A recent survey from AND CO has revealed that freelancers are happier working for themselves than working in traditional jobs.

Freelancing has been on the rise over the past few years, with two thirds of freelancers surveyed saying that they’d gone independent within the last three years.

Reasons why people go freelance

The number one reason why people said they went freelance was for “personal growth”. This is followed by “flexibility” as the second most common reason for going independent. Only 7% said that they went into it for financial gains.

Contrary to what a lot of people think is occasional work, 41% said that they plan to freelance forever. Only 6% of people surveyed said they were using freelancing to bridge a gap until they could find a full-time job. This shows that freelancing is not the career placeholder that some people assume it is.

Multi-skilled freelancers

95% of freelancers say that they offer multiple skills as part of the services they offer. Only 13% say they work with one client at a time which means that freelancers are cultivating multiple revenue streams.

Financial instability

This is one of the key issues that can put people off from going freelance and remains a concern for those who do go ahead with it. 77% said that they felt less financially stable going freelance but 68% were insistent that it was worth it and their quality of life had improved. What freelancers could lose in money, they gain in freedom.

When asked whether they felt more secure than this time last year, 45% said they did, 34% said they felt about the same and 21% said they were less secure. This could signal that experience makes it better over time.

Missed payments

44% said that they had been faced missed payments from clients before. Almost half have put this down to companies not taking freelancers seriously enough. 35% also said that vague freelance contracts were partly to blame.

Wage gap

48% of women surveyed said that they fell into the lowest income bracket, whereas only 34% of men did. Men were also found to be 4.5 times more likely to earn more than $150,000 (£115,000) than women were.

Surprisingly, men were more likely to complain about being unpaid or cheated by clients than women, with 49% of men saying this compared to 38% of women.

Stigma

There’s still a fair amount of stigma attached to freelancing. 60% of those surveyed believe that the stigma is still going and there’s a lack of respect for the community.

Do you have anything to add? Has your quality of life improved since going freelance? We’d love to hear from you!