Should I go freelance?

Dear Doctor Spin,

I read on a blog somewhere that the average PR freelancer earns around £60K a year and gets 20 weeks holiday. It seems like a no-brainer that I should throw in the towel with my current agency and go it alone. Any tips on how should occupy the 20 weeks holiday a year I will now have?

Before telling your current employer where to stick it, I would offer some words of caution. The calculation for the average freelance wage has a technical description known as a BOAFP (Back Of A Fag Packet). The CIPR only estimates that the freelance market is worth £200m a year and that  there are 3,300 freelancer PRs. Remember, this is a trade body for the PR industry - so any figures quoted should be treated with a healthy dose of scepticism.

There may well be freelance PRs out there earning £60K, but I doubt very much whether you would attain that healthy income in your early days. First and foremost, you need to have people prepared to hire you to do the work - unless you already have a high profile within your potential client base, you may find that your first 20 weeks are spent trying to drum up business rather than browsing through exotic holiday destination web sites.

Nevertheless, freelance PR does suit many people - however, you should examine your motivations more closely before taking the plunge.

Comments

[Beeron]

Very useful

[Branden]

Ya sure!!