If I were starting as a freelancer in 2025, this is what I'd do

The exact steps I would take - from 20 years of freelancing

If you’ve just gone freelance, or are about to soon, then it might feel like you’re arriving at a party just as the cake’s been eaten and most of the good wine drunk. You might hear freelancers tottering around regaling you about “the good old days of freelancing” when people got paid well, and it wasn’t such a frantic scrum for work. If you hear anyone tell you that, you have my permission to slap them in the face for telling you such wanton lies.

Here’s the truth: there were no “good old days” when it comes to freelancing, and I should know, because I’ve been in the game on and off for two decades. Calling it “the game” makes me sound like I’m selling my services in a dodgy car park, which to be fair, is what being a freelancer can sometimes feel like.

It is such a peculiar human quality to wax nostalgic over ‘better times’, which often either didn’t exist or was far more complicated than what we see through our sepia-tinted view.

At the risk of sounding like I’m in a retirement home already, 20 years ago, there was no social media, websites were rudimentary and beyond the reach of an average freelancer, there were no smart phones that can now film incredible video and audio, no Canva, Otter, CapCut or any other apps that mean we can be graphic designers, video editors and transcribe interviews in seconds.

So if I were going freelance now? This is what I would do.