Redundancy and Freelancing

Yesterday I read this interesting blog post via The Professional Copywriter's Network. It poses questions about the "fear" of freelancing. And it made me think about the choices I have made.

Freelancing for me wasn't brave, risky, heroic or any of those worthy things. I ran at freelancing after being made redundant. No, *I* wasn't made redundant, the post I carved for myself was made redundant. Though I wish I could, in all honestly, say that I felt that at the time. But I can't. At the time it felt very personal. That I was somehow redundant. That I could no longer offer anything of value to the company. I blamed the choices I had made in the past on the decision that management made. I am pragmatic and impulsive. When I decide to do something I, more often than not, go ahead and do it and hang the consequences. When things go wrong, and they do, I don't let people say they told me so but I draw the positive and move on to the next impulsive project. I don't know whether my decision to move out of London and work from home affected the choice to make me redundant. I never will, but I knew, almost at once, that redundancy had to become something positive. If I didn't make it positive then life would become very hard.

The skills I had built and my natural tendency to put pen to paper meant that finding the "perfect" job was never going to be easy. And that process was never going to be complete in rural Devon during a recession. I am naturally well organised, obsessively driven by detail and thrive on going from project to project so offering myself as a freelance copy writer and web co-ordinator seemed to be the solution.

One thing that I noticed about redundancy - and maybe I ought to blog about that on it's own - was the lack of support from governing bodies. The Job Centre were uncaring - I was middle class, educated, could run their computer software better than they could and they had no intention of helping me. The council were unsympathetic as I didn't fit the quota of having "dependents". My GP just wanted to give me antidepressants in lieu of my anxiety. In the closer community it was different. Friends and family rallied around in a way that I didn't think was possible. People showed up for a cup of tea bringing real milk, veg boxes, bottles of wine. One friend even gave me a leg of lamb "it's just sitting in the freezer, and we don't really eat lamb". Good job too as the benefits take forever to come through and I was redundant minus two weeks wages. The Daily Mail view of the "benefit bums" in this country is skewed at best!

Freelancing was my easy option. Ok, so I am struggling, I won't deny that. But something is better than nothing. I've learnt so much about how I work, what I can do and the legalities involved. The "fear" of freelancing wasn't financial for me but about failure. But I'd already failed so what had I lose?

The people who go into freelancing having voluntarily walked away from paid employment, secure in the knowledge that they can afford the rent, have annual leave, sick pay... they are the ones who are brave, worthy and taking the risk.

I am not that risk taker; I am just positive and try my hardest.