What is a freelancer/independent contractor?

Posted on September 30, 2007
Filed Under General |

When people say they are freelancers, what exactly do they mean? There are probably as many definitions as there are freelancers, but the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as a freelancer as “person who acts independently without being affiliated with or authorized by an organization. A person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer.”

An independent contractor falls loosely under the same definition, with the exception that when people speak of contractors, they are referring more to people who do manual work, or physical labor, whereas freelancer is used for people who do work like photography, or writing, or computer programming.

Under this general umbrella fall other terms such as self-employed, work-at-home, and more.

For the purposes of this blog, all these terms will be used interchangeably for the most part, since the tips and ideas that apply to one apply also to the other, and the end goal is the same, to be successful at making a living independent of a fixed employer.