5 Reasons You Should Quit Your Job and Start Freelancing

Do you like being bossed around? No? It’s only natural – nobody likes it. But the reality is that you enter adult life and all of a sudden, having a job is a requirement. One day, you didn’t even bother taking orders from your mom or siblings, and the next; you are taking orders from a complete stranger you don’t even like!

It is understandable; since the stranger in question is paying you to do work for him or her. When you are a leader, why must you be a follower in order to earn a living? You can make your own living! Here are the five reasons you should quit your job and start freelancing with that insurgent blood running in your veins:

You Are Your Own Boss

self employment organizations structureself employment organizations structureThat’s the biggest advantage of having a freelancing career – you don’t follow someone else’s rules, you make your own! This independence comes with a healthy dose of freedom to work when you choose and where you choose.

Your relationship with your client will be democratic rather than autocratic. This different spirit in the relationship actually gives you an equal footing with your client, rather than being downplayed as simply a ‘staff member.’ You will set your own hours, build your own schedule, wake up when you want. Doesn’t that sound too good to be true?

Personal Space

How many times have you had to cancel plans with your friends or family because you didn’t get a leave? Are you tired of fitting your personal life around your work, and sometimes not being able to? With freelancing, you will have the opportunity to fit your work around your personal life. No more calling up friends to postpone movie plans. You can take a break from work when you want and not only that, you can take as much holidays or as little as you prefer, which means more personal space for family, even going on a vacation!

Financial benefits

The only reason you can ever lose your job is if YOU are careless and negligent. Therefore, since you are in charge, you have job security. Freelancing is an opportunity for you to learn how to keep your finances and manage money.

Furthermore, as compared to being a fulltime employee with a fixed pay, you are in a position to negotiate and change your rate. You can double or even triple it, in accordance with the client at hand. Not only this, you can work for multiple clients at the same time and increase your pay as a consequence.

Look at it this way, how can more money ever be a bad thing?

Skill Development

As a freelancer, you will have the chance to work with various different clients and in a multitude of roles. This will help you push your boundaries and widen your experience to an extent where you can not only hone your existing skills, but discover your ability to discover talents you never had!

For example, you may already know that you are a good writer, but if you are required to work with the design of the content as well, you could actually come to realize you are a competent designer. Ultimately, you will develop your core skill set and you will be able to create an image of being sought after rather than seeking clients. So, rather than being stuck in a rut at your job, you will have the opportunity to explore the rest of the path!

You Can Do What You Love

You can do what your love and love what you do. Since you don’t answer to anyone, you can literally take a u-turn with respect to which skill you wish to use as a freelancing opportunity. You are currently an accountant, you are good at what you do, but you don’t have a passion for it – you’d rather write all day. Leave that life behind and pursue writing as a freelancing career! With freelancing, the world is not only at your feet, but yours to live the way you want to.

You Have a Decision to Make

Now that you know all the reasons, ask yourself why you are continuing to work at this job, especially if you don’t like it? Then ask yourself if you want any of the things mentioned above to make your work life invigorating. Above all, ask yourself if you want to be your own boss. Is the answer yes? Then it’s definitely time for you to quit your job and start freelancing! You only live once, make it worth your while.


  • Good points. But (and that’s a big butt) you can’t have professional exposure inside home which you get working in an organization. The environment, interaction, exposure, all of this adds huge sums to one’s professional experience.

    I suggest having a professional field experience for at least 15 years, then work from your office, but not on measly freelancing projects. Instead, work with an organization that pays you 20$ per hour. This experience will be really what I say, awesome.

    • In Pakistan, no company will pay you 20$/hr.
      And if with 15 years of experience you’re still coding, then you actually failed.
      I left job in a big organization after 5 years and moved to freelancing, and I agree with every point mentioned above.

      • Of course not in Pakistan. Outside companies hire you on freelancing. Remember that?
        BTW there are people in the world, who love to do programming throughout their career. Nothing wrong in that. Have you heard of Senior Architects and CTOs?

        • yes, and they dont even have to talk to programmers. Instead of trying to be a masterful guru, you must stay away from these matters. Even project managers dont have to write/test/ or even see code any more – and you are talking about architects and COTs? Are you really real?

          • Dude, relax. I didn’t talk about project managers. I said System Analysts and CTO which means Chief Technical Officer. Who by definition is a very technical person. At least real ones understand the difference like I do.
            Peace!

      • “And if with 15 years of experience you’re still coding, then you actually failed” — Disagree.

        The thinking that if you code, you are a junior, are lesser paid, have lesser experience than your project manager is wrong. As a ThoughtWorks consultant, I have worked with people like Michael T. Nygard (michaelnygard.com), Martin Fowler (martinfowler.com), Pramod Sadalage (sadalage.com) (to name just a few) who have over 20 years of Software Industry experience but they still code, hands on. I have been on projects where our project manager was junior and lesser paid than our tech lead who would code. The career path of a software developer does not (always) lead to a “Project Manager”. I am aware that this is not the way many software houses in Pakistan think. This thinking needs to change. If you love coding, you can code for all your life and be highly successful.

        • Agreed. In essence, the path to hard-core passionate development/programming leads to CTO (Cheif Technical Officer).

    • You can get a start in the local company like i die, i worked for 3 years in a local Software house then moved to freelancing. The main difference is freedom, i am no longer bound to 9am to 5pm job, i spend time with my family, go out with friends.

