May 19, 2009Freelancing on the Side: How to Stay Sane AND Be Successful
Doing freelance design/development or writing on the side is a great way to make some extra cash or test the waters before taking the leap to work for yourself full-time. But holding down a 9 to 5 job is tough enough. When you throw extra work into the mix, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or find that you’re always working and sacrificing down time and time with your family and friends.
Does that mean it can’t be done? Of course not. The trick is to define what’s important to you, learn to say “NO”, become a master at organization, outsource when you can and ultimately find balance.
Here’s how you do it:
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Define what’s important to you
Before you take your first job (or right now, if you already have) ask yourself “Why Am I Freelancing?”. Is it to make extra cash? Because you enjoy it? Because you want to practice your skills? Expand your portfolio?
Once you’ve defined what really matters, you should evaluate every potential job and make sure it’s directly aligned with your goals. Because you have a limited amount of time to dedicate to your freelance gig, it’s important that you’re doing the work that really matters and saying “no” to the jobs that don’t really benefit you.
Which leads to #2…
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Learn to say “NO”
When you’re working a full-time job and freelancing on the side, time becomes your most valuable commodity, and you should protect it, fiercely. If you don’t, you set yourself up for burn-out and eventual failure.
It’s always hard for freelancers to turn down a job, because you work so hard to get them and you never know when the next one might come in. Saying “yes” becomes a knee-jerk reaction that’s fueled in equal parts by excitement of actually landing a gig and a mentality that you never turn away money if it’s in front of you.
But if the money isn’t right, the terms not agreeable, or the job doesn’t fit in with your overall goals, then it doesn’t benefit you to accept it.
Remember, the best part of having a side gig is that you still have a regular income. You don’t NEED that extra money.
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Trick #3: Master Organization
Being organized is important no matter what you do, but when you’re freelancing on the side it’s even more critical. Because time is your enemy, you need to streamline everything: from emailing customers, to project tracking, to billing.
Put as much as you can online, and make sure you’re using your tools obsessively.
Remember, if you’re filing taxes on your freelance income, and you’re in the US, you can declare many things as expenses like part of your rent, utilities, and supplies.
Here’s a great list of online services to help you get into shape.
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Trick #4 Outsource What You Can
As you start to build volume, having a short list of other freelancers/companies you can outsource projects to (in parts or in whole), can be more than just a lifesaver in a pinch, it can be a smarter way of doing business.
Let’s say you’re a web designer. Maybe you’re great at the graphic design/layout aspect of things, but doing the markup and CSS for a site takes you a little bit longer because you’re not quite as proficient at it.
Instead of struggling through the coding, you could outsource the conversion of your layout to HTML through one of the many services out there that handle that sort of thing.
Yes, you’ll lose a little bit off the profit margin of your project, but you gain back valuable time and can better focus on the things that you ARE good at.
Using outsources also lets you juggle more projects at a time than you could possibly handle yourself, and ultimately will mean that you can make more money and do less work.
More importantly, you’ll be doing the aspects of your work that you enjoy the most.
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Trick #5: Find your balance
It make take some time and a little trial and error, but eventually you can have a job, a successful freelance business, and still have time for friends, family, and yourself.
It helps to set aside a set block of time when you’re going to work on your freelance projects. Whether it’s in the evenings during the weekdays, or a few hours on the weekends, define the time and then stick to it.
Let other people in your life know that this is your “freelance work time” so that they’ll respect your space. And respect other people in your life (and yourself) by avoiding working longer than your allotted time. Just like your 9-5, make sure you’re shutting down your freelance work at the end of the freelance work day. And if you’re working too much “overtime” you know it’s time to cut back.
These tricks aren’t a guarantee of success (or sanity), but they’ve worked for us. We hope they help you.
Great site! I love it. I stumbled here looking for some inspiration and design ideas for my own web design portfolio.
The tips are also appreciated, as I am looking towards freelancing in my very near future.
I would love a wallpaper of the Sheepscape to add to my collection, by the way. I tried commenting on the appropriate post but it said comments were disabled!
Thanks! I really appreciate the comments :) We will definitely put up the sheepscape wallpaper, just for you!
Great Article. Im totally in the same situation like what you post in this article. Tq for sharing this.
[...] Our FreelanceSwitch Twitter man Roger Byrne found a few articles about keeping your sanity as a freelancer on Maxvoltar and No Sleep for Sheep. [...]
[...] Our FreelanceSwitch Twitter man Roger Byrne found a few articles about keeping your sanity as a freelancer on Maxvoltar and No Sleep for Sheep. [...]
I’m definitely taking away that I ought to be outsourcing PSD slicing and stuff. Thanks for the tip.
Glad to help Josh – nice to see another designer reppin’ Nashvegas!
I am looking towards freelancing in my very near future. your inspiration makes not only a good design its make us also to design