Forget about working for someone who doesn’t care about your career goals and your passions. Create your own job.
That’s what tens of millions of freelancing Americans say they are doing. They are turning away from traditional 40-plus hour work weeks with benefits and starting their own freelance businesses, either full or part time. Some do it by choice, others because their full-time jobs have been eliminated.
“I love it. As an artist, I feel more fulfilled. I could never go back to working for others,” says Brooklyn resident Erik Mace, a freelance graphic designer and art director.
While working as an employee at ad agencies, Mace started freelancing part-time seven years ago. Two years later, he had accumulated so many freelance projects that he decided this was his best career path.
That’s because the nature of work is changing, says a leader of a large freelance group.
Some 30 percent of the US workforce is freelance, says Sara Horowitz, the founder of the Freelancers Union. That comes to 42 million workers, she estimates. The union has about a quarter-million members in all kinds of industries.
“Among our members, the biggest industries represented are film, television, advertising, graphic design, health care and IT,” Horowitz says.
“Members also come from sectors like accounting, construction, real estate, domestic workers — more than 1,000 members say they are in each of those industries.”
The attraction of freelancing, say several New Yorkers who are doing it, is controlling one’s career. That is a consistent theme of those who have stopped working for others.
“I spent 40 years trying to find what I wanted to do with my life, and seven years ago I found out,” says Paul Belardo, the owner of Big Dog Services in Glendale, Queens.
Belardo will soon expand his dog-walking and boarding service into selling raw-meat dog foods.
Belardo said he thought about starting Big Dog Services when he watched the television show “The Dog Whisperer.”
“It resonated with me. I love being out and being with dogs. They never talk back to you,” Belardo says.
He had worked as a private investigator during a career of being employed by others, including Home Depot. Belardo contends that employers often don’t compensate a worker for all the time spent at the job.
Freelancers say the key issue for them, besides generating enough income, is control of their work lives.
It’s not all upside, though, says Horowitz, who wrote the book “The Freelancers Bible.” It is critical to know why and how you are doing it.
Freelancers say a transition to self-employment requires hard work and the ability to thrive without an organization behind you.
“You have to follow your bliss, but you also have to be practical,” adds Joshua Zuckerman, a Brooklyn photographer who works for himself. “Especially when you start out, you have to be sensible about who is going to pay you for what you can do.