Considering a Full-Time Freelance Career?

Filed in archive freelancing tips on November 3, 2007

So how do you know if you're ready to go full-time freelancing? There are gazillions of factors to think of before one can definitely that he or she is ready to take the leap into the world of full-time freelancing.

Here are my top considerations before I ever thought of doing freelance work:

Do I like freelancing enough?
I don't want to just think things over for a few hours and arrive with a decision that I want to freelance just because I thought it'd be cool. It's important that I'm sure, very sure that freelancing is my life. Ok, that maybe exaggerating it a bit. But that's one of the major points one should be thinking of before making the leap. If you discover that freelancing is not your thing in the long run, that's fine. But you have to have put your whole heart into it if you really want to make the most out of it. If you have doubts that the projects you'll land will be something that you'd be enjoying doing for the long haul, think twice even thrice before going full-time.

What about my dependents?
Although I've been thinking that it's my life and I should just do what would please me, the civilized world doesn't work that way. Since I have a family that depends on me, I should be more cautious with my decisions. How much adjustment will everyone has to go through if I choose doing freelancing full-time?

What about the money?
It's stupid to not think of emergency fund savings if one is preparing to go freelancing full-time. The wise way to work around this dilemma is to establish residual sources of income first before going freelance. I did work on my other sources of income first before working as a freelancer and I couldn't be more glad I did that.

Also, checking if I'm ready enough to go freelancing full-time entailed seeing if my marketing skills or my network will be useful enough to secure a somewhat steady flow of projects.

If for you freelancing is not about those things I've mentioned, you're one adventurous person! Although I admire your guts, I'm not sure if you'll achieve glory.