What are the things to consider before going on full time freelancing?

[Martinsx]

Most times, people tend to work as a freelancer on part time basis, combining it with their other daily job. While some are into online business full time. I would like to know the necessary things one must consider before taking up freelancing as a full time job. Is it worth it leaving ones other job to work as a full time freelancer?

 

[CookieRunner]

Hi Martinsx,

First thing you have to consider is, you better ask yourself this Question: Are you okay to quit your job and risk on finding online jobs without a specific time frame?
What do I mean by this Question? Getting an online job is very difficult especially if you want to make this a Full time job. You can get into scams, getting a legitimate website that would pay you money and getting a true client that can pay you with your needs.
You have to have patience in finding the job that's fit for you. So I suggest, if you have a Corporate job and you want to try an online job, research first and do part time online jobs first. In this way, you can assess if Working online is really a fit for you.

Next would be -- Starting pay would be a little lower than what you are expecting especially with beginners. Why is that? Because most of the time, clients would prefer someone who has an experience working online than a newbie. Of course, if you know how online business works you can dictate your pay already but for Beginners you would really need to start with a below minimum pay.

Lastly, you need to have Patience in this kind of job. Most of the time you have to wait for everything - like the pay, the job, the client and the likes.

If you think you have the attitude like this then I guess you can start making money online.

 

[Nancy G]

If you are considering to be a full-time freelancer, make sure you are confident that you already have steady source/s of income and the only way for you to expand your career or your income opportunities is to concentrate on a full time basis.

Also, take into consideration that in most cases, there will be some benefits or privileges you used to enjoy from your company which you may need to handle personally like taking care of your income tax returns, government security/health/housing contributions, medical/health insurances, etc.

Being a freelancer has its merits like unlimited income and flexible work schedules but all these rewards will depend on your own extra effort, perseverance and how you manage to make a success out of it.

 

[Princety]

Princety

What freealancing are you involved in, if I may ask? Thanks!

 

[fern2x2001]

If you are just new at freelancing and want to do it full time, you must always remember NOT to quit your regular job and dive straight into freelancing. Freelancing like any other regular job have it's ups and downs. And if you are new, most of the time, you'll experience the downs. So it's really practical to keep your daily regular job while you're still testing the waters at freelancing.

 

[Sase3119]

I had a part-time job and a freelance job as you mentioned, initially. It worked well because I had a guaranteed source of income, but was able to make extra during weekends or holidays. At some point I started getting less hours with my part-time job, until eventually the business shut down. In that time I took on more and more freelance work, and because I already had a setup going, I was able to go freelance full-time for a while.

If you are just starting out then full-time freelancing is a bad idea, it's gonna take a while for the jobs to start coming in and the money to start showing up in your account. If you have a stream of jobs coming in, and are earning good money doing it, then there's no reason to not do it full-time if that's what you want to do.

I actually have a part-time job in conjunction again now, purely because an opportunity came up that I loved, but I wouldn't hesitate to go back to just freelancing again if I decided it was what I wanted.

 

[TheInsaneSakif]

Many people are venturing into online freelancing business because of the wide range of benefits that it has to offer. You're able to work online from anywhere around the world and at your own pace. This is a huge plus point. Now, there are a few things that you should consider before taking this as your full-time job. If you have a certain skill, then you can work in an online marketplace that needs these skills. At first, it will be very difficult, and the pay will be very low. There will be a lot of competition. Thus, you will need to work really hard in order to gain experience, and only then will you be able to earn a lot of money. After that, you can easily quit your 9 to 5 job, and earn a living by doing what you like!

 

[Algorithm]

Be careful, regular job is arguably much more stable. You know exact amount you're going to receive and do not have to worry about making payments. Freelancing can be risky for various reasons:

1. Work is not always constant.
2. You're competing against other freelancers from different nations which are willing to do the job for much less. Even if your skill is superior, clients usually care about the price over quality from my experience.
3. Most of the time the project/tasks takes more time than expected, and you're the one suffering from it, because you have to make deadlines to pay bills. ( I've been burned by this many many times )
4. Clients give unclear instructions or change their mind, again that adds up to your time.
5. You can get ripped off much more easily and spend days even weeks on a project and in the end don't get paid for it.

But then again, depending on your field, just one good paying client can be enough to have constant cash flow.

I would advise, unless you're making close or same amount of money from freelancing, as you do from regular job, don't trade stability for freedom, this kind of freedom is too unstable for all the stress to be worthwhile imo. When you're going to be late on your bills, the privelege of working from home/planning your own time will be outweighted fast.

 

[acemetillidie0001]

Risk versus reward. Be sure to do your due diligence before making the leap into what sounds like is the great black hole. Most who are willing to jump already have a large enough client base, brand, or really good road map to make sure they have a steady stream of work.

Starting out small and gaining exposure is definitely the way to go, especially if you don't have following that others may already have.

On the other hand, I quit a 6 figure job that I had for 20+ years in a very stable environment for affiliate marketing. Talk about a leap of faith, but I spent years doing due diligence and hundreds of hours in front of YouTube learning everything you could possibly imagine.

What's more important then doing your homework is you have to have the desire to really want it. Everyone says you can get rich online and while there are tons of skeptics, it really is true. You can learn anything from sources, especially YouTube, but you have to be willing to research, test, research, research, test and when you have it all down, rinse and repeat....

Those who fail online are the one's that truly didn't give it their 199% and they fall short because of no fault of their own. It's not a cliche', you can do it, but how bad do you want it??? is the real question...

Scott.

Scott.

Scott.

 

[denisehilton]

The most important thing is you should be prepared to be patient and consistently apply for jobs. Consistency is the key to freelancing. Those who give up after trying a few times never succeed in freelancing.

 

[naturalglow]

Most times, people tend to work as a freelancer on part time basis, combining it with their other daily job. While some are into online business full time. I would like to know the necessary things one must consider before taking up freelancing as a full time job. Is it worth it leaving ones other job to work as a full time freelancer?

w

Online as well as offline, I find the most important consideration is finding the work that will pay what I'm worth and be enjoyable while doing it. To give some examples from my own experience, I tried doing an E-bay store using a drop shipper. While that strategy may work for some, I wasn't fast enough posting listings to make my time worthwhile. Offline, I tried Uber driving and found my car used too much gas for it to be cost effective. On the other hand, I've recently had some $500 days gathering signatures for petitions and I found it fun. Freelancing covers a lot of ground and not all freelance jobs are created equal.