PB

Thanks for the history of the term Free Lance. I love it! I’ve always wondered what the heck was up with that….

Glad it resonated with you (feel free to share the link with your group). And folks, sounds like a good group to consider joining – given that they think like us! Thanks for weighing in!

PB

P.S. As I understand it, the term “freelance” dates back to medieval times as a term for mercenaries. When a knight didn’t have national allegiance to any particular king, and hired his services out, he was known as a “free lance.” And it stuck as a name of independents of all stripes.

Excellent response and great conversation. I run an association (Int’l Assn. of Self-Employed Communication Professionals) that sprang from IABC back in the mid-90s when people first started getting laid off in droves. Back then, we saw self-employment as THE way to take control of our lives and careers. Our members now span the spectrum of business communication professionals and our group serves as a place for them to meet other collaborative partners and to learn to run their businesses more profitably. We’re still loosely connected with IABC and PRSA in that we’ll let their members know what we’re doing and occasionally we’ll announce their events.

We’ve been disturbed by this very mentality – that working for yourself is just a ’stop gap’ between jobs. We also cringe at the term freelancer. It’s arcane and out-of-date. Our services are not free and we rarely lance anything. The term is demeaning in itself.

As a group, we have found that the ‘current state’ for the majority of our members is fantastic. Here’s why: We’ve learned to shed the old ‘business as usual’ mentality and to think in new ways. The way business is done has changed radically in the last decade or so, and those who wanted to thrive have seen the changes coming and adapted. This year has been exhilarating with the number of possibilities that have opened up for the self-employed communication professional. The ‘current state’ is irrelevant – it all depends on the mindset of the individual. If you’re sitting around waiting for ‘jobs’ to come back, you’re going down hard. That world is pretty much gone and not coming back. If you choose to seize the opportunity and take control of your own destiny, there’s no limit to what you can do.

I did the newsletter for the local chapter of IABC for years and this was one of the big centers of contention. They steadfastly did not want to acknowledge that change was coming. They did not want to prepare their members in any way; they stuck to the old adage that ‘it’s the way we’ve done it for 40 years’. That doesn’t serve their members at all. We’ve had so many of IABC members come over to our group over the years after being laid off. They’re shell shocked because they didn’t see it coming. How could they not? This is the fundamental problem with IABC (and PRSA). Self-employment is the future of the communication professional. We’re a contingent workforce of experts.

Thanks for opening this conversation. I think that the more people who are feeling dismal about their prospects get the new vision, the more exhilarating it will become. I think that IABC and PRSA had their purposes, but as they are not keeping pace with reality and the new global market, it’s time to offer people alternatives.

Good thread.
Barbara

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Q: Can you sum up “the current state of freelancing” in two sentences?

The current state of freelancing is whatever you create it to be. We each create our own set of circumstances we operate our freelancing businesses within.
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And my own “state of freelancing” is quite healthy indeed

Never a lack of projects to work on for quite awhile now.

When it rains, it’s a torrential downpour and I can barely keep up with all the work.

When it doesn’t, it’s a drought and I wonder why I don’t go back to being on the corporate payroll.

Fortunately, it’s currently raining.

“It’s MY business. God help the soul who interferes with it.”

Amen, Lori.

I’ve denied and pretty much ignored the “R” word. I figure that to accept a tanking economy means to buy in to the idea that – gasp and egad! – work is going to be hard to find. I found it. I’m off last year’s mark by a bit, but that meant I had to look in new areas. That led to new markets opening up. When the economy finally catches up with my confidence level, I’ll have plenty of work to choose from.

It is victimization. Depending on the report you read, we’re either overpaid, overworked, or expecting too much. I’ve read that we’re a dying breed, that we spend so much time marketing that we gain no profits, and that content mills are the new order and we’re dinosaurs to think real work is viable work. I refuse to listen to other people who are aching to define my business. It’s MY business. God help the soul who interferes with it.

I’ve been fighting my own cold/sinus thing for 10 days now (hence, the limited commenting in the past week), so I can relate to Devon’s comment abut having things not be so “awesome and productive” right now, but this too shall pass.

What’s so apparent is the courage, resiliency, and resourcefulness I’m hearing in these posts. I know, I’m sure most of you don’t view it that way, but I think it is. It takes all of those to be willing to really examine how you’ve been doing things and retool your efforts. And I hear many of you taking a closer look at what your unique gifts are and making sure you put those things – that NOT everyone else can deliver – front and center.

And yes, Devon, this will cull the herd (downturns like this always do), but I think this one may be different. In the past, a freelancer who realized they weren’t cut out of for this life would just take a FT job somewhere. Well, that option isn’t nearly as available as it once was. Does that mean it might make them more resourceful because they have little choice (necessity being the mother of invention and all that…) or will there just end up being a ton of people WAY under-employed. We shall see…

PB

The “state of freelancing” is the state you create. If you’ve got the skills and the motivation and the creativity, you land the good jobs. If you don’t, you don’t. I sort of think of this period of time as a bit of “culling the herd’, losing the ones who are finding out that they’d rather be in a more structured environment or doing something else, because the freelance life is not for them. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s a perfectly valid, individual choice, but too often, they don’t want to own it, they’d rather put the blame/responsibility on “the market”.

Freelancing is about FREEDOM. And freedom brings with it initiative and responsibility.

What is my personal state of freelancing? Tons of work, solid royalties, awesome, and improving every day.

(Other than fighting a stomach bug at the moment, which isn’t fun, but that’ll be done in a few days, and I’ll be back to the “awesome and productive” bits again).