I quit my full-time job in August 2010 - I’ve been doing full-time freelance Web Development, Systems Analysis & General Consulting since then. The road has been fairly smooth and generous so far!
You are obviously reading this post with the hope of finding some conclusive information that will inspire you to take the freelance leap or at least to make the best, logical decision about your career, be that to stick with your current job or to go freelance.
Making decisions that affects your income/earnings is never easy, especially if you have dependents/family to support. Hopefully the below list will help you make the right choice… to go freelance or not!
Let’s start off pessimistically and objectively – in order of importance.
- Do you have a cash reserve or access to funds to support you during the initial months of freelancing?
No matter how smart you are, without funds to carry you for at least the first 3 months you will not survive, also remember most development projects can take a few weeks to complete and then maybe another few before you receive payment. - Do you have a Business Plan?
You absolutely have to know what you are going to do and how you are going to accomplish this. - Do you have adequate skills and experience to supply your clients with a professional service?
You will be offering your skills to a client, the client will either be impressed or not, as a freelancer you don’t have access to a whole team of specialists and you’ll be responsible for most of the work. - Do you have what it takes to run your own business, thinking about finances, marketing, sales, operations, and especially time management?
Some business skills are vital if you want to survive in the long run, i.e. if you don’t know how to market or quote effectively then you will not make it. - Do you have what it takes to motivate yourself?
Most freelancers and especially the single ones might find it increasingly difficult to operate on their own, it will get lonely and you will feel demotivated at times. - Will you be able to handle stressful, critical situations by yourself without the help of others?
As a freelancer you will have to take full ownership and with this comes the duty of handling difficult clients – crisis management is required by you since you are directly responsible for your work.
The positive side:
- As a freelancer you can determine your own income.
We are currently very fortunate, there is a huge demand for PHP web developers and also in other technologies and I’m very positive that if you advertise yourself correctly you will get more work than you can handle. - Your time is yours and you can plan it anyway you like.
Wouldn’t it be nice to plan a long weekend every week or to just be able to spend more time with your loved ones? - You mostly have authority on how things get done.
If you currently have a dislike in how things gets done at your employer, then freelance is the opportunity for you to do it right.
I will soon elaborate on how to market yourself effectively in the web development industry and also supply some good resources for finding new work/projects!
Many people quit their jobs to be their own boss because they don’t like their current working conditions. The only problem is that not everyone is cut out to be a freelancer due to the maturity needed in managing yourself, so it takes a lot of thinking and honesty with yourself to decide if it’s the right thing to do
That being said, while the risks are greater, so are the rewards…
Freelancing can be a very pretty picture when thinking and talking about it but there are way more responsibilities doing it.
When freelancing you are taking on multiple roles and successful freelancers are the ones who can mix all the ingredients right.
I have been working full time for the past 8years and Ive been freelancing for the same period after hours. Working like this can burn you out but slowly building up a client base over the years and establishing good relationships will put you in a much better position when you are ready to take that leap.