The English term freelance is frequently used in our language, although the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) recognizes it as free lance . The literal translation refers to a "free spear" and, by extension, a "mercenary."
A worker who carries out his activity autonomously is called a freelancer: that is, without a fixed and dependent relationship with an employer. The freelance worker, in this way, sells his work to different companies, charging each of them for the fruit of his labor.
Many journalists and designers are freelance. What they do is receive specific assignments for work: articles, interviews, brochure design, etc. Once they complete the order and deliver it, they obtain an amount of money specifically for what they have done, which must be agreed upon by mutual agreement before carrying out the work (although there are exceptional cases in which this is determined at the end).
Freelancers (or freelancers), therefore, charge for work performed . They do not have a fixed salary nor do they enjoy benefits such as paid vacations, bonuses or leave. They themselves must pay the taxes corresponding to their work and also the social charges (social work, retirement). As points in their favor, they enjoy the possibility of managing their schedules, they can work from home (even saving on travel expenses) and they do not have a direct boss.
A journalist who wants to practice his profession on a freelance basis, for example, can set up a website with his resume and publish some notes of his authorship as a sample. You can then contact magazines and digital portals that may be interested in your work. Thus, over time, the journalist begins to sell his articles to different media outlets. At the end of each month, the sum of the values of the notes you have sold in the period constitutes your income.
Being a freelancer may seem like the perfect solution to many of the most common problems of a dependency relationship, but it also has its disadvantages. Generally, people decide to follow this path to develop their professional activities for reasons such as the following:
* your profession is not very profitable, that is, it does not have a great job opportunity in traditional markets, and that is why it may be more beneficial to venture into new ways of practicing it;
* You do not have enough experience to look for a job in a company and prefer to spend a couple of years growing on your own and then access a good position using your new knowledge and tools;
* You have reduced mobility, either permanently or until you recover from an accident or surgery, for example.
The problem in some of these cases is that being a freelancer is much more than getting rid of the dependent work system: it is a lifestyle , which not everyone can maintain. Perhaps the most difficult aspect to resolve is the organization of one's own time: when one has the possibility of deciding what time to start working, without anyone objecting or complaining, it can happen that one leaves obligations until the last minute.
The greatest benefit of being a freelancer lies not in the freedom itself, but in learning to make good use of it. It is very satisfying to have control of one's own schedules, to know exactly how much time we will dedicate to work, without surprises such as overtime (often unpaid).
The secret to enjoying life as a freelancer is to be clear about its disadvantages (such as the aforementioned lack of extra pay or vacations covered by the employer) and prepare to face them with a little effort each month.