What you need to know
Before going freelance
Are you an experienced professional, and do you want to work exciting and challenging projects, have a more flexible work-life and more autonomy over your personal finances? Then becoming a freelancer (also called contractor or simply being self-employed) may be the right choice for you.
Especially if you consider yourself an expert within fields such as IT, Engineering, Finance, Management, Life Sciences, Business Development and Sales – these are some of the areas where we experience the biggest demand for external specialists, and where you can truly benefit financially and professionally from running a freelance business.
In Denmark it’s difficult to find accurate statistics on the number of freelancers, as they usually combine ‘atypical’ employment forms – such as freelancers, temp-workers, those who combine a part-time employment with freelance jobs or platform economy gigs. However, everything indicates that freelancing is on the rise. And the reason for this: The freedom. As a freelancer or contractor, you can independently choose your own projects and manage your own time.
What are the biggest benefits to freelancing, according to Danish contractors?
► 67% say flexible work hours
► 57% say financial autonomy
► 53% say self-management – i.e. being your own boss
*Freelance Market Report 2023 by Hays Danmark
The biggest barriers to becoming a freelancer
financial
uncertainty
acquisition
Freelancing usually equals a higher hourly pay, as you do not have to share company profits with anyone. However, you do have to remember that your hourly rate does not equal your hourly take-home pay. Because you're responsible for periods without projects (and thus no income), costs for bookkeeping and equipment, as well as paying your own pension, insurance, parental leave, vacation and sick pay. These things (and taxes) have to be covered by your hourly rate as well.
Your initial experience may be a bit rough, from a financial perspective. And unless you're a finance professional, we'd always recommend having someone to help you with bookkeeping in the beginning – because although you may be able to do it yourself, we'd advise you spend your time and energy on selling and performing your core service. Later on in this guide, we'll walk you through how to decide what your hourly rate should be.
When you’re starting out as a freelancer, it is important to consider whether you prefer being on-site or work from home – or a combination. And choose your projects based on this. It’s difficult to say what is most attractive to potential clients, as some companies will exclusively want freelancers who can work on-site, while your selection of projects may be much greater if you’re either willing to travel or work remote. This is really industry dependent.
It may seem trivial, but if you work a lot from home, be sure to implement some rules. You may benefit from specifying your working hours and sticking to them, or you may enjoy the flexibility of working at different times of the day – but ensure that clients only contact you within a specified time-slot, so that you always have some free-time which is completely undisturbed.
At Hays we have a lot of great resources on how to keep a great work-life balance and maintain your mental health. Because at times it can also be lonely to be self-employed – for many of us, our colleagues are a large part of our social life; and if you don't have someone to share the ups and downs with, it can make your path to become a freelancer full-time more difficult. No matter what your circumstances are, it's important to take care of your mental health in the process.
If you consider the above points an opportunity, we recommend you read the next chapters of our freelance guide: The step-by-step guide to becoming a freelancer and the biggest challenges to becoming self-employed. Here we will elaborate on some of the above, and give some good tips on how to decide on your hourly rate, how to manage your bookkeeping when you start a business, how to work with difficult clients and how to find projects.