[thibaut_barrere]

Data point: most freelancers I've been coaching during the last years do /not/ realize they are running a real business. It usually takes a life changing event (birth, or a big tax issue) for them to change their way of doing it, if this changes at all.

[ghaff]

Based on various people I've known, that's a great if surprising point. It's actually pretty easy for many to just sort of drift along on the edge for a long time and essentially pretend that everything is good--until it's not. Maybe the client that's 50% of their business up and leaves for whatever reason or, as you say, something happens in their life that makes no savings and no real plan suddenly untenable.