2014 Freelance Rates results: how people work

Following up from last week’s post covering what Freelancers charge, this week we want to look at what the Freelance Rates survey responses tell us about how freelancers work in the UK. Here, I wanted to get a clearer picture of working practices and particularly whether working freelance gave people the freedom and work/life balance that many freelancers aspire to.

Working life

The majority of respondents (67%) work from home whilst the majority of the remainder either work on-site with clients or at a dedicated office.

Work place	Count	%
From home	378	67.86
Dedicated office	109	19.57
Co-working space	29	5.21
Client office	27	4.85
Coffee shop	4	0.72
Other	10	1.80

The clear majority of freelancers worked 5 days a week. However over a quarter worked 6 days a week. So much for the four day week! This pattern is shared when we look at number of hours worked a day. Over half of respondents worked between 8 and 10 hours a day with 10% of respondents working over 10 hours a day.

Days worked	Count	%
5 days a week	307	56.23
7 days a week	29	5.31
Less than 5 days a week	64	11.72
6 days a week	146	26.74

Hours worked	Count	%
5–7 hours	184	33.52
8–10 hours	294	53.55
More than 10 hours	51	9.29
Less than 4 hours	20	3.64

Clients and Projects

Over 40% of freelancers only worked on 1 or 2 projects at any time with a quarter working on between 3 and 4 projects. The majority also had relatively short projects with over half lasting less than a month and 34% between 1 and 3 months long.

This gives a picture of focused work on smaller projects, as reflected in last week’s post where 40% of respondents worked on projects worth less than £2,000.

Who work with?	Count	%
directly with clients	224	40.00
in partnership with other freelancers	122	21.79
subcontracting for agencies	285	50.89

Concurrent projects	Count	%
1–2 projects	235	41.96
4+ projects	74	13.21
2–4 projects	154	27.50
Only 1 project at a time	97	17.32

Length of project	Count	%
< 1 month	285	50.35
1–3 months	195	34.45
3–6 months	47	8.30
6–12 months	26	4.59
> 12 months	13	2.30

Business and Accounting

In terms of legal composition half of respondents worked as a sole-trader, with almost half trading as a Limited Company.

Trading as	Count	%
Sole-Trader	290	51.97
Limited Company	253	45.34
Partnership/LLP	12	2.15
sole trader part of LLP with other freelancers	1	0.18
Not a registered company	1	0.18
Not yet registered	1	0.18

When it comes to accounting, over a third are self-accounting whilst 28% use a local accountant and 21% use an online service (although the wording of this question is probably fairly ambiguous).

Accounting	Count	%
I’m self-accounting	203	36.38
I use a local accountant	160	28.67
I use an online service	119	21.33
I use a remote accountant	76	13.62

Once more the clear majority of respondents who use accounting software use Freeagent with 60% of freelancers. 10% used Xero with the remainder spread between Crunch, Freshbooks and Harvest.