For some time now, I would go to work everyday on auto-pilot thinking about what it would be like to run my own business. I almost felt like I was in my own business because most of the jobs that I was able to score were mostly contract positions. So I thought, contracting is pretty much like being in business for yourself... or so I thought...
One of the toughest things to get used to about owning your own business is probably the amount of time one needs to invest to create a remotely successful business. Most people might think financial difficulties to be the toughest, but I always felt differently.. I'm not a millionaire by any means; don't get me wrong. On the contrary, their are times when I am struggling (which is 99% of the time)! But I have found with most people thinking of going into business for themselves know that income is not regular, and they need to make sacrifices for the time being. But nobody ever thinks that they need to put in 18 hour days to just keep the business rolling, wearing hats you never knew existed.
But then I thought... if contracting is like being in business for yourself, but not getting the tax benefits of being in business for yourself (since most contract employees are W-2 employees), I started thinking about freelancing. Freelancing, like contracting, is basically work that is needed to be done by a company willing to pay someone to do a job without hiring them directly on. For the company, it saves them countless hours of hassle and saves HR from its other bologna needed to be done to hire someone. For the freelancer, they can write off lots of 1099 money with their expenses throughout the year. And, perhaps most importantly, the freelancer can stay home, work in their pajamas, and save lots of money on gas.
So the pros? Saving tons of money on gas; working from home, making your own hours (and not needing to put in 18 hour days, especially if you time your job right). Oh yea, and you can work regardless if you are in snowy Minnesota or sunny southern California.
The cons? Well, depending on what helps you float through life, I'd say the biggest con would be security issues. Once a job is done, you better be good at finding another job quickly, especially if you are feeding more mouths than just your own.
I started tossing the idea around awhile ago about being entrepreneurial years ago. I am computer programmer by trade, mostly in SQL, MYSQL, PHP or .NET which today means I'm a web programmer. So what I decided to do to help the economy (perhaps a small scale right now, but G-d willing a larger scale in the future) a chance for all of us around the world to bid on jobs posted by companies needed to be done. The coolest thing about it is that jobs large and small are posted daily, so someone still working a full time job can take a few weekend hours and make extra money (Christmas is coming!). And, someone not working has the opportunity to get work in the midst of financial doom we are facing in the United States. More importantly, not all countries are in turmoil like hours, and we get jobs worldwide.
I was surprised at the amount of success the site started seeing right away, which gave me the idea of writing this article. Freelancing though just isn't for programmers. If you speak a foreign language, you can translate. Graphic Artists, writers of magazines and newspapers, etc. all have the opportunity...