Self - Management & Professionalism

Freelance work:

A freelance worker works for them selves, the way that they manage themselves is by having control of their performance side and business side, they have a flexible contract meaning that they could choose to manage the money how they want. Also that means that there is a lot more organisation involved for the artist. As a freelancer you have to professional for example you wouldnt just work for a singer or a producer you wouldn also have to have a job to earn money to be able to pay for your career as a producer.
Freelancer signs temporary contracts for a certain amount of time this is known to be a session contract. Some other freelancers sign fixed term contracts witch would aply for a project or a job that would last for a while.

Finance in freelance:

The more difficult part of working as a freelancer whether in music or in a different business is the finance and knowing if you come under income tax and do a self assessment or personal allowance is key place to start.
Money makes the world go round and knowing how to control it is a crucial part in any business and as a freelancer you can choose to have someone controlling your budget, or you could save money and control the budget yourself, meaning you have to decide if you need extra money for the tours or maybe money for new gear, but also having enough money to pay tax.
One way to reduce the amount of tax that you pay is to keep reciepts of every cost that you had associated with your work, meaning if you wasted money on buying a computer for producing, instruments or even what ever things that are associated with your work you could get money taken off your tax to make the tax easier to pay. This form is called tax return and can be found in the hm avenue website.

Good and bad of working as a freelancer -

Good:
Being able to do whatever you want and whatever you like creatively and financially is a great option to have if your an independent person. Having a good organsiation skills, also being social could actually make you see profits and it is also great if you want to do other things other then music and keep music as a hobby because you will be allowed to be more flexible with your time choosing dates, time for whatever you like.

Bad:
The bad thing about being a freelancer is that having all this freedom could sometimes turn into a headache and a massive disaster if the artist is unorganised or unsocial, it could lead to stress, banked robbed and in extreme occasions leading the artist homeless. But these are extreme cases that could be a putt off to become a freelancer.

Being professional:

Being professional is sometimes just means following a task, but being a professional as a freelancer means taking responsibility of everything for example: how much money you need to rent a coach for a tour, making sure of time and the venue, controlling what comes in and what comes out of the bank, if you need to put your own money to secure the bands financial state. All these different examples is a few things that you need to be aware of when taking the decision of becoming a freelancer, being flexible with the time and having social skills meaning using the internet or meeting new friends within the industry, having a knowledge of the industry itself, being polite and friendly, being good with targets and time set for a specific release or tour dates are all commandments for a freelancer to follow if they are going to be successful in the industry.

Me as a freelancer:
If i was to become a freelancer i would make sure i would have a good knowledge all round, based on the business, based on the creative side of the music, i would make sure that i would have enough experience as a performer, work hard to increase my fan base as an artist, make friends with upcoming producers, create a portfolio both for the music that i produce and music that i would perform as an artist, i would also make sure to gain experience in mixing to get extra money, and i would also make sure that i had a job outside the music industry that would pay me a stable budget.

What im currently doing to meet my targets is a level 3 course in music production and sound engineering, im also learning about the music industry, learning to develop as an artist and also the theory in music. Im currently trying to creat a portfolio with a few of my recent work to show off my skills and im also working hard to socialise with people that work in the industry. I currently have a job with a stabled budget that can support me to make a start.