How co-working taught me to embrace the freelance life
I used to hate being freelance. I only ended up self-employed because I was trying to work in the arts, in the middle of a recession, and there weren’t any jobs. I took what I could get, which was a freelance admin role for a tiny company with no office, no payroll, and almost no money. I stuck it out for 2 years before returning to uni, hoping a Masters might help me secure a ‘proper job.’
This early experience showed me the unglamorous, lonely and financially precarious nature of freelancing first hand, but I also caught a glimpse of the good stuff. Setting my own timetable. No horrible commute. Flexibility and variety. These were the things I held onto when, six years later I found myself accepting another freelance role, with the saving grace of a decent fee that enabled me to afford a membership at my local co-working community. Signing up was one of the best things I’ve ever done.
Co-working for me is first and foremost about combating loneliness. I am a people person and there’s only so much comfort I can take from the radio, Facebook and the occasional lunch with a friend who’s in maternity leave. I was lucky to find not just a space, but a community at Impact Brixton (formerly the Impact Hub), with staff and resources dedicated to connecting the members, and regular tea breaks, lunches and events to facilitate this. This is not a given in co-working spaces, and you have to work at it by introducing yourself to strangers. But it helps to be in an office where smiling and speaking to each other is actively encouraged.
Initially co-working just made self-employment bearable for me. But slowly, via many conversations with the freelancers and entrepreneurs I met at Impact Brixton, I started to actually enjoy the freelance life. I realised I had the best of both worlds: complete control over many aspects of my work, while still surrounded by a group of passionate, interesting and talented people who I could learn from and collaborate with. I soon found myself offering work to co-workers who had just the skills I was looking for, and attending professional development events as well as socials. I wasn’t looking for new or different work, but the entrepreneurial spirit of my co-workers was infectious, and got me thinking about how I might move towards a lifestyle that was wholly curated to serve my needs.
Another few years down the line, I’ve given up the regular work completely, and gone ‘Properly Freelance.’ I’ve started a Podcast of the same name, where I interview freelancers about the highs and lows of self-employment (it’s not all roses but we try to laugh at the annoying bits). And after 10 years of working in the arts I’ve launched a sideline in copywriting for a broader range of clients, inspired to do so by the amazing freelancers I’ve met at Impact Brixton who are smashing it providing services that literally make the world go round. Getting a ‘proper job’ has never been further from my mind.
