meeting (I have said this so many times – on the nursery run, at school plays, laying in bed with my newborn daughter two days after giving birth).

As well as becoming a liar, you’ll become a people pleaser. You’ll say yes.To everything. You’ll ward off the ever-looming freelancer fear with a chirpy, can-do attitude, where nothing is too much trouble and everything can be done right away.

You’ll also become a little tiny bit unhinged. Days will lose their sharp focus, and acceptable times to get dressed and eat lunch – and what you eat for lunch – will become foggy. You’ll relish going to the post office and enjoy standing in the queue rolling your eyes at how long it’s taking, along with everyone else. When you do go to an event, you’ll be the last to leave every single time, so excited are you to be out, dressed nicely and with your peers.

10. The Huge Positive. Despite all this negativity, despite the fact you’re juggling every single ball and dropping them all, despite the stress and the fear and the loneliness –it’s all worth it. You can still do a job you love (and you must feel passionate about it to do this) but on your terms. You can still set a great example to your kids, but without the crippling guilt that comes with missing the summer concert.

Yes, there’s no holiday pay, but you don’t need to switch off as desperately if you don’t hate the job you do. Saying that it’s still important to take a break and put your out of the ‘office’ on when you are spending quality family time. Sometimes, things can wait. There’ll be the odd wobble, the odd dream job that makes you think, whatif . But once you’ve been freelance, it has to be something incredible if it’s going to tie you back to your desk.