I saw a tweet today about how working freelance is the Holy Grail. This is how I feel about it.

I’ve been freelance now for over a year. I love it and hate it at the same time. I’ve been lucky in that I have worked on some big projects so the need to be actively searching for work wasn’t so great. It’s only really the last couple of months I have needed to start planning ahead and getting work in for myself as these larger projects draw to a close.

It’s certainly not easy, at least it’s something I am finding to be the case.

I may be unlucky. Work is put off until the new year or the client went elsewhere. It’s just very frustrating. But I guess that is a pitfall of freelance.

I’ve made an effort to get to know Web agencies. Certainly cannot harm to be talking to like minded people and if some work comes my way, even better. I’ve also been looking at freelance job sites. Now a job is a job, there are designers/developers out there just starting up and we know money is tight but I saw this advert posted www.freelancers.net/project/20429.

£80 for a full HTML site? Really?

Now as I said earlier, a job is a job but it’s a trend I am seeing more and more of. You provide us with the moon on a stick and we’ll pay you a tenth of what it’s probably worth.

For me, there is a lack of a proper Freelance job site. There are loads out there but majority of them seem to be low end budgets for a lot of work. However one site that I have seen go live quite recently was needhq.com/ It’s simple and once it gets busier, I see it being a great resource for freelancers looking for work and companies looking for freelancers.

I always thought freelance would be fun. I’d be able to work when I wanted. It’s true, it is fun and my working day can vary but by God is it hard when you are up against it.

It comes down to cash at the end of the day. We work to pay bills and live. When money isn’t coming in, its both worrying, stressful and can make you angry, especially if you’ve done the work and not seen the dough.

I’m sure, infact I’m certain I’m not alone in this.

Ideally I want to carry on freelancing. I’ve learnt so much working with the people I have worked with. I do enjoy it. I’ve built up a great network of friends and want it to grow. But the job should come with a health warning.