How Freelancers Can Explain What The Heck We Do

“What do you do for a living?” Or, “What kind of work do you do?”

It’s a very common question, considered light conversation.

For a freelancer, though, it can be a bit of a curveball, depending on who you’re speaking to.

Usually, I say, “I’m a copywriter for online entrepreneurs and small businesses; I have my own business.” This raises a few questions:

What’s a copywriter?

What’s an online entrepreneur?

How did you start your own business?

Where do you get your clients?

I love talking about my work! So for me, this is always fun. And in many ways, I think I’ll always be learning how to tailor my response for the situation.

But there’s one word that I’ve permanently dropped from my vocabulary: freelancer.

I used to love that word. To me, a freelancer sounded like an independent spirit who carved her own path. I guess I focused on the “free(dom)” part.

Yet for some reason when I described myself as a freelancer to others, they’d tilt their heads and say, “Aw. Well don’t worry, you’ll find something permanent soon!”

To them, the word “freelancer” seemed to highlight the perceived lack of job security and no benefits. And there’s no way anyone would choose that on purpose. Right?

Wrong. (As we know!)

Since that’s the exact opposite of how I feel about my job, I retired that word from my vocabulary.

But I wondered if I was the only one who felt this way. I asked this question around some Facebook groups and got some fascinating responses.

“I don’t use the word freelancer anymore. I try to have better positioning by identifying myself as a consultant… ‘Freelancer’ is like a hired gun who is just a genuine performer with no added value (in the client’s point of view). A ‘consultant’ is someone with expertise on particular issues who can provide a return on investment to the customer.”

-Sebastien De Bollivier, Business Consultant and Web Developer

“It depends on who I’m talking to! If I’m talking to peers, I would say ‘freelancer’. If I’m talking to someone who I’m trying to impress, like a potential client or someone who’s higher up than me, I say ‘consultant’. Or I leave it out entirely and say something like, ‘WordPress developer.’”

-Laurence Bradford, WordPress Developer

“I don’t use the word ‘freelancer’ when describing myself, because I find that people don’t take me seriously if I do. They think it’s a part-time hobby, not a business with clients and a team of people all over the world. I only stopped using the term when I went full-time at the beginning of this year. But it’s amazing the change in reaction people have when I say ‘I’m a freelance web developer’ as opposed to, ‘I run my own international digital agency.’”

-Kelly Gordon, Online Business Strategist

So how about you? “What do you do for a living?”