Freelance Artist Career and Job Information

Freelance Artist

Working freelance

Source: Career Prospects in Virginia

Freelancing. It’s one of those maddeningly fuzzy terms that we hear all the time without ever quite grasping what it really means. And there’s a reason for that. Freelancers come in so many different stripes, working in such a broad swath of careers, that it’s difficult to define the concept.

Is a freelance worker the same as a temp worker? Is a freelance worker a contract worker? Is a freelance worker self-employed? Or all—or none—of the above?

Quick Definition: A freelancer is an independent contractor who sells services to different
employers without having a long term contract with any of them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says about 6.4% of the workforce is freelance. In Virginia, this means more than 200,000 people. Well, a freelancer, otherwise known as an “independent contractor,” can be all of these things. Freelance workers are self-employed. But they don't own a store like a merchant, a professional office, like a doctor or lawyer, or a salon like a hairstylist. Instead they contract with employers to provide services or complete projects. They can travel to a client’s worksite to do a job, or they can work at home and send a project to the client. Sometimes they have a lot of different projects with a lot of different clients all going at once. Sometimes they work for just one client at a time, taking on new work only after they have completely put a project “to bed.” They can be paid by the project, by the hour, or sign a contract with a company to work a finite amount of time for a specific sum.

Some freelancers also opt to work as occasional temp workers, especially when they find themselves between projects—and paychecks. But what's critical is this: most freelancers work on a project-by-project basis. Whether the project is a movie, a video game, a cd, a book, a technical report, or even a performance, freelancers are hired to do their jobs because they have specific skills that can meet a very specific task.

More often than not, freelancers work on creative projects. There are a couple reasons for this. Many creative jobs are solitary pursuits, easily conducted behind the closed doors of a home office or studio. Meetings, water-cooler chatter and office politics, can actually distract creative types—writers, artists and designers—from the kind of concentration it takes to design a book jacket, write an article, or design a video game.

The fruit of many creative jobs is an intellectual or creative “product” that can easily be sent to a client with the click of a mouse. Unlike receptionists, store clerks or dentists who have to work face-to-face with clients and customers, many creative freelancing professionals don’t interact with the public or even colleagues and bosses.

Enticing but sometimes a tough life. Admittedly, freelancing carries a certain allure. There’s something very attractive about deciding when you will and will not work. But the truth is that there are as many hardships as luxuries in this line of work. The life of any freelancer is fraught with uncertainty. Freelancers don’t know where their next paycheck will come from. Such uncertainty takes a psychological toll, as does the knowledge that if the economy slows they will most likely be the first to get sacked. Plus, there’s never any guarantee that today’s loyal client won’t be tomorrow’s turncoat, when a new, bright-eyed freelancer shows up with a few more skills under the belt along with bargain basement rates.

Careers with lots of freelancers

• Animators
• Announcers
• Artists
• Athletes
• Bike couriers
• Camera operators
• Court reporters
• Designers
• Editors
• Interpreters
• Transcriptionists
• Musicians
• Paralegals
• Photographers
• Programmers
• Pyrotechnicians
• Sound engineers
• Stylists
• Translators
• Writers
• And lots more, chiefly in managerial, professional, construction, sales & production jobs.

You've really got to know your business. Besides all this, there’s more to freelancing than just knowing how to draw, design interface programs, write, make music, or what have you. A big part of the freelancing business is business itself, requiring a good grasp of bookkeeping, marketing, accounting and tax and retirement planning.

Freelancers have to know how to drum up new clients, how to self-promote, network, and organize their work schedules, not to mention their lives. They must pay for their own health insurance, and remember to pay income and social security tax each quarter. They must also be adept at knowing how to cajole a late check out of the hands of a slow-poke client.

It's not for everybody, but some people just love this life. Despite what can be the pretty hefty down side to freelancing, the people who do it seem to love it. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the vast majority of freelancers, (who, by the way, tend to be over the age of 35, white, male and more highly educated than the average worker), prefer this type of arrangement to being just a plain old, regular employee. “They have found that this route is still more secure and more profitable,” says Don McLaurin, chief executive of the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses in Alexandria, VA, of IT workers who have gone solo.

So, it appears, the ranks of freelancers will not thin anytime soon, no matter how “fuzzy” freelancing may sound to the rest of us.