I can’t quite believe it, but a year has now passed since I started working on a freelance basis. I feel I’ve learnt a huge amount in this time, so I’d like to share my experiences in the hope that they might be useful to others.

Things that have gone well

The freedom

This was always the aspect that excited me about freelancing — that of being able to pick and choose work, and decide your own hours. And, by and large, it has worked out as well as I had hoped.

Being able to work on pet projects

I’ve built up an insane number of ideas for sites and apps over the years, but never had any time or motivation to build them. Now I’m freelancing, I’ve been able to revisit these ideas and actually build some. I’ve been able to look at them from a business perspective and decide which ones may actually be able to make some money.

Working from home

Being able to work from home and spend more time with my young son has been fabulous, but it hasn’t been without its downsides. It can get pretty lonely at times, but I’ve made good use of co-working sessions to keep things interesting.

Finding work

On the whole, I have been able to find work when I’ve needed it. That’s not to say it’s been simple — I’ve certainly not sat back and waited for the work to find me. However, I’ve been hunting down interesting work through a variety of different methods, some of which are more successful than others. I’ll dedicate a future blog post to this subject.

Invoicing and accounting

I don’t have an accountant yet, so have needed software to help me through this area. I use FreeAgent for this purpose, and I can thoroughly recommend it.

Things that have not gone so well

Building my own website

It’s taken most of the year to get my own site released, but I wanted it up and running much earlier. It’s taken so long because I put paid client work, and other pet projects before it.

Working with clients on-site

My preference has always been to work from home wherever possible, but I also recognise the need to work onsite in certain situations — for example, at the beginning of projects. One mistake I’ve made is agreeing to work onsite every day for the duration of a project. During this time, I was the only non-permanent employee working in the office, so I felt like an outsider. Furthermore, the client insisted that I used their own hardware and software for developing — a compromise that I will not make again.

What next?

It’s been a fantastic year, and I can’t imagine going back to traditional employment. As long as the challenges are keeping me interested, I’ll continue down the freelance route. My plan is to grow out from “Glen Scott the Freelancer” to “Glen Scott, the Business” and that will be my focus of my second year.

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

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