Nowadays, the majority of people work in employed positions. This is understandable. There are various perks that come hand in hand with being an employee – the main being a sense of stability. When you are employed, you are guaranteed set, contracted hours, which means you will bring in set, contracted pay. You can benefit from pay when you are sick or if you take holiday. You can benefit from an income if you need to take parental leave. If you are made redundant, you will receive a payout. But this isn’t the best route for everyone to take. Some of us can make a whole lot money and enjoy a more flexible lifestyle by freelancing. This means you can engage with companies and individuals you want to work with on a more casual basis, where neither party is committed to the other. But, as you can imagine, freelancing can lead to periods of financial hardship if you don’t manage to bring sufficient work in at any time. You don’t have an automatic security net as you do in employment. So, how can you protect yourself from financial hardship as a self-employed individual, besides the obvious methods of saving? Here are a few steps to consider.
Know Your Rights
First of all, you need to be aware of your rights. If you become ill or injured and need to take time off work, it’s worth looking at who is at fault in the situation. If you are suffering sickness or injury at the hands of another’s malpractice or negligence, you need to take action. If a client invited you into their commercial space, for example, and you were hurt there, you have just as many rights as anyone else. They will need to recompense you for their wrongdoings, which can include covering medical expenses or your lost earnings. You can learn more about this from these compensation lawyers.
Build Strong Partnerships
Building strong partnerships with clients can help to guarantee more work in the future. People are more likely to work with someone has produced good results time and time again.
Constantly Marketing Yourself
While building strong partnerships can help you to receive regular work from a select base of clients, it’s important that you remember to constantly reach out for further work with others. This will help to ensure that you have other work to fall back on should one client suddenly stop using your services. This will also help to ensure that you maintain a fresh approach to your work. You will be able to enjoy of the most significant parts of being a freelancer – by working with a wide variety of individuals, brands, and companies, you won’t become overly attached to one role and you will be able to explore new territories and take on different types of work, keeping yourself engaged and motivated as you familiarize yourself with a wide variety of projects. So, constantly market yourself and make bonds with new people!
Being a freelancer can be hard. But it is possible. Hopefully, the above information will help to protect your finances throughout your self-employed career!
