It’s been a month since I took the plunge into freelance! Time is flying by. I’m starting to get into my groove a bit, but there have still been challenges.
What have I been up to?
Electra networking event. The theme was well being in winter. It kicked off with an ice breaker where we had to connect with 3 new people and exchange well-being tips for winter. There were fun things to do if you needed a break from conversation or were at a loose end, like the recommendations table, and a jigsaw table. I left with some lovely local recommendations, new connections and helpful tips for winter well-being.
Client work. Diving into research with my first client, we started with a focus group on parenting. It was pretty daunting to conduct, but overall I was happy with how it went considering I had 2 days to prep and hadn’t conducted a focus group in years. We changed tact to conduct more one on one interviews after we felt the focus group was a bit surface level.
Worked on my Cultivating Confidence talk for Service Design Bristol which is on Wednesday 🫣. I get really nervous doing things like this and have to practise a lot beforehand. Shout out to my partner, an ever supportive audience of one. Also thanks to
who gave me some great public speaking advice: master one talk and give it to different audiences, rather than create a new talk for every event. I’m looking for more audiences for my Cultivating Confidence talk, if you’re interested get in touch! hello@hannahkirkbride.com.Reading F*ck Being Humble. Since going freelance I’ve found it uncomfortable being more visible online and talking about myself and my work. This book has helped me to look at self promotion in a new light.
Whats been hard?
Uncertainty. It’s a bit ambiguous how much work there is going to be with this first client. I’m not sure whether it’s going to be a months worth of work or end next week. Which has been a challenge. Even once you find your first client there is still not guaranteed stability.
Limited opportunities. There isn’t that much work available in the freelancing world. I’m on a couple of freelancer WhatsApps and lots of people are experiencing the same thing. There’s some contract stuff, but those sorts of things are like short term employment than freelancing, which isn’t that appealing to me. I’m hoping to find more short term freelance work, but if I can’t I might consider contracts.
The pressure to prove yourself. I reckon most people feel the pressure to prove themselves at the start of a new job, but with a perm role you pass the probation and relax into it a bit. With freelance you have this feeling with every new client. And you are much more confronted with how much you cost the client/business, which can add even more pressure to add value.
Whats been great?
Complete control over my schedule. I woke up in a funk on Tuesday, so I went back to sleep, eventually I took myself and my laptop to my favourite cafe to get a nice coffee and after a couple of hours work I went for a mid morning run. It sorted me right out. My old work was flexible, so I used to do stuff like this but this time just felt so different. There was no underlying stress, I wasn’t worried about checking slack. I didn’t feel sneaky or guilty. I felt totally in control of my schedule.
Focussed work and shorter days. This project I’m working on isn’t full time, it’s maybe 2 days per week, but varies. The client and I have agreed on my day rate and I am tracking my hours to create the final invoice. Using a time sheet has made the work more focussed on output rather than time. No more sitting around feeling like you ‘should’ be working to make up your contacted hours. I plan my day, do the work I need to do, if I don’t have much on, I go do something else like tidy up the house or go for a walk.
No company politics. I love being part of a team and working with great people towards a shared goal, but I hadn’t realised how much the company politics weighed me down. Who’s leaving, who should have been promoted ages ago but hasn’t, which project is rumoured to be canned, is the company thinking about re-orging, what are the company finances looking like, why did they make that decision. It feels so nice not to have to think about any of that, and just focus on doing what I do well.
Have a great weekend! I hope it’s spooky 👻
Another great objective round up of the pros and cons of your week. The networking event sounded really nice and not scary! I’m also so impressed you’re doing a talk on Wednesday. Can’t wait to hear about how it went. I’m certain you will smash it!