Ten years ago, the kinds of self employment we've covered so far starting or buying a business, operating a franchise and consulting would have pretty much covered the waterfront for executive and professional workers. There's always been an "other" category, but it's been small enough to ignore.
No longer; "other" is big business. In fact, it's at least three kinds of big businesses: freelancing, outsourcing and temping / contract staffing. These specialized components of the self directed workforce are both old and new, and all are growing faster than employment overall.
"I recently ran a three day seminar for 300 alumni of one of the major graduate business schools mostly highly successful people in their late 30s or early 40s," says management guru Peter F. Drucker. "Practically every one of them worked for an organization, but barely half as employees. Fewer still expected to spend their entire working lives as employees of an organization." In his group, Drucker found a 45 year old metallurgist who left a Fortune 500 corporation to go out on his own. He's now retained by five companies, one of them his former employer. He found a 38 year old information specialist who works as a "permanent temp" for a variety of state agencies in the Midwest.
There was an executive from an outsourcing firm who described herself as an "itinerant member of top management." There was an engineer on the payroll of a temporary help firm who works as a plant manager for large companies on three year contracts.
How many different arrangements are we actually talking about here? Isn't freelancing a lot like consulting, contracting or starting your own business? What's the difference between temping and contracting? Under what circumstances do you call it outsourcing? Answers can vary on these questions, depending on the perspective of the person describing them, as well as on staffing patterns in the particular industry or organization being discussed. Freelancers in one business may be known as consultants in another.
While there's lots of overlap, there also are important distinctions that create a huge range of experiences for skilled candidates in this evolving workforce. In order to review the range of career choices available to self directed professionals under these banners, let's attach the following definitions to the three categories:
- Freelancing is work for hire by individuals for a variety of clients. Projects typically are small and often include both creative services and execution. Freelancing differs from consulting in that it isn't advice oriented or recommendation driven; it's project focused. Freelancing is a widely used label for services delivered to communications and media related industries, and pops up at some level in virtually all businesses, sometimes under the label of "independent contracting."
- Temping and contract staffing include many of the same characteristics, but carry certain distinctions. Instead of working directly for the organization to which you provide services, you're placed and paid by a third party agency. And while the work can also be project focused, temping often means performing an on going function within an organization, including that blend of project and on going management work called "turnarounds" or "crisis management." Temping and contract staffing are typically carried out at the client's location. The difference between them is that contract staffing often includes positions that are (more or less) permanent.
- Outsourcing is all of this conducted on a larger scale. Rather than simply having a temp in to train and help manage a sales staff, for example, the entire department may be "outsourced," or taken over on a contract basis by a third party. This concept is being applied to more and more functions as organizations seek to trim permanent staff, refocus on a core of creative and strategic activities, and contract out as many fulfillment processes and, sometimes, even manufacturing processes as possible.
With that as the playing field in our New Economy, let's take a more detailed look at each area for an idea of what it's really like to be there.
Freelancing
This title does little to dignify truly professional work, and therefore is often used by its practitioners for its self effacing effect (as a humble platform perhaps for writing or photography). But it's also a useful term for careers made up of lots of little pieces, sometimes in wildly different kinds of work.
Rostislav Eismont of Richmond, NH, is a freelance artist. As the former art director of several leading magazines, including Harper's Weekly Horizon, Chief Executive and Essence, Rosti now spreads his design skills into several fields, ranging from publications and logos to landscaping and pottery. He's also a painter when time permits.
With pen, computer, shovel, wheel or brush, he employs vision and considers the meaning of design. This combination of his trades reflects his attitude toward work and life: the sense of balance that comes from a variety of complementary pursuits. It lets you know the process of his work is more important to Rosti than a career ladder in any single direction.
Has he made a conscious sacrifice of commercial success by virtue of his diversity of pursuits? "No one chooses to sacrifice success," Rosti notes, "but if the question is, 'Is it more important than making money?' then yes." Therefore, "if any one of them started generating income to the detriment of my ability to do the others, I'm not sure what I would do."
In this way, freelancing becomes a descriptive term for customized, personalized careers of many kinds, assembled from pieces of pure interest by their creators. Requirements for success include traits and abilities very similar to those necessary for successful consulting, says April Kinser, a New York based counselor to freelancers. Among those are:
- Being a self starter who can develop and follow a business plan, set goals, manage time and stick to a schedule of achievement.
- Being a good communicator who can interact well with all kinds of people, and effectively relate to the wide variety of clients this approach engenders.
- Knowing how to network and enjoying it. As with all kinds of self employment, you've got to spend a certain amount of time finding out what people do and how your interests might be compatible.
- Knowing how to sell. Even if you work alone, you've got to have the ability to sell yourself and close deals. Learn sales skills, preferably from a good teacher.
- Be ready for handling lots of responsibility, because it's always yours. Every detail of the big picture is for you to determine and execute. You've got to be able to see how each task fits into your goals so you can set priorities effectively and manage your time well.
- Be prepared to spend more time marketing than you ever imagined, from at least 20 percent to 50 percent or more of your prime work time. It's a constant event, not an occasional annoyance.
Above all other forms of self directed careers, freelancing requires flexibility: the kind of flexibility that allows you to identify and deal with your own abilities and weaknesses. You'll also need enough flexibility to ride the ups and downs of too much work (and not enough), and to roll with the punches of a variety of personality and business types who are your customers and clients. To the extent that you have this kind of flexibility, you can enjoy the freedom that comes with it by setting your own pace amid a number of pesky, often competing demands.
As with consulting, your most likely route to success is the one for which you've cracked the marketing nut: either you're naturally good at it yourself, or you've devised a way to make it happen for you. Assuming the former, be prepared to spend plenty of time and effort promoting your skills through networking, advertising and cold calls or probably all three for a while. Once you identify an opportunity, however, you may, if you're willing, be able to offer an organization better rates than they would pay by using an agency.
As always, your best marketing efforts come from doing good work, then keeping yourself visible by asking for timely performance reviews and feedback.
Please note: As a general rule, you should clarify explicitly the ownership or application of any intellectual property you produce (get everything in writing). And your clients must be careful to protect your independent contractor status by making sure you're free of external controls, subject to profit and loss, invest in your own tools and equipment and determine your own hours and fees.
