by Judette Coward Puglisi

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE between a "propreneur" and an entrepreneur. A propreneur makes a decision to go it alone for a change in lifestyle. S/he is not concerned with making loads of profits, just enough to pay the bills and have a bit left over to enjoy life. What that person doesn't want any more is to live in a fishbowl with a boss breathing down his/her neck trying to meet an inhumane deadline.

For at least five years I belonged to that club but then I got an employee, and then another and another, and pretty soon, well darn-gone it, I had to be concerned about profits, growth, human resource issues, the works. I discovered that I was good at business – coming up with the ideas, taking risks, serving clients, getting knocked down, standing up to start over again.

Still, it's only been four years since I became a bona fide rainmaker. And it is not so long ago that I can't remember the sweet life of freelancing and how my life seemed like a piece of cake to my friends.

For sure the alarm clock that once was the bane of my existence was thrown out, and even though I had been programmed to roll out of bed at 4 a.m., it was very sweet not to be jarred awake. If no morning meeting was planned, I'd read newspapers and later review emails at leisure. The gym became my best friend; it was a way to socialise and I no longer had to work out just for an hour so I could rush to work to finish the report.

Chair at the beach

Best of all was the cutback on clothes; fashionista that I am, I spent a small fortune to move ahead in my career in front of television cameras. But now my uniform du jour was silk pyjamas and yellow rabbit fuzzy slippers on my feet. Occasionally my office was a chair at the beach. Who was I to complain? Work trickled in and I was meeting my rent and car bills.

Sound breezy? Hardly. To anyone considering going footloose and freelance, I offer one simple warning: do not be seduced by the C-word. As a card-carrying consultant, life is not a piece of cake. Forget that one pain-in-the-butt boss, you'll now have four.

You'll no longer be forced to endure the gossip around the coffee station but you'll have to endure your own company for long spells and may yearn to have the company of the witch from cubicle five – at least she was good to bounce ideas off of.

Administrative guru

Nine-to-five may no longest exist, but be prepared to say hello to working long days and nights to keep each of your clients feeling like they are your one and only – and OOPS, they may very well be that for a long period of time. Oh, and you're likely to become an administrative guru, considering all the filing, invoicing, calling and computer-glitch repairing you'll have to do.

But that's the price of freedom, and some of us are glad to pay it.

Is freelancing for you? It may be and it may not.

You may make much less money than you earned in your last job and be completely happy or you may make more money than you ever imagined once people start using your services and the word spreads around. Interview several freelancers who've taken the leap before you. It might be right for you now or at another phase of your life.

Just remember to get the complete picture before hanging your shingle.