The new job for life

“When I first started freelancing in 2003, I didn’t see it as a career choice. I’d spent 10 years heading up a healthcare charity, followed by a wonderful job specialising in strategy and marketing for a life assurance company.

“Since then, I’ve come to the view that every widely held notion about job security is wrong. Many people think an employed job is secure and freelancing is insecure. I think the opposite is true. Freelancing is the new job for life. A freelancer can build and develop multiple opportunities in parallel in a way an employee cannot.

Clever rabbits have lots of holes to run down

I specialise in innovation, strategic marketing and customer services, mainly in the financial, government and charity sectors, but make it a rule to always have three or four possibilities bubbling away. A client (and friend) of mine once described it as ‘a clever rabbit always has lots of holes to run down.’ I like that.

Generosity

“An important mindset is to be generous. We all need a bit of luck and help – no one can have too big a favour bank. For me, I’m always scrupulous about helping people I know – sharing intellectual capital, helping with leads or  review something. You’ll develop the most amazing network.

“Recently, I’ve put a lot of development into my website and social network.  These give freelancers the most incredible opportunity to build strong brands – both for our network and people outside our network. I cross publish a lot of what I write on strategic marketing and innovation and the content gets picked up in the most unexpected of places.

As freelancers we make our own security.”

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