Some time ago we dealt with the everyday life of a freelance translator and made it quite clear that working from home and having to make ends meet on your own was definitely not a bed of roses. However, it does have some unbeatable and really attractive advantages.
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Autonomy
When you work as a freelance translator, you manage your own business. In other words, you are your own boss. There will be nobody else but you to control the quality of the work you do or how well you invest your time. And what’s even best, you can forget about that terrifying boss that chased you even in your dreams expecting you to cope with impossible deadlines and workloads.
Flexibility
Other important advantage is the overall flexibility that you gain working as a freelance translator. In the first place, you can manage your working hours as you please. Since you are not stuck up with a desk job, it is up to you to decide whether you want to spend the whole night awake translating that document or if you’d rather be an early bird, finish things quickly and have the rest of the day just for you. Besides, and this is especially attractive if you are a stay-at-home-mom, it is definitely much easier to arrange your family schedule and spend quality time with your husband and children.
In the second place, you can take your work with you wherever you go and wherever you want. If the day is sunny and warm, you can easily grab your notebook and find a nice spot in the park. And if it is rainy and cold, you don’t have to leave your home in order to reach your office.
In the third place, you can manage your own work load. It is you as a freelance translator who decides how much you want to work, if you’d rather take huge and highly demanding projects or if you’d rather take small projects from different clients. In relation to this, you also decide if you want to work while watching your favorite TV program or if you want to do it listening to the radio or to some music.
Income and Expense Control
Being a freelance translator allows you to control how much money you earn and how much money you spend. Many freelancers work really hard for a couple of months to make as much money as they can so that they can take things easier or plan a trip in other time of the year. There are many expenses you can say goodbye to as you don’t have to leave your home to work: there’s no commuting to and from the office, there are no lunches to buy, you don’t need to spend money on clothes and you save on time too!
Global Perspective
This is probably one of the most attractive advantages of being a freelance translator. Living in a global world as we are, and enjoying the benefits of the Internet, as a freelancer you can easily apply for translation jobs not only in your area but also across the world.
Networking
Even though you may miss the daily gossip at the office, taking freelance translation jobs does not mean that you work totally isolated from the rest of society. You will find yourself meeting and talking to lots of interesting people from everywhere either through forums, Skype, email, social networks and, of course, the telephone.
