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Freelancer in Focus



RORY BAXTER
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How have you found working freelance? What are the highs and lows, the frustrations and bonuses?
 
I’ve worked on a freelance basis since 1992 (wow, 18 years, definitely the longest job I’ve ever had) and have really enjoyed it, although it did take some time to convince people in the early days that just because somebody works out of their conservatory doesn’t mean they can’t do a job equally as professional as the person in the high-rate office in town.

I love the freedom and flexibility freelancing gives me, which has been especially important in recent years having adopted two children and with both my parents seriously ill. The fact that I can lend myself to writing on virtually any subject also means that I get to work with people from a much wider range of industries and sectors than if I was working for one company. I particularly loved one agency contract that took me to Holland for a week working with BP. They were great guys and we got on famously as if we’d worked together for years.
I haven’t had many frustrations to be honest, although one agency run by a friend at the time did go bust owing me £33,000 a few years back and I never got a penny of it back. There was a lot of work involved to reach that figure, believe me. I suppose my only big frustration has been when one design agency kept reducing the hourly rate we had agreed (nearly halving it in the end), saying that if they were going to put more work my way they didn’t want me to earn so much. And this was despite the fact that I regularly sat in meetings with their clients for hours on end unpaid. In one instance I went to an eight-hour meeting that I couldn’t bill for and they told me off when I politely excused myself for two minutes at 9pm to call my recently adopted kids and say goodnight! Although the work was worth several thousand pounds to me I’m afraid I had to stop working with the agency for the sake of my own dignity. Shame, because I really liked the work and the staff at the agency.

What are the biggest challenges for you for the rest of 2010?

Times have been very tough for the past couple of years because the downside of having the freedom to be at your mother’s or father’s hospital bedside every day and being able to turn down contracts on a matter of principle is that you are not earning and, unfortunately, money is pretty essential when the number of people in your household doubles and your car has to become more practical than fun. So my biggest challenge is to get a couple of good long-term contracts that I can really get my teeth into. I would say that 99 per cent of the people I have worked with in the past 18 years have been absolutely fantastic and I’m not sure how many people with full-time jobs can say that.


       Has Freelancers In The UK helped you? We’d like to think so, but how?

Freelancers in the UK has helped me get work that otherwise wouldn’t come my way and sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with all the opportunities flooding into my inbox. It’s a great way for companies to announce their needs to those of us who think we can meet them.

We’ve all got ash fatigue and are dreaming of sunshine! What are your summer holiday plans this year?

Luckily for me I can’t afford to go abroad this year (one problem with being freelance is that if you have regular daily work you can lose hundreds of pounds by going on holiday while those who are employed can sit back in the knowledge that they are getting paid while lying in the sun!) so we won’t have to worry about what a volcano or a BA pilot decides to do, we’re just going to hop in the car (my wife’s so it will be a bit tight with all the camping gear and the dog) and we’re going to have a fortnight on a campsite in Wales. I’ll have my laptop with me, of course, but I’ll certainly chill out in the afternoons, evenings and weekends.

Finally, what's your favourite film?
 
The unusual and wonderful interest me (and hopefully show an eclectic taste that reflects my eagerness to keep my horizons as broad as possible), so my top three films would be Memento, Citizen Kane and Moulin Rouge. The creativity in each of them is outstanding and inspiring and I always respect other people’s talent.
   
 
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