“I’ve been freelancing for nine years, but this year I’m looking for a full-time job,” a friend told me. “It seems to be getting more difficult to make a living, and now with the introduction of VAT, I think I’ve had enough.”

I asked her for a few more details about her decision. It turns out that her major issue was not the introduction of VAT. She was used to that, coming from the UK.

In her case, it was the insistence by several of her longstanding clients that she produce a TRN (Tax Registration Number), even though she actually earned less than the mandatory threshold of Dh375,000. That’s close on $100,000 per year, which is a huge amount for a freelancer to earn.

She’s a graphic designer, and she doesn’t know anyone who earns that amount of money. She does, however, earn above the minimum threshold of Dh175,000, largely because of her longstanding relationships with some key clients. Which is still a lot of money.

But her issues are that now she has to register, keep books, and argue with clients about who should pay the VAT. And those irritations are enough, when combined, to make her want to stop. Added to which, it seems to be harder and harder to get paid on time, whether by large or small clients.

A pretty depressing picture, you might think. A very realistic picture, is another way to look at it. I doubt there are very many people these days contemplating becoming a freelancer because of “the lifestyle”.

Freelancing stopped being a lifestyle choice a long time ago. As someone really famous once said, “Being a freelancer gives me the total flexibility to panic about my financial instability any time I please...”

If you’re contemplating the life of a freelancer because you hate being told what to do, hate working rigid hours, hate having to be with the same boring people every day, hate the commute, then that’s what we call an “away from” strategy. In other words, you’re probably being driven more by where you are, than where you want to go to. Anything is better than staying here...

A “toward” strategy is much more powerful, and thus more likely to result in success. “I want to become a freelancer so I can choose to spend all my time on the work I like to do. I have good interpersonal skills which I can use to market myself, which I never get a chance to use in my current role. I’m actually pretty good at working on my own, so loneliness won’t be an issue, and I’m really well organised.”

A much more coherent, powerful, motivating and guiding set of aspirations. Even so, reality hits harder than you could ever imagine, and it takes twice as long and four times the energy to get up and running. There can be no “Thank God, it’s Thursday”. Rather, it should be “No wait, I’m a freelancer.”

We have a few ideas which can help, chief amongst them being don’t try to do everything yourself. Please consider finding out how to make that concept work for you, and hearing about some other cool ideas for success, a little trail of breadcrumbs.

There’s your first marketing lesson. Create interest and thus a reason to return. See you next time.

Steve Ashby is the founder of Businessmentals.