How Freelancing is Like Farming

Today’s edition of Wishful Working is a 3 minute read.

My husband and I had a classic 21st century meet cute, and by that, I mean we met online. Our courtship, however, was anything but ordinary. It was quite the saga, an epic tale of love across closed borders — but that’s a tale for another time. 

After our wedding in October 2021, I moved from Des Moines, Iowa, to my husband’s hometown, a tiny dot in the middle of the vast Saskatchewan prairies. It’s a town of about 350 people, 90 miles from civilization (the nearest Costco). My husband and his family are grain farmers.

When we first started dating, the farming lifestyle and schedule fascinated and perplexed me. I may be from Iowa, but I didn’t grow up in a farming family. In fact, I knew next to nothing about farming. And at the time, I was working a very traditional, structured 9-5 office job. (Side note: I’m aware of the irony of calling my office job “traditional” when my husband’s job is arguably the most traditional job in existence. 😂)

But the more I’ve learned about farming — and the longer I’ve been freelancing — the more I see similarities between the two.

Variable Schedule

A farmer’s schedule and day-to-day work changes drastically depending on the season. During busy times, like planting and harvest, my husband often works 14-16 hours a day. During the winter months, he has much more time to rest. 

The rhythms of a freelancer’s schedule usually aren’t so tied to the seasons, but our day-to-day work can ebb and flow in a similar way. I love having a variable schedule because it enables me to spend more time with my spouse during his downtimes and make myself busier when he’s busy. 

And his seasonal schedule, combined with my ability to work from anywhere, gives us some exciting options for the future. Such as maybe not spending the whole winter in Saskatchewan. 🥶

Independence and Autonomy

Although my husband farms with his family, a dynamic has its own set of challenges, running your own farm comes with a lot of autonomy. The farm is a business. My freelance sole proprietorship is a business. Neither of us has a boss or an obligation to satisfy shareholders, and we make our own decisions about what projects to focus on.

Risk and Uncertainty

When running any type of business, you face a fair bit of risk and uncertainty, but farmers face more than most. The success or failure of a crop depends on so many factors, many of them completely out of anyone’s control — weather, pests, crop diseases, weeds, market conditions, and more. 

Freelancers also face risk and uncertainty, albeit usually on a smaller scale. Our workloads fluctuate, as does our income. Our success depends on similarly volatile factors, including economic uncertainty, shifts in industry trends, and disruptive technologies.

To be fair, even full-time, “permanent” employment isn’t as safe and stable a path as it once was, given the current state of the job market and the ever-present threat of layoffs. So maybe risk and uncertainty are just part of life.

Of course, there are also plenty of differences between farming and freelancing. For starters, the actual labor involved in freelancing vs. farming couldn’t be more different. Farming is extremely physical, and farmers often end the work day dusty, weary, and sore. If I end up dusty, weary, and sore after a day of writing, something has gone wrong.

I’ve grown to understand and appreciate the farming lifestyle, and I’m grateful that the freelance lifestyle complements it so well. The farm cats and the free tractor rides are just a bonus.

See you next week,

Kara