Ahead of National Freelancers Day this week, Metro talks to the self-employed and those representing them and asks if the hundreds of thousands going it alone can help pull Britain out of its economic slump.
Being your own boss is every worker’s dream. Until, that is, they meet the boss. Sometimes we don’t like ourselves as much as we think we might.
Despite this, there are more than 4m people in Britain who have decided to go it alone and are self-employed. A combination of a difficult economic climate and a genuine desire to succeed without relying on anyone else means the number is likely to grow in the years ahead.
Instead of waiting for a company to offer them a job that will never exist, many Britons are carving out their own role. The sacrifices can be great – freelancers take fewer holidays and work longer – but the rewards are evident.
A study published by
Boox, an online accounting service for freelancers, has revealed that the average freelancer earns more than twice the amount as the typical British worker.
Tellingly, however, one in four freelancers don't take any annual leave whatsoever, the study said.
Phillip Venn, commercial director of Boox, said there were two sides to the recent growth in the number of freelancers.
‘The positive story is to be their own boss and to be entrepreneurial,’ he said.
'The flip side of that is there are a large number of people who have been made redundant who would have been entrepreneurs but probably didn’t because of financial security. They have had their hand forced through redundancy.’
He said it was no surprise that freelancers out-earned the average British worker because they are better qualified, with those who are self-employed in the banking, engineering and IT sectors doing particularly well.
However, to make a living as a freelancer requires skill and character. And money.
‘To go out on your own and take that risk, you need to be fairly confident in your own ability,’ said Mr Venn.
‘From day one, to go in cold to freelancing, you need to be financially secure because there’s no guarantee of work on a week-to-week basis and you need to have contacts or be able to build a contact base.
'Nobody’s delivering that business to your front door as would be the case in an employed scenario.’
Boox has published its report on the eve of
National Freelancers Day on Wednesday, organised by the
PCG (formerly the Professional Contractors Group), which represents freelancers.
Its managing director, John Brazier, said: ‘We need a rallying call on behalf of the freelance community.
‘The key thing we’re trying to get across is to raise the profile of the freelance workface as economic agents in this difficult climate we've got.
‘We feel that the freelance worker community is a bit of an unsung hero and probably needs greater recognition in the overall work environment. Freelancers often create employment.’
He said it took courage to go it alone.
‘You've got to have that will to get out of bed in the morning and go for it and work for yourself and be prepared to suffer the downtimes in between, for which you will not get any rewards at all in between contracts. Not everybody can be a freelancer. Some people like the comfort of a structure around them.’
Freelance journalist
Michael Moran writes articles on television and film for a number of different websites. He was made redundant from his permanent role at The Times newspaper three years ago and has been freelance since.
‘In my perception a lot of us are having a freelance life chosen for us,’ he said.
He admits both sides of the workforce fence – freelancer and employee – have their advantages.
‘I moan less about my employer because I’m my employer,’ he said. ‘I've taken about a ten grand hit in headline earnings, but then again, my travel costs are zero.
‘The really weird thing is my daughter's school results have improved because I’m at home with her more. I've added up all the money I've squandered going into offices on big lattes and travel and going to the pub after work. It all adds up to something like the ten grand I think I've lost.’
Mr Moran said it isn’t the work that bothers him, but all the bookkeeping that goes with it.
‘For a long time I worked at The Times and it was bloody lovely. They paid me more than was sensible, I would go in every day, talk nonsense to people, write a few funny stories and I’d go home and then every month or so my bank account would get this massive cash bomb. And I thought it was bloody ace.
‘I was very upset to be made redundant, I didn’t like it. I’m alright at writing, I can do that. I’m alright at turning up on the radio and taking nonsense about any subject. I’m okay at doing the telly.
'But I’m a terrible accountant. I am awful at going and getting work and I am really grim at chasing up money, which is something you need to do a lot. I feel guilty when I ring them up and tell them off about it. I feel like I've done something wrong, which is preposterous.
‘It would be lovely to have somebody else to look after it and go, “There there, you do your jokes, son, we’ll sort out the rest”. But there is no one, it’s just me.’
Mr Moran is the organiser of Freelance Office Party, an annual Christmas bash for the self-employed who don’t have an office to go to for their festive celebration.
He says he doesn’t take holidays because he doesn’t like them. It’s true. He has even written
a book about how much he doesn’t like them.
‘Because I’m a freelancer, I’m petrified of ever saying no to anything. If someone rings me up and says, “Do you want to do some subbing?”, I say yes.’
He also said freelancers are a different breed to those who go to the office every day.
‘We’re lonelier, we’re more desperate, our hygiene is worse. Everyone thinks we’re minted and we aren't because there's no holiday pay.’
There is another downside, he joked, to spending much of his time working from home.
‘When I was working in magazines and newspapers, swag would turn up all the time. Just stuff. I used to get all this swag and now I’m buying my own DVDs and paying for my own records and it’s just upsetting.’
STATS:
- There are 4.2m people who work freelance in Britain, 14% of the nation’s workforce. One in four of those freelancers were forced into self-employment after being made redundant
- The average freelancer earns £50,820 a year, almost double the average worker’s salary of £26,000
- 70% of all freelancers earn more than the average salary in Britain
- Freelancers contribute £202bn to the British economy
- One in four freelancers either intend to retire after the age of 70 or not at all
- One in four freelance workers take no annual holiday at all. Of those who do go on holiday, 45% work while on their getaway
- 40% of freelancers work more than 41 hours a week. 15% put in more than 51 hours per week
- 69% of freelancers in Britain are male, but freelancers aged 25 to 34 are twice as likely to be women as men
- Only 4% of freelancers have no qualifications
- In Europe, the number of freelancers has grown by more than 80%
- Average annual salary for freelancers by sector:
Banking - £70,000
Engineering - £64,000
IT - £63,000
PR/Marketing - £57,000
Design - £50,000
Retail - £35,000
Sources: Boox, PCG, Office for National Statistics