If you're tired of being on the employee treadmill, now may be the best time to consider freelancing your hard-earned skills.
Are dreams of freelancing dancing through your head? If you're nodding yes, now's a great time to give it a whirl. As companies scale back on their expensive, benefit-heavy workforce, they're increasingly turning to outside--freelance--help. If you've got expertise in the right areas, there's a good chance you can parlay it into a freelance career by sharing your knowledge and skills with a variety of clients.
Let Freedom Ring
There's no question about it; freelance doesn't start with the word "free" for nothing. Freedom is a major perk of freelancing. As a full-time freelancer, you'll work when you want. You can take vacations when you want, for as long as you want. Weekend getaways won't have to be confined to weekends, and business suits are mostly a thing of the past. There's no boss breathing down your neck, nagging you. And there are no irritating co-workers slacking off at the water cooler, driving you nuts.
But in exchange for all those freedoms comes risk and insecurity. As a freelancer, your next paycheck is never guaranteed. Anxiety about where the next job is coming from plagues many freelancers, no matter how seasoned. But insecurity comes with the turf, and dedicated freelancers learn to make peace with it.
The best way to ensure your freelancing future is to offer a service you know people want. Just because you'd like to do something doesn't mean that there's a readymade market for it.
"'Follow your heart and do what you love' is just a slogan. You need to get real," says Kelly James-Enger, author of Six Figure Freelancing. "If you're not offering a service people are willing to spend money on, you're not going to be in business [for long]."
Search your local paper and the Internet to see who's doing what you want to do, what they charge and who their clients are. Talk to everyone you know until you turn up freelancers doing what you hope to do. Then call them up and pick their brains about which segments of the market are growing and where most of their work comes from. This information is critical to helping you carve out a niche and fill a current opening in the market.
Think about this: Ten years ago, web designers made a pretty penny freelancing their services to corporations, but today the demand has lessened as all those laid-off dotcomers have created a glut in the market. On the other hand, small-business owners are more keen then ever to learn web design themselves, as are retiring baby boomers, so teaching web design may prove more lucrative than doing the actual design work right now.
Don't Quit Your Day Job--Yet
Once you've decided what aspect of your field to freelance, take the time to establish yourself. "The biggest misconception people have is that they're going to jump right into it and start making money," cautions Laurie Rozakis. "Not true. Just because you build it doesn't mean they'll come."
Rosakis, who is a freelance writer and editor, and the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money in Freelancing, says it can take months--even years--to develop a reputation and client base. For that reason, many freelancers start by moonlighting while still holding on to their day jobs.
"Everyone thinks it's going to happen overnight, but I don't know a single freelancer who immediately started making a six-figure income," maintains James-Enger.
A good rule of thumb is not to give up your day job until you have between six months and one year's worth of savings, more if you're the sole support for your household. "Don't leave your job until you're confident you can pay your mortgage and healthcare and put money into a retirement account," James-Enger advises.
Of course, moonlighting while working for your current employer can be tricky-especially if you're freelancing in the same field. Let's say you're an advertising copywriter who wants to start freelancing on the side. You'll probably need to tell your employer, who may require you to sign a noncompete agreement in which you promise not to steal, or "borrow," clients. If, on the other hand, you're an advertising copywriter who wants to do freelance Japanese translations, your employer probably doesn't even need to know what you're doing after hours.
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