      When i was in job i was merely earning 50 dollar a day and now i am earning almost 25 dollar an hour.

      Great Article.

      • Money is good. No doubt. I was talking about professional exposure/experience. Anyway, there are people in Pakistan who do both Job and freelancing.

      • Dear freelancing experts! i m 36 years old, i hv done MSc in Telecom in 2005, in my degree 50% subjects were of computer science. at this stage of my life, Can i start to learn any programming to become a freelancer and if yes which one have more opportunities w.r.t job or freelancing ?

        • Salam Abbas, i think its not the right time & age to change line. i think you should proceed further in relation to what you are educated for. i will suggest you any of the following fields:
          1- Mobile phone repair business.
          2- Telecom Equipment sale/purchase, repir.
          3- you can also include video games business & repairs.
          4- or anyting new related to wifi or wimax technology.
          Best of Luck

  • Freelancing is itself a job :-) somewhat harder than office job. You have to learn a lot of skills, both professional and manegerial and start earning a decent income before thinking of quitting a job.

  • Im still 14, but im interested in this. Currently i know how to code in HTML n CSS. Learning JavaScript. Should i pursue a career in a company or do freelancing first 5-10 years?

    • Of course you should. There are two sides of Web Programming.
      1) Front-End = which includes designing UIs with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery
      2) Back-End = Client’s request processing on Server Side for which you will use PHP, Databases like MySQL etc..

      You choose which category you want to go, in which you have interest/love working.
      Then master all of its technologies. Then build at least 5 professional looking websites with your skills. These websites will be added to your portfolio. Then go freelancing.

      But first, master your skills.

        • You don’t need to join any institute to learn these skills because you can learn them online. Codeacademy.com is a great website to learn to code in HTMl, CSS, JavaScript. So join this website and start learning. This website is 100% free.

    • I reckon you define what you are really looking for. I am 16 and I chose blogging which I have been doing for 2 years or so, First see where your interests lie:
      1. Are you an ambitous writer?
      Blogging and a Media Site is your answer.
      2. Are you someone who just wants to make something unique?
      This requires a ground-up plan and an idea of the thing you want to make. Whether it’s something unique or not, it’ll require an intense amount of dedication and patience. If someone told you that freelancing was easy then they are frankly mistaken, you have to work hard and make your name just like in every other field.
      3. Services: Make things for Others.
      In this case follow Inam’s advice, construct some beautiful websites and add them to your portfolio, then advertise your services portal and put up some good rates or so to get more and more clients. One day you are making sites yourself, gradually you’ll have a team and then a whole company? Of course it’s possible ;) Just set the goal and remain consistent to achieve it. Good luck!

      • BTW, i have also been blogging for the past 6 months, but then left it because it takes quite a chunk of my time and balancing b/w studies amd blogging gets quite hard.

      • What i really want to be able to do is become a dynamic front/back end programmer with skills in C++ , objective C as well. I want to become an independent ios/android coder with his own website where people can get help in their coding projects at a cost.
        In short, i wanna be at the top of everything i do.
        In such a setup, i could do my own projects and make some side money by doing some small jobs like bug fixing for some fee.

  • who says in freelance u are ur own boss.. useless point.
    rest i do not agree with any of the point.. the author is mixing entrepreneurship and job.. job to do for company or job to do for a person sitting in front of you or invisible to you but its still a job.

  • You are your own Boss in freelancing? Probably not, your client is your boss and you follow his orders. More clients, more bosses. Yes you will be your own boss if you work on your own projects with your own vision and order your employees or team members to do the helpful things for you.

    Personal Space? okay you may get that, but where the professional space is gone? you have kids and family matter all around you, which may hit you right when you are on skype with client. Disturbance to overcome is crucial.

    • Clients are your customers. You can kick on the back of your client if you do not wish to work with him. In freelancing, you can choose your clients.

  • I think that freelancing is the best way to groom yourself and besides this it provides you a good handsome money in exchange of services and flexibility in timings. This article covers all these points but i think that freelancing oppertunities are very limited for pakistani. I hope you mention about tips and tricks for pakistani freelancers.

  • Good Article, I have been freelancing since 2009, It is really good in terms of benefits but you have to take it seriously, You need to acquire skills on your own, get your own clients, boss around your own work, and projects may vary in budget, you will not always be making a handsome earning, unless you develop your own product, like a WP theme or an App, The job market is really bad these days globally, and no one is stabilizing in jobs, so freelancing can help support your family needs till then.

  • Dear freelancing experts! i m 36 years old, i hv done MSc in Telecom in 2005, in my degree 50% subjects were of computer science. at this stage of my life, Can i start to learn any programming to become a freelancer and if yes which one have more opportunities w.r.t job or freelancing ?

    • Yes you can. First master the technologies which you love. Make some reasonable projects and build your portfolio. After then, you can start freelancing like a PRO!

  • My question is about freelancing is this field only restrict for technical people like experts in IT or other technical field as I am from Sales and Marketing and I have done My master in Mass Communication so what scope for person like me belong to sales and marketing and I am in events sales so what scope for me as freelancer in this non technical field because I am very interested in becoming my own boss and work in my own way so any body can help me out here.

  • JO aadmi mulazamat ikhtiyar karta hai, WOH aapney mutayan karda rizak ka 10% he hasil kar pata hai.
    *************************************
    Any one who chooses to be am employees restricts his/her own RIZK assigned by ALLAH


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