Conclusion: is there life after freelancing?

When I started freelancing, I didn’t think of staying there for long. It seemed to me that he would give me freedom: free me from the need to travel to work, from working on someone else’s terms, from financial “ceilings.” I believed that I would quickly gain financial independence there, after which I would move on: I would open my own company or several, accumulate capital, and start investing. I couldn’t imagine making a custom interactive prototype for someone when I’m old.

But in vain. In my life there was a wonderful example of a craftsman who, until his death, did what he was really good at, and I did not notice it. My godfather is a wonderful architect who achieved great success during the Soviet Union and happily took on one-time orders even after seventy years, when he had not worked officially for a long time. And I saw how animated he was while working. Of course, like any freelancer, he periodically complained to me about his clients and about the mess with payments and work procedures, but the feeling of his own relevance outweighed all the negative aspects.

Therefore, it all depends on the circumstances and preferences of each person. One will work in the company until retirement, and then retire and, for example, take care of the dacha and vegetable garden. Another will spend his entire life freelancing. Someone will open their own business. And at any moment a person can change his occupation and then return back again. For example, my friend Anton Grigoriev, having worked hand in hand with me as a freelancer for many years, at some point returned to hire. At the same time, the acquired skills helped him immediately occupy a much higher position than before. And nothing will stop Anton from switching to freelancing again at any time.

An experienced freelancer with a profession that is in demand at any time will never be left without orders. And if the profession becomes outdated and disappears, then he will not need much time to master a new one. After all, professional skills are only part of the skills a freelancer needs. Everything else - the ability to easily meet and communicate with people, work with documents, look for clients, take on obligations and be responsible for them - will be useful in any business.

I myself, as you already know, being a freelancer, tried to scale my activities: I found assistants, trained them and delegated the work of creating interactive prototypes. But he gave up too early and abandoned this idea. It is quite possible that I will return to it in the future.

In 2018, I stopped actively selling my services and started working on the one-page website builder LP151. I came up with an idea, made a prototype and approached an investor with it. I found a person who organized the development, and he himself retrained as a product owner (Product Owner (English) - project owner), whose tasks included managing the team, organizing work processes, tactical and strategic planning. I've benefited from many of the skills I learned as a freelancer, but I was surprised to find that they weren't enough to manage a team. And again I had to study and get better.

In 2022, specifically for this project, I opened a legal entity, LLC LP151, where I took the position of General Director. At the same time, I continued to design interfaces as a freelancer, I just did it less actively: I stopped looking for clients and worked with those who contacted me directly.

Meanwhile, Anton Grigoriev began selling advertising placements in his Telegram channel “UX Notes”. And this is another striking example of what freelancing can develop into. All these years, Anton took notes on every educational material he read on the topic of interface design and posted them in the public domain. This has led to the fact that over time, an impressive audience of highly specialized specialists has gathered around him, which many advertisers want to reach. Thus, Anton’s habit of sharing information with readers not only helped him get many freelance clients, but also allows him to earn extra money from advertising today.

Konstantin Malyshev, a school friend who “matched” me with my very first client, was also actively involved in freelancing. And at some point he became a co-founder of the St. Petersburg website development company “Beuit” (later the company was renamed “Tektosoft”). Afterwards, he took leading programming positions at large enterprises. And at the time of writing this text, he is leading the development of his own IT product.

Roman Shiryaev, whom I have known since university, after his fifth year at Finek, received additional legal education and got a job. Years passed, he changed several places and positions and eventually found himself in a situation where they seemed to be paying money, but the atmosphere in the team was not very good. Therefore, at my own peril and risk, I went freelance. For several months, Roman made money from requests from past clients, plus he found a couple of additional customers. But this was not enough, and I had to admit defeat as a free performer and get a job again. However, during a short-term freelancing, Roman mastered a new direction in his profession (legal services in the IT field) and his newly acquired competencies were precisely required in the new place, so everything turned out very well.

Evgeny Shevelev, another close friend of mine, inspired by my example, left his job and began freelancing. He was hired as an engineer. Before leaving, he mastered a new profession: promotion using contextual and targeted advertising. Evgeniy found his first clients in advance, and also prepared a replacement for himself at the workplace he was leaving. And since then he has been engaged in handicrafts, earning a comfortable amount of money for himself. He made a couple of attempts to scale his activities and launch his own project, but they were not successful.

Alexander Shchipakov, my colleague and friend, a professional interface designer, started freelancing at the same time as me and did it in parallel with his main job. There were periods when he completely refused to be hired, then returned, having found a suitable project or position, and then again left for free work. As a result, he settled on this format: the main work is freelancing under an agreement with an individual entrepreneur, occasionally - framework contract agreements in individual projects, plus regular attempts to create something of his own (a project or a new service).

These stories show that all people are different, and you never know how this or that attempt to change your life may end. The number of your own projects and undertakings obviously increases the chance of achieving good financial results, but does not guarantee this.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to take someone else's path and follow it, achieving the same success. Not everyone will be able to build a queue of clients and inflate prices for their services to the skies, even if they try very hard and do everything according to the instructions. But people who try to do this decide to give themselves such a chance in life, and this costs a lot.