Why did I choose to become a freelancer?

Preamble

Today I want to share why I chose to become independent a little over a year ago, in April 2023.

This is, of course, a purely personal perspective 🧐.

My journey as an employee

I worked as an employee in four different companies over eight years:

• 3 years (during my apprenticeship)
• 4 years (after finishing my Master’s degree)
• 4 months (after leaving my Lead Developer role)
• 8 months

I started as a VB.NET developer, then moved to C#.

I later had the great opportunity to become an Application Lead (a mix between technical project manager and lead developer) 🙌.

Three years in that role were extremely enriching — what an opportunity for someone early in their career.

Approaching the start of my fourth year, I felt I was hitting a glass ceiling in my day-to-day development work. I wanted to keep progressing by confronting what we had built with other practices in other companies.

So I decided to take the risk of leaving a comfortable position, where my abilities (good or bad!) no longer had to be proven.

Two companies later, thanks to those experiences and colleagues, I had a clearer understanding of my profile 👏.

What kind of profile?

I enjoy learning new business domains and confronting my experience with heterogeneous environments.

I also wanted a few working days per month not dedicated to a specific client or project.

I wanted time for technology watch and R&D — to study ongoing evolutions and keep offering relevant, up-to-date skills.

For me, this felt more legitimate as an independent than as an employee.

Beyond that, in recent years I discovered an entrepreneurial interest in activities not directly related to IT (though many fields are indirectly connected today).

At the moment, especially real-estate renovation and property management 😍.

Becoming independent through my own company allowed more flexibility in reinvesting income from IT consulting into other ventures.

That last point ultimately tipped the balance toward freelancing.

Transition to freelancing

The shift happened in March 2023.

I won’t go into all the administrative details — advisors, lawyers, or accountants explain them far better.

Still, it took dozens of hours of research to anticipate the steps.

One advantage I had: I had already created companies before. I also had accounting and legal notions from banking experience and property management.

Of course, everything can be delegated to professionals.

But I’m one of those people who prefer learning by doing before delegating — for better or worse 😑.

In this transition, three elements of emotional intelligence — those famous soft skills — matter:

• self-awareness
• confidence in one’s abilities
• perspective

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses helps position yourself better with prospects.

And depending on context, a strength can become a weakness and vice versa.

Confidence is essential when you approach a dozen prospects and get several rejections…

Which is why perspective helps emotionally if it’s already part of your mindset.

And now?

I believed — almost knew — that freelancing would help me manage my schedule better and reach a 4-day workweek on contracts longer than three months (though by definition, estimates aren’t certainties).

Over the last 12 months, I can say the estimate was accurate.

That said, I don’t think employment makes this rhythm impossible.

Ultimately, I’m convinced it’s more a mindset: during my last employee period, I worked 90% for eight months.

Accepting to bill less and therefore earn less 💰.

Freelance life is not necessarily “easy.” But my definition of easy may differ from yours or anyone else’s.

What I like is precisely that it isn’t easy.

That I’m not in comfort.

That I must question myself, study environments, find clients, convince prospects, and learn new skills.

I’ve spoken with companies recruiting employees rather than freelancers. I asked why — what was the blocker?

“A freelancer won’t feel invested in the company”

Like many freelancers have said before, this can be true for both employees and independents 🤔.

Personally, I feel a stronger commitment to what I deliver for clients.

“Some freelancers are mercenaries — they only care about money”

Of course, some are.

But every world has money-driven people — not only freelancing 🙄.

“A freelancer won’t stay long”

It depends.

Some companies maintain buildings for years.

Employees stay 6 months, 1 year, 10 years.

CEOs remain 6 months or 6 years.

Partners 1 year or 30 years.

Freelancers 3 weeks or 3 years 🙂.

What matters is quality, right?

Conclusion

Life is not black or white — it’s a set of nuances. 👐