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No matter what it is you do, freelancing is a truly wonderful way to earn money as a creative professional. But to a fresh-faced Londoner eyeing up their astronomical rent bill, jacking in the day job and going it alone can be quite a daunting prospect…
Don’t let the monster of daunting-ness stop you from achieving your freelancy dreams! Here are 5 TOP TIPS to ensure you set yourself up as a successful freelancer in London:
Universal Credit is the system in the UK where the state supports you financially if you are not earning enough, and it is an important safeguard for any freelancer. You might be wondering ‘when is the best time to sign up for Universal Credit?’, to which the answer is ‘one month ago’. It takes one full month for you to receive your first payment; so the second you leave your job, finish your degree, or finally move out of that cult you must SIGN ON IMMEDIATELY.
You can register as self-employed, which gives you access to extra support and training whilst making sure your rent is paid and you don’t go hungry whilst you get your work off the ground. You can also apply to join the New Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which will give you a full year of support to develop your self-employment and start making the big bucks. This is one of the many perks of living in a country which has not yet entirely abandoned the moral duty to keep its inhabitants alive!
The best thing about being a freelancer is that the work you do changes from week to week. But much like a sword, this aspect of self-employment is a double-edged sword… Even freelancers at the top of their game go through dry spells where the work just doesn’t seem to come any more. Don’t let it get you down, it happens to everyone! But instead of using those clumps of spare time to just stare blankly into the middle distance, why not spend it sharing your passion with others?
Teaching is a great way of giving yourself some income stability, because the world will always need more teachers! Wether it's personal tutoring, runing after-school clubs, or being an activities facilitator in a care home; there are plenty of part-time or flexible opportunities to teach in London, making it the perfect job to fit in around other freelance work. Teaching an after school class a few days a week is a great way to ensure you’re earning regular money, whilst still doing what you love!
If you’re not sure where to start, then come and talk to the team here at Moving Waves! We’re always on the lookout for artists, dancers, performers, and comedians to become the next generation of facilitators. We don’t bite!
When you’re starting out in freelancing you might come upon the cold realisation that nobody really ever wants to pay you for the work you’re doing. Perhaps it’s forgetfulness, perhaps it’s tightness, perhaps it’s a huge alien conspiracy to deny you success. It doesn’t matter, dwelling on it isn’t going to get you anywhere I’m afraid. Just stay strong, keep emailing, and always keep every single bit of paper that anyone ever gives you EVER.
You never know when you might have to go marching up to a client, demanding that they reimburse you £8.50 for all the plasters you had to buy after that ‘introduction to knife juggling’ course you ran at a school fete. Keeping all your bits of paper in a neat and tidy way will make your life easier if you ever have to fight for what’s owed to you. Also, you can always suck the ink out of old receipts for sustenance during leaner months. Everybody’s a winner!
It’s the internet age baby! You can’t deny it! Sadly no matter how many swimming badges you got at school, you’re never going to be a clever as a computer. That’s just a fact. And if you can’t beat them (although I’d like to see a computer beat me in a breastwork relay), join them!
You should make professional-friends with the internet as soon as possible and start using the algorithm to your advantage from the get-go. Make a work Instagram, put your old schoolwork on Behance, follow a bunch of agents and producers on Twitter. Act like you know what you’re doing and you’re already hugely successful online (not to the point of being annoying, just to trick the computers). Once you’ve done this, you’ll miraculously start to notice your adverts change into work opportunities… Hurrah! Scrolling through your feed just became a part of your work day. Congratulations/commiserations.
The most important tip of all is that you need to make time to switch off. Deciding to be a freelancer is taking what you love to do, becoming your own boss, and doing it for money. This has the nasty side affect of turning your best ever hobby into a job from which you don’t get to clock out. You look at the stuff you used to do for fun, and it sends a ceaseless cascade of work-based ideas trickling through your brain holes… This is not good.
Shut down your computer REGULARLY and WITH GLEEFUL ABANDON - it’s important to go out into the real world, see real people, and talk about real non-work related issues (such as shoes, the cheeses of continental Europe, or the wide variety of different mattresses you can get these days). Work isn’t everything, so always make time for not doing it. You would tell a regular office boss to go and jump down a well if they asked you to work until 3am on a Friday night, so don’t beat yourself up for allowing yourself some time off.
And that’s it! You’re ready to fly my freelancer extraordinaire!
Perhaps you’re thinking ‘well those all seem like quite obvious tips. I could have definitely figured at least three of them out for myself,’ but trust me. Once you get shoulders deep into the ocean of creative self-employment, you’ll forget to follow all of this advice just as quickly as I’m going to forget the snarky tone you just took with me. If it all gets a bit overwhelming then come back here and have a re-read, and know that I wrote it ALL mere minutes before the deadline and I'm still doing alright. We can’t all be perfect all of the time, so always remember to cut yourself some slack.
