I was my own boss and I still got laid off

I got laid off. 

Not in the traditional sense, but I did. So here’s my story, a naive 30-something- year-old who thought 9-5 was not her cup of tea. 

No bosses, no HR emails and no Monday morning meetings. Life was good. When my friends asked for advice, I said “Be your own boss. It’s the best kind of job.” Or so I believed.

I used to think layoffs were a corporate problem. Something that happened in big buildings where people wore ID cards and worried about “KPIs.” As a freelancer, I thought I had outsmarted the system. My income came from multiple clients, so even if one left, the others would keep me afloat. 

Then the market fell. Budgets were cut. Suddenly, one client paused “until next quarter.” Another reduced my fees to half. A third ghosted me completely. 

Within a span of weeks, I realised something uncomfortable: you can be self-employed and still get laid off. Not by one boss – but by the economy itself.

The Quiet Exit of Clients

A salaried employee knows the exact moment they’ve been laid off. For freelancers like me, it comes silently. 

A calendar that was once full of deliverables suddenly has empty white spaces. Payments that used to flow regularly get delayed. Projects you thought were “confirmed” disappear without warning. There’s no HR meeting, but the effect is the same: your income shrinks overnight.

And unlike corporate employees, there’s no severance package. No PF withdrawal. No “notice period” to prepare. 

We live in what I now call the illusion of security.  We think multiple clients equal stability, but when the global  market shrinks, they all vanish together.

When Flexibility Turns Fragile

The great advantage and motivation of freelancing was flexibility. I could work from anywhere, choose my clients, and juggle projects the way I liked.

 It was liberating – until reality hit. In a downturn, that very flexibility flips into fragility. Clients scale back faster than you can replace them, projects shrink overnight, and vanish mid-brief. 

The safety net I thought freelancing offered suddenly looks like a trapdoor. That’s when the financial shock sets in.

The Financial Shock

Here’s where the financial lesson comes in. According to a 2025 PwC–Perfios survey, earning individuals in India are already spending 33% of their monthly income on EMIs. Freelancers are no different – we buy homes, cars, phones, all on installments. But when income falls, EMIs don’t shrink. They stand there like immovable boulders.

Then there’s the job market side: in 2025, TCS laid off about 12,000 employees, roughly 2% of its workforce, citing global demand shifts, AI adoption and macro uncertainties. Indian startups aren’t safe either: around 3,600+ startup employees have already lost jobs in the first five months of 2025.

I learnt quickly that my freelance life offers flexibility, but no cushions. I had built savings, but not enough to replace a few months of vanished income. 

Behavioural psychology calls this present bias: the tendency to assume today’s good times will last, and mitigate future risks. I wasn’t careless, but I was definitely biased.

Building Buffers Against “Freelance Layoffs”

Here’s what my experience taught me:

1. Freelancers need an emergency fund more than anyone else. Six months of expenses is not a luxury, it’s survival
2. Diversification is real only when clients are in different industries. If you write for three start-ups, they’ll all cut back at the same time. Spread across sectors.
3. Treat fat months as illusionary. That big brand is not your “new normal”,  it’s a temporary surge. Don’t inflate your lifestyle to match it.
4. Invest like a salaried person, save like a business owner. Because you are both.

The Lesson

Getting “laid off” as a freelancer stripped me of an old illusion –  that I was immune because I wasn’t an employee. The truth is harsher: none of us are immune. Whether you’re a VP in a tech firm or a self-employed designer, layoffs don’t discriminate.

But here’s the silver lining: once you’ve seen how fragile income can be, you begin to respect the power of savings, insurance, and disciplined investing. Ants survive winters not because they fear them, but because they prepare. 

And for me, being a freelancer now means not just chasing clients. I now build buffers, live-with less “new things,” and treat every month as one you might have to survive on EMIs alone.

Disclaimer

Note: The purpose of this article is to share insights, data points, and thought-provoking perspectives on investing. It is not investment advice. If you wish to act on any investment idea, you are strongly advised to consult a qualified advisor. This article is strictly for educational purposes. The views expressed are personal and do not reflect those of my current or past employers.

Sneha Virmani is a content strategist and writer with over a decade of experience. She is an alumna of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University (Economics & Psychology). Sneha specialises in storytelling-led content strategies and consumer education campaigns. Her work brings context and clarity, with a no-jargon approach designed to engage everyday readers.