Worst thing about contracting?

[Geoffrey Hart <Geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Elizabeth Vollbach reported <<The only reason I can imagine
that I might *really* prefer contracting is if I want to be home
my kids more often than I could be with a permanent job. But
I don't have kids. There are many reasons for my
dissatisfaction with contracting, but top of the list is how
demeaning it was. I never felt wanted. I never felt like I
belonged where I was. I never felt valued, necessary, or
important.>>

I've been rather lucky, since that's never happened to me. In the
little freelancing I've done over the years, I've always made sure the
human aspect of the relationship was as important as the financial
aspect, though I've also always charged high for my services. So
the people who come to me value me, enough to send word of
mouth advertising around. It sounds like you haven't really had
situations where you could develop good working
relationships with your clients or have had the simple
misfortune of picking clients who really aren't interested in
developing a long-term relationship with you. Or just the pure
bad luck of having found clients who don't understand the
value of your work. Keep looking; good clients are out there.

I don't freelance for a living because of one big thing: I know
that I have only 40 hours of my life per week (plus or minus)
that someone else owns, and the rest of it is _mine_. Most of
my friends are freelancers, and very few of them can claim
that they have 40 hours per week that are irrevocably
_theirs_; the ones who can are always scrambling for work.
OTOH, none of them would trade it for the world. Different
strokes...


--Geoff Hart @8^{)}     Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Patience comes to those who wait."--Anon.

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