What irks me as a freelancer, is people don’t see that you really DO own a company, and you run it on the same principles a multi-billion dollar one would.
It’s just that I have to end up doing everything by myself, because there’s no one else.
I’m the President, Treasurer, Accountant, Legal Advisor, Business Development Officer, Contract Negotiator, Human Resources (hah! mostly for vacation planning) and so on.
So it gets my goat when people think I’m anything BUT professional, competent and aware of what my legal responsibilities and obligations are.
I don’t know everything, but I’m not an idiot.
Just the other day, someone remarked casually to me:
“Well but you don’t have a contract.
I mean, you started working without one.”
I replied back in confusion:
“But I do. Legally, I have a contract.
It was an agreement signed between my company and [insert multi-billion dollar company name here]. I had a lawyer draw up a draft contract, I filled in the terms & we signed it together.
I never would have started working without one.“
Person:
“*rolls eyes* Well yeah, you have a piece of paper, but it’s not an OFFICIAL contract that was written by THEM.”
Since when did having a piece of paper with some other “official” company letterhead and logo on it, became an “official” contract?
I let it slide, because I don’t want to get into stupid he said, she said fights, and if they want to bluster, they can go ahead and do it — I’m the one who is making the money, whether or not some employee thinks I’m “official” or not.
But when did the definition of a “company” become “you must have more than 1 employee”?
Technically speaking yeah, I’m a freelancer, but I am also legally incorporated.
If I didn’t have to be legally incorporated, I wouldn’t have bothered — it’s more administrative & tax work to be a one-woman corporation than a one-woman sole proprietor.
If I sign an agreement as the President under my corporate entity, with another person who is an executive in a ,much bigger corporate entity — it’s still a contract.
It’s a legally binding agreement.
It isn’t some FAKE contract where they can pretend they don’t have to pay me because the letterhead says my company name instead of theirs — I’d simply stop working & get a lawyer to make easy work out of getting what I’m owed in a court of law, plus damages.
This isn’t the only instance, either.
Generally speaking, people think you aren’t worth much if you aren’t someone (preferably huge and powerful) from a big company, which is just silly.
Every huge, successful corporation, started out as a one or two-person operation.
This is stuff I can only rant on my blog about, because I have to stay professional — calm, cool & collected.
There’s no sense in getting into pointless arguments with people who don’t affect whatsoever, what you bring home and bank — it just causes workplace animosity and tension for no real reason.
Then I just look at pictures like this and I instantly feel better 🙂
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I had this encounter recently with a woman who also ran her own one-woman operation… but who said she made a point of trying to present her organization as if it was much larger, which is something I don’t do, it seems so disingenuous. She had this way of referring to people who work at corporations as “big people” and freelancers/entrepreneurs like me and her as “small people” which I found condescending. I could care less about the “prestige” conferred merely by being associated with a large corp, in my limited experience it seems like that doesn’t matter much, except to other corp. snobs.
I found that once I got over my intimidation with the idea of working with a corporation, and just started dealing with the people as I would with any person, business became so much better.
Snobbish is perhaps the best descriptor for her behaviour. I was thinking ignorant & uninformed, more than snobby… but all these words would do the job nicely.
That picture is freaking adorable.
And you're absolutely right. People are stupid – heck, you can put all of your checking account info on a piece of paper and sign it and it can be processed as a check – you don't have to have something from the bank.
People don't get it.
I so sympathize! I work from home as a freelance writer as well as owning my own computer repair business.
While some seem to consider it “neat” that I can “stay at home” they fail to take in the work I actually do and think that I am a bum who can hang out or do whatever at any time it is convenient for them.
It is frustrating to have your business taken for granted. I may not have a corporation or make the big bucks (I don’t have to) but I work just like the next person–just a bit differently!
Keep your chin up!
Funny, this is the opposite of our experience as a so-call ed microbusiness. Most companies use contractors and vendors and so on all the time. It's common. Everything from janitors to high-faluting business plan guys. Those are all their own companies.
This must just be some idiot in HR who can't even wrap her brain around the idea that YOU own the company.
I got to say, the worst part of doing freelance work or even just owning a small company without a traditional store front, is dealing with people who don't take you seriously. My husband and I have a small company and I've also done freelance work of my own. Call me paranoid, but it seems like most people don't believe that I have a job at all. I remember one time I got my hair cut by someone new and they were asking what I do and described all these different projects I had been working on and then she asked, "So, do you have a job?" Ugh! And it's not just strangers. One of my siblings recently commented, "No one seems to know what you do." It's not for a lack of explaining, I assure you! It just goes in one ear and out the other.
Anyhow, good for you on having a contract! A lot of people doing freelance work still don't know how important that is! There are times when I wish I had had one, especially when working with the type of people I didn't think I'd need one for. That's when you especially need one!
Agreed. You don’t get any credit for having a job, because for them, it’s like you’re a bum who works only when they can, and you’re desperate for money all the time, which is not the case.
It’s not my place to educate them anyway. I like to keep the peace, so I just keep quiet.
No one knows what I do either, except BF. I like having him as my support 🙂 Even blogging is a job, because I DO make some money off it through Adsense, but it isn’t enough to live on…
Yeah, exactly! I still get people suggesting things I could do for work! Ugh! I know they're mostly well-intentioned, but it's pretty darn insulting.
I'm really grateful for my DH. He really appreciates the work I do and has always been so supportive.
And yes, blogging can definitely be a job. Some people deliver pizzas on the weekends for extra money, some people blog part-time. It's no less of a job.