1. You will be doing up quotations for work you’re not sure if you know.

Although this doesn’t sound like the most professionally ethical thing to do.

The thing is, projects will come in all sorts of forms and sizes. With things evolving faster than before, one day you might be asked to quote for something that is not within your ‘specialties’, or might even be out of your technical skills.

But understand this: people would have a certain amount of faith in you before they approached you. It is now your duty to either be honest and inform that you would not be able to take up the project and perhaps recommend someone else, or if you agree to take up, make sure you’re ready for it. Well, swim or sink. Who says learning has to stop when school’s out?

2. You will be invited to quote for this and that. But it doesn’t indicate anything.

Being invited to quote merely indicates an interest. It does not guarantee the job nor indicate how much the client wants to engage your services.

Now, doing quotations is an art in itself, largely involving a lot of guess-timation work. It could also be a relatively ‘expensive’ task because when you’re self-employed, time is your currency. You could be spending a few good hours scoping the workload, estimating the hours, thinking of possible scenarios, calculating the risk levels, crunching the numbers, finally sending the quotation…

Only to never hear from that client again.

It might not be that your numbers gave them a heart attack. It could be because (i) it is their company policy to have 3–5 tenders, only to pick one perhaps cheapest or someone they’ve already been working with; (ii) the client got fired by the boss before receiving your quote, etc etc. Keep calm, follow up some time later, and if there’s still no reply, assume it must be Possibility (ii) and move on.

3. You will be juggling up to 8–10 roles, and be paid for just 1.

In name, you’re Designer. In reality, you’re also the Business Development Mgr., Accounts Mgr., HR Exec., Finance Exec., Marketing Manager, PR Consultant, Social Media Expert, Copywriter, System Adminstrator, and more.

You will need to manage projects, meet deadlines, go for meetings, source for new clients, prepare proposals and presentations, update your portfolio, keep track of finances, watch your web stats, manage your online profile, boost your SEO, etc etc.

Most of the time, your head will remain busy until you rest for the day.

4. Microsoft Excel will be your best friend, along with KeyNote and Calendar.

You will be doing spreadsheets to keep track of finances. You will also be using KeyNote for presentations and hail its almighty Presenter Notes as the the best thing invented. Calendar will be something you refer to often for deadlines and schedules.

You will also be trying out new things like conference-calling across different timezones, doing meetings remotely via awesome inventions like Join.Me which is a screen-sharing platform, hopping on to cloud-based software like Trello to manage your tasks and do team coordination. Things you never got the chance to try much as a designer in an agency.

In essence, you will no longer be bound by physical locations or timezones.

5. You will be doing many presentations, even to strangers.

Strangers being you have never met them before prior to the presentation. They can range from 2 of your industry partners to 20 people from 8 different departments, all staring intently and perhaps skeptically at your slides as you try to speak like someone who really knows her stuff (even when you really do). Sometimes, just hearing the designations alone is enough to rattle your confidence.

But you will brave on. Each experience will at best boost your self-confidence or at worst, toughen you up for the next one.

6. There will always be risks, unexpected expenses and changes.

Such as taking a project without very clear details and halfway into the project, the client requests something unexpected. It is beyond your technical abilities and you realise you must rope in external help.. at your own expenses. Ambiguity of terms might be somewhat nice to have so you have room for play, but you’ll learn that ambiguity might also cost you dearly. Specific terms will protect and serve you better over time.

Clients might also change roles or leave the company and someone else takes over, companies might close down, while all you can do is ride out the storm.

7. You will wonder why you need to justify rates to ‘that potential customer’.

Due to globalisation, many things are offered cheaply these days. Also, sometimes people might mentally dismiss the time required for development, and only think about the execution time for finished work. Which means they would not pay beyond $200 for the brand identity they hope you can magically create for them. This is a sign that they would not see the value of design — not your ideal clients.

Value your work or no one else will.

On the other hand, make your decisions carefully to avoid burnout or to feel unbalanced by that cheap project and end up not giving the best of your abilities.

8. You will be the best and worst critic of yourself.. and also the most important.

Freelancing can be quite a path of solitude. You would be taking a step back and asking yourself if the work meets your own standards, meets the clients’ expectations, and more importantly, if what you’re delivering will serve your professional reputation well in the long run.

9. You will be working, all the time.

On the plane while everyone is enjoying the in-flight entertainment system and looking forward to the destination; at a cafe while projecting the image of true freedom; on a coach going somewhere and totally missing the sceneries outside; at the hotel room while the world’s asleep. Because there will be no co-worker taking over your work while you’re away.

10. You will keep questioning yourself if freelancing is really for you.

There will always be challenges to manage, difficulties to solve, questions of self-worth of your skills and attitude, questions whether you’re really sure you want to give up the regular CPF into your account, whether client-management is something you will flourish at one day.

Freelancing is like a crash course of many things, but it is also one of the best rides I’ve ever taken.

No one can give you the right answer — it’s something you’ll be figuring out along the way.