Going from paid employment to freelancing

Going from paid employment to freelancing

Become self-employed: why?
I had been working as an employee in an ad agency for 16 years and as I had an artistic background I wanted to re-engage with more personal choices, something more artistic, rather focused on drawing by hand. This allowed me to consider becoming an entrepreneur.

A different working style?
Being self-employed brings me closer to the clients. Within an agency, you do not always have a direct contact and I was missing this: a closer, more intimate collaboration, if I can say so, a truly collaborative job.

What were the steps?
I was admitted to a programme called Fit 4 Entrepreneurship, some of you should know about it. The program greatly helped me with the administrative procedures. It also helped me to get closer from the House of Entrepreneurship where I received much advice on the administrations I had to contact, and the formalities I had to go through. In fact, the support that I got there allowed me to carry out these steps quite easily.

A calm and easy journey?
There were inevitably moments of doubt moments of loneliness, and there were times when I was a bit discouraged too. It was disheartening because I didn’t know that certain things were possible, for example when I wasn’t aware of the support that I could get here in Luxembourg. Being supported by close relatives is very important and you have to also believe in your own abilities, believe that you are able to offer a quality service. You find out that if you adhere to high standards your customers start speaking about you, and then, having completed one project after another, You start thinking, “I know I can, I’m moving forward and can have trust in my abilities and I will keep my project running as long as possible.“