How To Move To A Full-Time Freelance Job

I have been freelancing for the past six months and despite numerous ups and downs I can gladly say that I have never regretted going the freelance way. The biggest advantage of having a freelance job is that you are totally independent. OK, your projects and your clients often dictate how much time you spend working but still it is not like getting up every morning and reaching office sharp at 9:00 AM every weekday. I can get up at any time I feel.

Different people may have different reasons working as freelancers. I do it because I get to stay with my family all the time. I’m always there whenever my wife and my daughter need me. I have not missed even a single growing day of my daughter’s, and if ever I run out of reasons for working on my own this would be the biggest reason. Of course your earnings become flexible too. The more hardworking and efficient you are the more you can work. You can also decide what you want to do and what you don’t want to do. You don’t have a boss who continuously tells you do this and do that.

But is it easy to go the freelancing way just like that? No. It is a very serious decision and may not only impact you but your entire family in case you are a major earning member. Recently when my sister asked me if she should leave her job and start freelancing I advised her against it: she is a single mother with a five-year-old daughter with hardly any cash in her bank. I told her to prepare for the switch for at least a year and properly study the market that she wants to enter as a freelancer.

Before you leave your secure job and start freelancing you must have a cash reserve for at least a year and a half. You must take into account the monthly expenses of your family including food, education, health, and other unavoidable expenses.

You must also sit down and think about how serious you are. Is it just an impulse or have you been planning for this career change for a long time? What market are you going to target? Is there a high demand for your service or product? What sort of competition are you going to face? How do you plan to promote your services? What skill-set do you have? Can you sustain your passion over a long period of time?

The Instigator blog has some good pointers on how to start your freelance career.