Posts Tagged ‘freelancer’

Deciding How Far to Jump

Jan 5, 2009 Excerpts

This is an excerpt from the book, The Principles of Successful Freelancing. Sample chapters are available for downloading from this page.

Now that you’ve made the decision to become a freelancer, we’ve reached the point of short-, medium-, and long-term preparation. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to jump in running as fast as you can. However, it’s been proven time and again that to ensure the best chance of success, you should expend plenty of effort in planning and preparation. This raises the question of which work mode to begin your freelance life with: full-time or part-time.

If you’re a student nearing the end of your studies, you’ve got a distinct time to work towards. (That said, I recommend that unless you have run a business previously, don’t go freelance straight after graduating—spend some time in employment in your chosen field first, to get those skills polished.) This also applies if your current work is coming to a close—you may be on a fixed-term contract, or the company you’ve been working for is winding up. However, for many people, the entry to freelancing is a case of juggling full-time employment with preparations to exit the rat race.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both situations, and you’ll need to weigh these up carefully. Let’s take a moment to look at some of them.

Freelancing on the Side

There’s a lot to be said for freelancing “on the side,” at least in the beginning:

  • This is a great way to test the waters without making that big jump.
  • You can spend as much after-hours time as you need on planning your business.
  • You can save just-in-case money for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable before venturing into the unknown.
  • You’re able to be choosier with the work you take on, as your salary is still coming in to help with costs.
  • If you don’t have any good recent work to show, part-time freelancing allows you to build a great portfolio before you move to full-time.
  • The clients you groom now are likely to be with you once you make that leap, helping with immediate cash flow.
  • It allows you to take your time to fit out the home office, without blowing your starting budget.
  • Freelancing part-time after hours, as well as holding down a full-time position, gives you the authentic taste of a busy week as a freelancer. This can help you determine your ability to cope with that amount of work at any given time.

There are a few disadvantages to this practice, though:

  • Depending on your employment contract, you may be restricted from doing work that directly competes with services offered by your employer. It’s best to approach your boss to discuss this.
  • Most clients will want to contact you during their workday hours, which tend to be when you’re busy at your full-time gig.
  • You lose out on the all-important downtime hours of evenings and weekends. If you attract lots of work, you may end up exhausting yourself trying to work two jobs.
  • You’ll be cautious of growing too fast, given you have restricted hours in which to work. It can become tricky trying to keep everyone happy, and you may have to turn down new work in order not to fail existing clients.

Freelancing Full-time

There are some compelling advantages to jumping in with both feet:

  • You’ll have the freedom to set up your freelance life, instead of juggling it with a full-time job.
  • Full-time start-up mode means that you have plenty of time in which to network, make important contacts, and meet prospects.
  • There are no issues with your employer being aggrieved about you working freelance on the side, and you’ll have no hesitation in taking on as many new clients and projects as you can handle.

There are, however, some disadvantages to full-time freelancing straight away:

  • Nothing feeds self-doubt more than work failing to come in during those first few weeks.
  • The cash drain while you rush around making contacts and courting business can really hurt your back pocket.
  • The all-important planning tends to be the first casualty when those projects come in—understandably, you’ll be more interested in taking an opportunity to earn some much-needed money than mapping out your legal business structure.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed!

Tags: , , , , ,

Myles Eftos on Freelancing

Dec 29, 2008 50 Words

Myles says…

Multiple bank accounts. It is very tempting to throw the money you make in your personal bank account and start spending big. DON’T DO IT. Go and get a business account, and get your clients to deposit the money there, then pay yourself out of that account. It’s much easier to partition that way. You can even take it one step further and get a interest bearing account and transfer your tax into it, then at the end of the year you won’t get surprised by a huge tax bill!

About Myles
Myles Eftos is a Perth-based web developer that jumped on the Rails express and never looked back. He is the event coordinator for the Australian Web Industry Assocation, which explains why most of their events are at the pub near his house.

About this Post
This post is one of a series, written by various people within the web industry. They are responses to my request for a maximum of 50 words on the topic of tips for freelance success. You can use the 50 words category to see all the answers so far.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Have a freelancing tip to share?

Dec 15, 2008 Announcements

Do you have a freelancing tip or idea to share with readers of this blog? Over the last couple of months, I’ve posted a 50 word tip or idea from various invited people from the industry. You can see all of them so far, under the 50 Words category.

Now, I’m calling on you to give me your own ideas and tips, in no more than fifty words, as well as a short bio of no more than thirty words, to publish here.

Have something to share? Please email me with the finished (spell checked) text, to ‘me at miles burke dot com dot au’ (no, I don’t like nasty spam).

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed!

Tags: , , ,

…and the book is now for Sale!

Dec 10, 2008 Announcements

It’s been quite a journey so far, and yet a major milestone was reached today, with the book being released a few hours ago, and available for sale via SitePoint and other (online and offline) bookstores.

As a result, the Buy the Book and Download Free Sample pages of this blog have now been updated with the correct links, or you can just click right here to go to the book pages, over at SitePoint.

Now the real fun begins - reading customer reviews, participating in discussion generated by the book, and shouting from the rooftops ‘My book is now for sale!’.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. I appreciate it!

Cheers,

Miles.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed!

Tags: , , , ,

Mike Brown on Freelancing

Dec 9, 2008 50 Words

Mike says…

Let the passion for what you do shine through. That’s what will sustain you on the journey. That you’re doing something you care about. That you’re doing it well. And that it’s making a difference. Your passion and commitment will be infectious.

About Mike
Mike is one of the chief instigators of Webstock, almost certainly the best web conference in New Zealand.

About this Post
This post is one of a series, written by various people within the web industry. They are responses to my request for a maximum of 50 words on the topic of tips for freelance success. You can use the 50 words category to see all the answers so far.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to the RSS feed!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Older Entries
Newer Entries