Freelancing is a good venture but preferably as a side hustle before you take on full time basis. I know that quitting the day job is a dream that many of us have, yet taking the freelancing full time route prematurely can be risky. Please do not be overwhelmed by the promising success you get on your freelancing activities and believe that it will always be good business for you. Think of it like a backyard garden project that subsidizes your vegetable bill.
Later on I will address the 5 indicators that can be justification for quiting your day job for freelancing but for now I want to guide the full time employee, who must keep his or her job, on a few critical issues.
Freelancing for the full time employee
- Use your personal time as much as possible for your freelancing activities, that is, the lunch hour, your other time other than the 8 hours of employment, your leave days, holidays and weekends.
- Observe the check-in and knock-off times.
- Don’t do your freelancing activities at work such as using company assets, stealing employer time and sneaking out to attend to your freelancing business.
If you do cheat you employer, it will show in your performance and you will have no pride in your freelance success.
You surely cannot give up your job on the premise of a part time activity such as your backyard garden, similarly, don’t dare quit on the premise of just one big or high paying freelance engagement. Unless and until your freelancing activities can match or exceed your day job salary and you are convinced that giving up your job for it can make it grow faster, don’t quit your day job.
I’ll give you reasons why I suggest you take time to quit your day job:
- Freelancing is not a reliable source of income since it depends on whether you get customers or not. Even when you opt for the platforms that let you pick jobs from ready payers such as ‘microjobs.com’ and ‘com’, the income concern still remains. However, not getting customers for some time does not mean you will not at all in the future and getting some does not mean you will always have customers.
Some other source of security could be when your work has reached an autopilot stage where income is passive. This could be when your downloadable digital content on sale such as articles and ebooks make recurring sales on their own.
- Things happen slowly online. Even when your money making model is genuinely viable, it may take a really long time, a year at least, to get you to where you can live from your freelancing work.
- Your freelancing income must not be abused and therefore most of it should be spend on growing your business. If you divert your little income from your freelancing business you may find yourself struggling to support it. You therefore must discipline yourself to reinvest in your business in one way or the other. This could be through marketing your work, buying equipment, reserving some to get expert assistance from other freelancers, etc.
- Freelancing time may not always be available to you. You must be hands on to make money as a freelancer. If you stop or don’t get orders, you won’t earn some money. Time and opportunities may not permit, therefore, until you are full time on freelancing, you cannot guarantee availability to deliver to your customers.
Therefore, more than anything, freelancing is more of a side hustle than it is your full time option, unless you are unemployed. Don’t get me wrong; in this post I was just putting things on perspective. Get on, let’s not have limiting thoughts on this and persistence is the driver for success in this field. I send my luck to you.
Please visit my YouTube channel for a review of freelancing platforms and how they work for us, people of African.
Like, subscribe and follow.
I want to join where do I start
If you want to join fiverr. Click here.