Thinking about freelancing?

Freelancing is a great alternative if everything works out

I have had some great experiences and some grim experiences. You have to be lucky in a field like freelancing. If you are working via the internet, you never meet face to face with your client so you cannot see who you are dealing with. Is he or she an angel or a monster?

Getting started

This was the easy part. Being an optimist I took a Short Term Loan from the Money Store. I printed quiet reserved looking business cards and a flyer advertising myself. Did I say I was an optimist? I said I could write anything and fell straight into the trap that was waiting for me.

A monster

A voice on the phone asked if I could write IQ and OQ protocols. I was lucky in that I knew what he was talking about. These are the protocols that are submitted to the FDA to accompany a request for a license to manufacture drugs. "IQ OQ protocols? Sure," I said nervously. That's how the nightmare started. This writing commands big fees and I was excited by the prospect of the money and by the fact that any job early in my freelancing career was so large and serious.

The work went on… and on… and on. The client, an employee in the drug company, had no idea of the work and kept asking me to change it. I lost on the deal.

An angel

Shortly after I started out about 8 years ago, I saw a one-line ad in the newspaper, “Writers wanted,” and an email address. I answered and was asked to write a short article on a subject. I did it, sent it back and it triggered an 8 year, and still ongoing, relationship with a client who I have never seen or even spoken to. On the last day of every month I submit my list of work done for the month and on the 10th of the following month money is deposited into my bank account and I send a receipt. There has never been an argument. I wonder what he/she looks like! ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Thinking about freelancing?"