Becoming a freelancer sounds great on paper. After all, who doesn't want to be their own boss, work on their own terms, and have a more flexible lifestyle? While those benefits are real, the skills required to be a freelancer (and remain one) are often overlooked. While an employee only has to be good at their primary skill, a freelancer has to learn all sorts of other skills to accommodate their increasingly demanding workload. As an entrepreneur, you need many other skills to run your freelance business.

One of the most important skills you must have as a freelancer is self-learning. While an employee can be trained by their employer and given development courses, freelancers have nobody to rely on but themselves. They have to be self-motivated to learn new things and upgrade their skills.

This requires a lot of conscious effort and setting aside time for regular skill development. But the real tricky part is deciding what to learn. It's one thing to be instructed on what to learn by your employer, and a whole other thing to figure it out yourself. Whether to learn a complementary skill on top of your existing skill or further polish your craft, that's a decision you will have to make by yourself. You can read books, watch videos, buy courses, ask other freelancers to share some tips, etc.