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DG
Active Contributor
6,301

Last week I got the message that I had nod expected. There is no more budget for me to continue on the project and that I’ll have to stop soon on the project. It was customer has been my primary customer that I have worked 4 days a week on for 1½ year. I have been able to learn a lot and got the chance to develop a lot of interesting projects for them.

I do have another customer that I do work for some time, but it is only around 20 hours a month so it allows me to pay my bills. 

That mean that I a month or so I’m without a project and don’t know where I should be working next time. Scary. And then it is just about emblazing the uncertainty. I think it is one of the most important things of being a freelancer. Be able to accept that you don’t have a project.

I have somewhat hoped that I’ll be able to finish the project and done my planning from that as everybody else in the organization. We did not know enough on the estimation when we started the project, so we had to re-estimate the rest of the project. That turned out to be too much for the current budget period.

This is a common message that freelance consultants get because it is the way the business model work. You are a temporary resource for customers to help release some of their problems with either lack of recourses or competences. I did share a blog about the freelance business model last week

When I learned that I was going to end the project, I was a bit sad. Think not to be able to finish the projects that we were working on. After I get to accept and remember at that is about time to find something else to work on. The organization has been generous enough to give a good notice, so I can finish the things that I’m working on and make sure things get handed over. It seems to be possible to do a good handover and not move too much into production on the last day. 

Why can I see this that being “fired” was it is called in other situations as a good thing. In a normal position it would be really bad because you would have to go job hunting to find a new job. You will go on the unemployment funds.

As a freelancer I have my company that I can save money so I can live of that when I don’t have any project.

For a freelancer it is much easier. Well there still need to find a job. But the job can be much smaller as just a project. There’re good options to see even more from it.

I have been asked for some different projects over the last few months, so I believe that there may be a good opportune to find a project where they can use my SAP PI skills.

It may sometime be easier to find 20-100.000$ for a solving a business problem than hiring a person that requires training and will stay at the company for ever.

Another bright thing is that I soon get to experience a full new set of challenges, meet new people and a new organization. That will be quite exciting to see what will come. 

So what about me now?

Well it is the best time of the year to not have a project. Think of the greatness to be able to go on vacation without having to do support or develop solutions. So I can go and enjoy the summer without worrying about job. It is almost like being a student again.

I do have a lot of my own project that I’m looking forward to create and then learn and master the BPMN or get my feet wet with HANA. I have not been able to focus enough time on them lately, so it will be super to be able to focus on them full time.

Then I’ll see what is happing of project in fall and see where I end up if it is possible to find a new project.

If you find the freelancing stuff to be interesting try download my free checklist for it freelancers. It may be quite helpful.

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