Life as a freelance creative economy worker is appealing on many different levels. The chance to make your living using your imagination and creativity, from anywhere in the world is a dream come true for many people. While your mind and your hands are your primary moneymakers, you need to make several additional investments while working in a wide range of creative industries.
VPN
Cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities are on the rise. High-profile hacks and intrusions are now daily occurrences, with estimated trillions of dollars in losses due to cybercrime over the next few years. If you work freelance, there is no institution between you and your clients. Everything is direct, and businesses will start inquiring about how you, as a freelance worker, are taking yours and their cybersecurity seriously.
In addition to things like firewalls, antivirus software and staying up-to-date on the latest threats and vulnerabilities, investing in a reputable VPN will provide added encryption to all of your client communication. This is something you can advertise on your personal website or if asked directly by clients how you approach cybersecurity.
Adobe Creative Suite
The Adobe Creative Suite is the stock and trade of any freelance creative. These are the industry-leading programs you need to design, edit, touch-up and create. The cost of accessing the creative cloud applications–Premier, Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, Fresco, XD, Illustrator etcetera–is around $30.00 per month; not pocket change, but certainly not something that should make it hard to do business.
These 20+ desktop and mobile applications are must-haves for anyone who leverages and sells their creativity for a living, and should likely be one of the first major investments and one of the first items at the top of a budget forecast when starting up.
Graphics Tablet
While a lot can be done with just a mouse (though almost definitely not a trackpad), if you draw and illustrate for a living, a graphics pad should really be something you have in your creative arsenal. You will want to consider things like the size, resolution and colour accuracy of the screen, latency and pen pressure levels.
If you aren’t willing to make the investment in a graphics tablet, you can always treat your phone like one, but keep in mind that many older phones are ill-suited to this kind of work with respect to the qualities mentioned in the above paragraph.
Ergonomic Mouse and Keyboard
If you work from home, both of these should be no-brainers. Sitting for hours a day with your hands and wrists in uncomfortable positions is almost guaranteed to create joint problems. Strain injuries from the technology we use on a daily basis are common, and as a creative, your hands, wrists and fingers, which transfer your ideas to the screen, are your moneymakers. Just as professional drivers use gloves and nurses wear comfortable shoes, creatives need to look after their hands.
There are a ton of affordable and effective ergonomically-designed keyboards and mouses on the market. Even if you are a digital nomad, roaming from place to place, there are folding ergonomic keyboards that are easily fit in a carry-on bag.
Lower Back Support
Lower back pain and sedentary office work go hand-in-hand. While you might move around a bit more as a creative, especially if you are, say, a photographer, a significant portion of your time is spent sitting in front of a screen. If you work from a fixed location, another important investment related to your overall health and well-being is an ergonomically-designed office chair, especially one with lumbar support.
If you are on the move and work from multiple different locations in a given year, a lumbar support pillow that you can pack into your checked or carry-on luggage will also help relieve a lot of stress on your lower back. This is something that older creatives should pay special attention to as back problems tend to creep up on people. Once you’re 30, years of poor posture and back strain start to take their toll.
Conclusion
The freedom and, if it’s what you are passionate about, fulfilment that comes with working as a freelance creative, trading on your imagination and ideas, is hard to compare. Add in an ability to work from anywhere you want, and it’s easy to see why so many people choose this life. While it can be a grind to make it work, there are a number of prudent investments that you can and should make to ensure success and longevity in the industry, not to mention comfort while you ply your trade.
