Balancing security and flexibility in a freelance practice
Security and flexibility depend on the work a freelancer accepts and the kind of practice they want to run. A stable workload, freedom to live in a preferred location and room to manage variable energy levels can pull that balance in different directions.
A client base that leaves room to choose
A stable client base can provide more security while reducing flexibility if every gap in the schedule is filled. What counts as job security varies between people, and flexibility without enough security can itself become a burden.
Employment also carries uncertainty. In 2019, one long-established freelancer regarded leaving a regular salary and benefits as daunting, but had seen friends lose jobs through outsourcing or downsizing in their late fifties and early sixties, with few options to maintain their previous earnings. After repeatedly seeing talented small-company employers fail through poor business management, and finding no opportunity with large employers, he had started his own business on 19 August 1989 and remained busy with work.
A freelance coach's 2023 account of business development described a later turning point as no longer investigating full-time roles that would previously have been tempting, because the freelancer values their practice's freedom and flexibility more. Entrepreneurship need not have one endpoint: some people remain at a comfortable stage with a good work–life balance until retirement, while others pursue further milestones.
Freedom over location
Freelancing can make it possible to work from a location where suitable employed roles are limited. One writer chose freelancing after nine years in-house in Rome because she wanted to move to the Alps and saw it as her only route to doing so; she did not know whether permanent posts in medical writing were scarce.
Another writer in the same discussion considered jobs plentiful but often dependent on being present in person, with openings tending to go to new graduates or very experienced applicants. She saw opportunities in cities such as London, Berlin and Paris for people able to live there or move, while freelancing from home enabled her to work from a place with fewer local options.
Workload and variable health
For people whose chronic health conditions prevent full-time work, freelancing can offer more flexibility and fewer working hours. The practice can be planned around the number of simultaneous projects and clients, flexibility in deadlines and cash flow. Expectations and boundaries agreed with clients can then allow rest when needed and work when energy permits. A freelance coach advises that there is no minimum number of hours needed for success and that the writer decides how the practice should operate.