If someone had told me five years ago that I would become a social media manager over drinks, I probably would have spilled some with the sheer ridiculousness of that thought. You see, I stumbled upon digital marketing when I was absolutely burned out after working as a production editor for a year. Waking up dreading my pending and never-ending emails and tasks, I thought, "If this is what I need to do for the next 10 years, it's not happening."
There must be a job that I can learn from, enjoy doing, and look up to, even with its own ups and downs. However, pivoting my career into content marketing for an AI startup community led me to hone my skills in content and social media management. Changing my career wasn't easy. At first, I felt awful about leaving a career in which I invested my time and money in obtaining degrees for the job I had. Moreover, once I had landed a stable job that I enjoyed, deciding to take up freelancing full-time was another difficult choice.
On April 19th, I took to LinkedIn and Instagram to announce the launch of my personal brand, The Sociale Café. As a full-time freelancer, my focus was on providing Social Media Marketing (SMM) services to my clients. However, I quickly realized that the road ahead was going to be filled with challenges.
Moving from a corporate job to freelancing is a major shift in one's career path. As a freelancer:
You assume full responsibility for managing your finances, taxes, investments, and insurance.
It is crucial to create and explore your own opportunities and execute projects independently without the guidance of superiors.
Although you have the flexibility to manage your time, freelancing demands a great deal of effort to establish a solid portfolio and generate leads.
Choosing a career as a freelancer requires continuous learning and experimentation with new skills that may be beyond your comfort zone.
When you start working for yourself, you will soon realize that you are not as skilled as you thought you were while working as an employee. You may need to negotiate contracts, set up payment systems and project management tools, sell and market your services, and build your own lead generation. It’s like working for five different departments in a company.
You may be wondering why someone would choose freelancing when there is so much to do. I believe each freelancer has their own reasons for working this way, but the most common reason is the freedom to choose your own work, hours, and location. Since working on your own projects is a choice, chances are you will upskill quickly to reach your goals.
If you’re considering freelancing or expanding your services, subscribe to my newsletter to receive tips and updates on becoming a full-time freelance social media manager.
Until my next post, cheers!
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Reposted from Shilpa's Substack.
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