If you are from the EU then you could currently use your right to a resident permit based on right to travel and probably transition to a B based on self-employ

If you are from the EU then you could currently use your right to a resident permit based on right to travel and probably transition to a B based on self-employment before your time was up. But as noted in the article, you could run into trouble since the vote indicated quotas that would somehow reduce residents in that group, while the treaties don't allow such a control. So some kind of odd technicality could develop. If you are German then no one should have told you there's no possibility of freelancing, but it might make more sense to first take on enough Swiss customers freelancing from Germany, or as a commuter to Basel, etc. I would just recommend being conservative about maintaining a reasonable/stable salary sourced from Switzerland when renewing a residence permit. If you really mean contractor gigs from abroad, everyone I met doing that actually works permanently for a placement agency, and most of them are not very nice. IMO it is just as easy (or hard) to find a job directly and better.