The Freelance Life: Fresh Starts and New Chapters

As I watched President Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony yesterday, I started reflecting on fresh starts, new chapters, and what will be happening in my life in a couple of weeks. I, too, will be starting a new job.

About a month ago, I mentioned here on The Golden Pencil that a client of mine had recommended me to the regional chamber of commerce. They were looking to hire a communications and marketing person to do some work for their economic development arm. But what began as a conversation about some independent contracting work, ended with an offer to join them full time. Long story short, they extended an offer that I couldn’t refuse, and I accepted. Of course, there are many things that I’m going to miss about full-time freelancing. But after weighing all my options, there were more pros than cons that came along with this full-time position.

As for freelancing? I’ll still continue my freelance business part time and will be working with many of my existing clients after starting my new position. And I’ll still be writing here on The Golden Pencil—only from a different perspective: as a part-time freelancer with a full-time job. Not unlike many freelancers I know, I’ve toggled back and forth between part- and full-time freelancing throughout much of my career. Each has its own set of challenges, advantages, and disadvantages. One advantage from a freelancing perspective is that I’ll be able to be more selective about the work I take on as a freelancer.

When I was in a similar position as a part-time freelancer several years ago, I learned some very important lessons. And I imagine I will be spending more time talking about those here as I make the transition from full- to part-time freelancer again. Based on my past experience, as a part-time freelancer you have to:

1) Be very disciplined about your “off” time. Not that full-time freelancers aren’t disciplined about time management, but when you only have evenings and hours after work to do your freelance assignments, you have to be very disciplined when it comes to your “off” time. Since I have some standing gigs that I plan to keep once I start my full-time job, I already have some idea of what my schedule is going to look like after work every night. And I imagine that I will be working some weekends. But I already do that, so that’s not going to be too much of an adjustment for this freelancer.

2) Become an expert estimator. Before taking on a project, I always try to estimate how long it will take me to complete it. As a full-time freelancer, learning how to estimate project hours is important. But I would argue that it’s even more important when you’re a part-time freelancer. As a full-time freelancer, I can more easily adjust my schedule to accommodate the occasional project that goes far beyond my original time estimate. But as a part-timer, accommodating additional project hours can be a little more difficult to do—there’s not as much time to work with, and there’s less flexibility. One strategy that worked before? I avoided projects with short turnaround times and opted for those with more of a time cushion built into the schedule.

3) Get creative. When I was freelancing part time a few years back, the bulk of my work was editing. This time, I’ll also be adding some writing to the mix. But I’m going to have to get a little more creative when it comes to interviewing sources for stories. I’ll no longer be able to conduct interviews during daytime hours, so my strategy will involve setting up some evening and weekend interviews, locating sources in different time zones, and the occasional e-mail interview if talking via phone is not an option from a scheduling standpoint. But part of my strategy also involves focusing on different kinds of writing. For example, I’ve started working on a book project. And I’m also starting to write more essays and other pieces that involve less interviewing.

So what about you? Have you ever made the switch from full- to part-time freelancing? Or from part-time to full-time freelancing? What were some strategies that worked for you? Drop me a line and tell me all about it!

-Jenny

Photo credit: theakshay (Flickr)