Freelancing vs. Full Time Telecommute
May 27, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
A year ago I accepted a full time position with an online company. Honestly, it was a dream job. Blogging, social media, and because it was for a virtual company, I was able to work at home. In fact, if it wasn’t a telecommute gig, I probably wouldn’t have accepted. The job didn’t quite turnout as planned and almost 12 months later, my hours have been cut to part time. Though I will miss the money, I’m rather relieved. Not because of the job, (which I enjoy) but because I missed some of the perks I received as a freelancer. If you’re considering a move from freelancing to a full time telecommute gig, you might want to read this first.
Pay
The full time pay wins, hands down. I earned about the same with my full time job as I did freelancing but the accounting was much easier. Taxes, social security, unemployment and all that good stuff are automatically deducted. Not having to file quarterly or deal with deductions is a definite bonus.
Flexibility
Though my job afforded me the flexibility I needed to be class mom or make my dental appointments, the truth is, I couldn’t exactly make my own hours. I’m expected to work when the rest of the team works and be available for Skype chats, conference calls and to handle emails in a timely manner. I couldn’t take off to take my son to the park or just drop everything to spend a day on the beach with my family. I do miss that about freelancing.
Independence
As a freelancer I don’t have anyone breathing over me. Sure, I have clients and they expect me to have good communication and to meet deadlines, but for the most part they stay in the background. After working in the real world for 17 years and making a name for myself in social media, having to account for every bit of my time, or mark everything I do on spreadsheets is a bit disconcerting. I didn’t put in almost 30 years of work to be low man on the totem pole. Having to ask for permission after being my own boss for so long is kind of a downer. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my job, but it’s hard to go back to answering to people after so long on my own.
Tasks
With freelancing if you’re not into a certain job you can finish it up and move on. If it’s boring, not your thing or you don’t agree with the subject matter, you can respectfully decline the gig. When you work for someone on a full time basis, you pretty much have to do the work no matter how unattractive. Of course, you get the vice versa on the fun stuff too, doing something you love day in and day out and receiving a full time salary is icing.
Personalities
Have a picky, wishy washy or micromanging client? You can move on. Have a picky, wishy washy or micromanaging boss? Not as easy. When you work full time for a company you have to deal with many different personalities and you may not gel with all of them. However, if you’re part of an awesome team it will show in your work.
Ideas
As a freelancer you get to put your ideas to work, either with a client, or on your own blogs or projects. As a full timer, you’re sharing your ideas with others – who may or may not want to see them through to fruition. You may even do all the work while everyone shares in the credit.
Freelancing vs. Full Time Telecommute – Is it for you?
Would I go back to full time? Sure. If it’s something I enjoy and I can work at home, absolutely. It has to be for a place I absolutely love, though. Just like this last full time gig, it has to be a place I believe in and the terms and pay have to be right. To be able to freelance is such a gift, I can’t give it up for just anyone.
Deb, You’re a trail blazer and it’s exciting to see how well you roll with the punches as the industry develops and finds it’s sea legs.
I’m so glad that you’ve been developing/growing the site here all along – I’m sure this has to help give you some sense of security as other opportunity rise and fall, right?
I wouldn’t mind having a full-time telecommuting gig (I’d even settle for some steady freelance work at this point). But I’d still rather go back to full-time work with benefits.
It’s always easier when you have someone else doing the accounting but the price may not be worth it.
I’m actually thinking of applying for a full time job-job, and already resenting the idea of being strapped to a schedule. It’s been 20 years… not sure how I’d re-adjust!! Still, those ongoing consulting gigs are AWESOME!!
Lisa
Great post — you illuminate the pros and cons clearly. I’ve been in both places and I’m currently full-time but remote right now. You’re right . . . telecommuting is not exactly the image of flexibility one might think.
As for the infrastructure piece, however — tax simplicity, benefits, insurance, all that — there is an option for freelancers to get those, and win the best of both worlds between telecommuting and real freelancing / consulting. A Portable Employer of Record (MBO Partners, my company) lets independent consultants operate on their own, set their own rates, have multiple clients, and KEEP all the cool business expense tax deductions of being in their own business, but while gaining the simplicity of W2 tax status, cushy group benefits, and having a professional team handle your invoicing and collections. The modest fee is generally more than offset by tax and insurance savings, although every situation will vary. [Free E&O means IT folks get a big bottom line bonus.] I love the company, and I hope your readers investigate this “middle path” as an option for running their business.
