Is 2020 the year you quit being the employee and go freelance?

If it is, you’ll be in very good company!

Whether you’re seeking more autonomy, being able to better balance work around family or are fed up playing patriarchal office politics, there has been a staggering 63% rise of highly skilled women going freelance, a core factor driving the UK freelance boom of the past 10 years (Association of Independent Professionals and Self-Employed (IPSE).

The attraction of working for yourself is certainly appealing to many in our Women in Sustainability community. Within 2 hours of announcing the  ‘How to Go Freelance’ webinar all spaces were filled and we had to buy in more capacity to meet the demand for this live event!

Helping us explore our topic were Traci Lewis, Co-Founder of Catalyse Change CIC and Director of Sustain-Live Consulting, Kate Bruintjes, Director of Green Unlimited and Tause (Victoria) Page, Director, VP Comms, Co-Chair of UKSSD and founder of @LoveHalsemereHateWaste.

To help ensure we framed the panel discussion around the areas of greatest interest to our audience, attendees were asked to complete a short survey upon registering. Perhaps unsurprisingly how to find clients and create financial stability were by far the areas of greatest concern. Worry about lack of income came out as the top barrier to starting to work for yourself as well. Overall, three categories of concern could be clearly identified.

• Practical issues: Such as acquiring new business and administration skills, time management, finding and maintaining clients and cash flow.
• Mindset and fears: Lack of confidence in selling self/ services, maintaining motivation, feeling isolated, being solely responsible, getting work life balance right.
• Purpose and ‘bigger picture’: These included not knowing what goals to pursue/ focus on, how to sustain and keep the business going and creating ‘biggest impact’.

Our panellists did an incredible job within their 60 minutes to cover as much as they did on the above, with some very valuable insights, top tips and practical suggestions being made by all. Unfortunately due to a technical issue, the webinar did not record as intended but we were able to create an ‘almost’ transcript of the live session.

You can download this very helpful document through clicking on the link below.

WINS Webinar How to Go Freelance Final

Attendees who joined us live found the session incredibly valuable and helpful, so if going freelance is something you’re pondering (or if you’ve already taken the plunge), do take 5 minutes to read the transcript through – you’ll discover plenty to learn on how to make going freelance work for you!

Women in Sustainability will be doing more throughout 2020 to support our community looking to go freelance and set up on their own. Do keep an eye on our monthly updates and additional alerts. If you’ve not already signed up to be on our mailing list, you can do so here.