Creative Freelancers in the Corporate World

If you are a freelance creative professional, you may have chosen your career path to avoid the restrictions that a corporate career demands – bureaucracy, time commitments, travel, long hours, and irrational leaders. And, you want to spread your creative wings and let your spirit fly, right?

Funny thing though - the corporate world actually provides an enormous opportunity for freelance employment, but there is a minor Faustian bargain that must be made when working within those structures. Your job is not to be a creative guru, nor have you been brought in to dazzle with artistry – you are there to dazzle with results.

It is critical for creative professionals to understand that corporate clients hire freelance creative professionals because they can’t do what you can do with the resources and talent at their disposal. They have a complicated problem, and they need your unique abilities to make it go away. Period. They don’t really care about your passion, your skill, your craft, or your process – they just want their problem solved as soon as possible. This may assault your ego, but that is why you get paid: to make their problem go confidently away, and as soon as possible. If you can do so with creative acumen and brilliance, even better – but don’t expect them to bow to your brilliance.

People in the corporate world are the same as you and I, but they have to live in that world. They can’t really influence their system, and neither can you, so you must embrace working within that structure. And, you can enjoy the fact that as a creative freelancer you can be the breath of fresh air in their structured, routine workdays. Creative work is the fun stuff - as long as you don’t give them any cause for concern, you can (and should) be the best thing in their week. People love working with freelance creatives, and they want to love working with you – don’t give them any reason not to.

What is required of you in the corporate world, ahead of all creative deliverables, is the provision of confidence. Make it clear that you have the vision, and that everything will be OK. You are the oracle. You are the solution. The client needs to trust that your expertise will give them what they need – not just what they want. If that trust is lost, then you are in for a really difficult gig. But if you give them what they need, they will reap results, and you reap the reward. Don’t over-reach on the job – just be focused, efficient, and “professional” in every sense of the word.

A creative freelance professional is hired to make time-based, thought-intensive challenges go away. The client needs ideas, they need innovative plans, and they want your relationship to be fun – as long as you provide accountability so they can trust that their bosses won’t hammer them later. You are getting paid so they can shine. So get polishing, comfortable in the knowledge that your time in the corporate world is on your terms, according to your strengths.