Oh, I’m @liz_greene on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/liz_greene
I don’t think I could ever handle a “normal” full-time job again–even if it were telecommute. I look at the way my earnings continue to grow year over year. I know that I get to decide how much I’m going to make, and that I’ll have the flexibility to find a way to make it happen. A salaried job would take away that momentum and motivation, and raises can’t compare to 20-80% y-o-y increases. They just can’t. It’s a kind of limit I don’t think I could ever put on myself again (or be forced to work part-time on top of that job to still have that opportunity).
There’s no way in hell I’d work for someone, ever
The last time I did was when I was a teenager. I’ve been self-employed ever since.
Firstly, I’m a type A personality. I do things my own way, on my own time, at my own pace. I don’t respond well to over-bearing authority types. In fact, I lack the tact to deal with them. I have a confrontational nature, and having a bad boss just brings out the worst in me. I cannot stand having someone standing over my shoulder, telling me whether or not I’m performing up to their standards, complaining if I’m 5 minutes late, or took 5 minutes over on lunch, or that if I take a sick day off of work I’m going to lose my chance at promotion, yada yada yada.
The closest I came to being employed was a few years back when I was working as a sub-contractor for a guy up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, on a series of resort condos and custom spec homes before I moved to Europe and transitioned into freelance writing. However, it was the one time that I truly enjoyed being underneath someone else. He never once nit-picked about anything. He allowed me creative freedom and trusted me enough to let me run the show. If he had suggestions or ways that he thought I could improve, he would do so in a positive-reinforcement manner, which is far more productive than someone point-blank telling you “I’m the boss, I write your checks, do it my way or you are fired”. If someone can build your ego up while they are suggesting alternate ways to do things…sure, I’ll try your way. After all, you just buttered me up! And he and his family were just great people, with plenty of outside-of-work-related functions like dinner parties, just hanging out at their house, and otherwise. It was an absolute pleasure to “work” for him.
But I enjoy my freedom. It is why I’ve been self-employed since I was 19. I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life doing exactly what I wanted to be doing with my life, in my own way, on my own time, blazing my own trail. I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. My freedom is far more important than a paycheck (although obviously if someone offered me a million dollars or some ridiculous amount for a “job”, I’d more than likely take it!), and I really can’t see myself doing anything but what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.
My wife is the same way, which she inherited from her mother, who runs a chain of grocery stores here worth over 16 million Euro. Her mom took the company left behind by her father and transformed it in the last 20 years from a tiny, two-store corner shop company into a 15+ mega-store business. My wife is currently working a part-time job while she finishes up her degrees, but her goal after she is done is to start her own business, separate from the family business. She is going to take her degrees, and her ideas, her passion and joy for the subject matter, and she’s going to run with it. Right now she’s working part-time and while she has an AMAZING boss who, for example, just let her take 3 weeks off for finals week, and lets her take time off whenever she wants and never pressures her about her hours, she just doesn’t care for the whole “be in the office by X” and having to deal with four to five or more people above you bossing you around.
Both of our families were entrepreneurs. We both seemed to have inherited those traits, and I’m content. I much prefer doing things on my own time than someone else’s.
Deb,
Really great post. Good to see the costs and benefits of two different lifestyles laid out so plainly, without much of an agenda (AND IF YOU FREELANCE, YOU’LL BE HOMELESS SOON!!!). Thanks.
I know this is a late response to this, but… A year ago I was hired by a company to be their online managing editor. It was a telecommuting job that also allowed for some freelancing (sort of). It paid, yes, I know, $70,000 and included healthcare insurance if I wanted it.
I lasted two weeks. Of course, if I had known the economy would tank I might have stuck with it.
A friend of mine asked me what the disconnect was, since it was work I did, I had the apparently (key word there) flexibility, and the pay was good. The people weren’t bad at all (no, they were great, actually) and the company was particularly good to work for. I hemmed and hawed and he–who runs his own company as well–said, “You were no longer self-employed.” I said, “Exactly.”
One of the key issues to being a freelance anything is ownership. I’m running my own business and I have clients. I’m not working for someone else. And in your head that can be a big deal. As I more articulately explained it, I worked very hard to get to where I was and I seemed willing to chuck it when someone threw money at me, but it didn’t take long for me to sort out my priorities. Your mileage may vary.