3 ms·

> Many freelancers still see themselves as mere coders / temporary employees whereas I think they rather should consider themselves business problem solvers and

> Many freelancers still see themselves as mere coders / temporary employees whereas I think they rather should consider themselves business problem solvers and entrepreneurs. Many freelancers are coders and temporary employees. There are freelancers who have the skills and experience necessary to become members of the consultant class, but there are many freelancers who don't. Just because you can code doesn't mean you're a business problem solver or entrepreneur, or want to be. If I need to hire somebody to knock out some code for a few months, I'm not going to hire somebody who is pitching himself or herself as a panacea for all of my business problems. Solos should be thoughtful about the personal and professional implications of their positioning. It's one thing to want the financial rewards of consulting, but it's another thing to deal with the day-to-day demands.

BjoernKW 11y ago
There is a clear distinction between being a freelancer and an employee - whether temporary or not: However small it might be, a freelance business is still a business. If you don't want to deal with all that marketing, accounting, business development and management stuff that comes with that you shouldn't be a freelancer in the first place. Then there are different degrees of business problems: Somebody churning out cheap logos on Fiverr solves a vastly different and vastly smaller problem than someone who say troubleshoots manufacturing processes at a large plant but both are still business problems. That doesn't mean that someone being able to solve them is a panacea nor should he probably market himself as such.