Hello dear Internet Friends.
How are you doing?
If you are in Berlin next weekend, you should definitely visit the temporary 2DAYSTORE of the wonderful Anna Santangelo and Fanny Kübler (they are also doing hotdipss together, a vintage archive which I introduced to you in this vintage guide). They will open for a private launch next Friday, on the 29th November from 18-20h at Tempelhofer Ufer 22 as well as the entire weekend from 12-7pm! There will be music, wine from Sway and products from friends and artists from around the globe, with a fantastic selection of archival and contemporary printed materials, clothing, homewares. The selection of artists is pretty amazing, think Teget, Superyaya, Santangelo, Gala Colivet Dennison who has the most incredible jewellery and Zsuzsanna Toth.
15% of sales from the weekend will be a split donation between two community organisations and initiatives working in Gaza, so you are doing something good, while also shopping and supporting small brands!
I discovered and fell in love with the podcast series Bella Freud Fashion Neurosis. Guests are as iconic as Zadie Smith, Daphne Guiness, Kate Moss – you name them. Look at the Francis Bacon painting behind the sofa! So casual. I also love the Freudian therapy style, which obviously fits as Bella is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and artist Lucian Freud, as well as the great-granddaughter of the inventor of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.
And, another important news! A new Paolo Sorrentino movie (my other favourite director :)) called PARTHENOPE is coming to the cinemas in February! Can’t wait to see it <3
As a special gift before Christmas, I am giving a 20% discount on annual subscriptions which means 42,50 Euro for a year or around 1 Euro per newsletter as I am publishing almost every Friday. This offer will end this Sunday night so you better be fast!
So lets get to today’s feature: How to become a successful freelancer.
I get asked about this so often, especially from people who are still working in corporate and thinking about leaving – I guess because they saw me doing it after 12 years of corporate two years ago? I am happy to share my experience in how you can become a successful freelancer as in what do you have to consider, how to define your day rate, freelancer networks, how to find out what your superpowers are and how to create a network and find jobs where. Spoiler alert: Everyone is different and more than one way leads to Rome. What worked for me, might not work for you. BUT: I would have loved an article like this to give me a perspective and some tips when I did make the decision to jump, so here you go.
To start: What is success? Success for me means being mostly booked by clients you want to work for with projects you enjoy doing. It means that you are able to decline projects which you don’t enjoy. Not having to worry about financials and being happy with the direction you are taking. Of course it’s not always this straight-forward, life comes in waves and can be a rocky boat in-between, we all know that. But if the general feeling is a positive one, then for me that’s success.
If you don’t know what to do at all with your career, and need some more help to sort yourself out, read Squiggly Careers, which I found very helpful when I was orientation-less. The team, called Amazing If, published two books and have also a podcast to help you navigate your career. They also found their own way and it’s really inspiring to listen to them. Generally, I think it’s good to try out different paths to see what works best for you if that is possible, the risk is not super high when you are young and have no responsibilities. If you try something out and fail, well, then you know that’s not for you and have probably taken a ton of learnings with you too.
Freelance life has many advantages: You have more freedom than when you are fully employed, you can work from where and when you want, you can have a potentially a much higher income, you don’t have to ask anyone for annual leave. You can avoid people you don’t like and work feels very interesting because of different clients. You can write off a lot of expenses, and can switch between different roles as you please (if you have expertise obviously). If you do a good job, your client really misses you when you are not there and appreciates your work more than if you work fulltime and are always available 🙂
But of course freelance life also has disadvantages such as you might have to wait for job confirmations and you have to live with the insecurity of not knowing when the next job is coming. You might have to make an effort to find jobs, you have less development options because you don’t have a boss who feedbacks you, you don’t have a team which can be lonely (but you can connect with other freelancers or join an office community). You have to negotiate your rate with clients. Being sick sucks because then you don’t earn any money, and you have to cleverly manage your finances. You can have a much higher income, but it makes your spendings also go up – as a freelancer you have to pay sums to the financial department, the health system and others that you don’t ever spent as a fulltime employee in context with work. You have to pay yourself for any important industry subscriptions like BOF, Vogue Business, WGSN which adds up.
I thought I’d summarise my own journey for you to give context to my career. The whole article became a bit longer than I planned, but you know, I want to make it helpful, so I wrote down all I got 🙂
Source: “How to Become a Successful Freelancer” from my experience of doing that in the Creative
