Real Recovery: This week's about the freelancers

Freelancing is such a compelling option right now because companies still need knowledgeable, experienced workers, and they will continue to rely on Solo Practitioners and Freelancers to achieve synchronicity in income and expenses. This trend is not going away, but will grow substantially.

The dynamics of exchanging competencies for income are changing from “employment contracts” to “service contracts” more and more. By contributing to a reduction in the mismatch in the employment market, the unique B|0|T|H solution is poised to support economic growth by bringing more clarity and compliance to the notion of exchanging competencies for income. This provides benefits to both the independent knowledge worker and the companies that deploy them.

After nearly suffering a mental breakdown from the stress of doing 3 people's jobs on a 4-day work week with a pay cut - I left my job. This economy has businesses making questionable decisions in desperation to save their large salaries. It just became too much to watch them roll into work in their Porsche's yet drone on day after day about profitability. Not to mention the creativity had been sucked from the company and replaced with online marketing strategies and paid search. And as a designer it is part of my very nature to express myself creatively. So feeling completely suffocated by corporate America I did something completely crazy and walked out of my job.

That was about 2 months ago and I have been freelancing ever since. So far I have made more money than if I would have stayed at my job (sans insurance) and am starting to regain love for my work. While it is a little scary not knowing where my next check will come from it is worth it to feel more human again.

A former college professor of mine liked my work and recommended me as a video editor for a local production company. They approved of my editing abilities and have assigned me many projects over the past year. I have a full-time job working for a cable channel, and that income is sustainable. Therefore, I put every penny of my freelance income into my savings. The initial idea was to build a rainy day fund in case I got laid off, but I have been fortunate to receive regular editing gigs beyond my initial goal.

Working two jobs can be stressful, but my parents gave me good advice when I was younger: work hard while you're young because you can handle it, and save your money so you won't have to work when you're old and you can't.

I understand there are a lot of factors that can interfere with this strategy. Losing your 401k investment, getting laid off or being unable to find a job all make it difficult to make ends meet, let alone save for a rainy day. I am 25 years old and many friends my age are spending what they have now and not setting aside any savings, even though they have jobs and are able to do so.

I have been doing freelance tv and commercial production for the past three years, however I was eligible receive unemployment benefits for the weeks that I couldn't find work, and thus the recession had little affect on me (I don't make a ton of money but between the two incomes I am getting by the same as before the recession).

I have been doing research over the last six months on unemployment benefit abuse, looking into stories about professionals within my industry that make over six figures a year yet still collect unemployment during their "off days". I plan on shooting a short piece on this and am welcoming anyone that would care to comment or share stories about benefit abuse.

I'm a recent film student graduate who moved to Portland OR because of it's blossoming independent film scene. What I found was a market that was over saturated with aspiring filmmakers and a limited amount of available clientele. Because of this, I was unable to get a paying job with any established production companies. After working a few internships for free, I decided to start my own business. After designing a professional website and doing some SEO, and investing in some pro equipment, clients starting coming to me and now I'm freelancing quite successfully. Although I may not be getting paid as much as if I worked for a big production company, at least I'm doing what I set out to do and making progress in a difficult and competitive profession.

i have been freelancing for almost 3 years now, the recession didn't affect me, since i use Open-Source software (with the exception of flash). since i work through firefox and pidgin instant messenger, i get jobs from multiple countries :D

I am also lucky enough to have a manager so i get jobs handed to me along with management of my music.

I have also traded services for services, saving me lots of money and creating great deals/clients in the process.