How To Hobbylance Your Way To Freedom
This is a guest post from Rob from Money Nomad.
What do you do when you find yourself on a career path you don’t enjoy?
If you poll your cautious friends, odds are they’ll tell you, “No one enjoys their work! Keep working hard and one day you’ll be able to retire and do what you enjoy”. Meanwhile, if you reach out to your wanderlust friends, they’ll likely respond with, “Quit your job right now! Life’s too short to do something you don’t enjoy”.Although I’ve heard variations of the two above statements, almost everyone falls into one of these camps. Either they think money is the only reason to work, or they don’t pay attention to money at all. For someone who’s idealistic AND realistic, neither of these options sounds good. You know that you need to financially prepare for the future, but you also don’t want to be one of the 80% of people who are unsatisfied with their job.
So what do you do?
Stop thinking “either/or” and start thinking “both/and”
After working for one year as a financial analyst, I knew this wasn’t the career path for me. I valued the mission of the healthcare organization I worked for, and I loved my team, but the work was utterly boring. I had spent far too many years in school, eagerly awaiting graduation so I could do something I enjoyed – but I was not doing something I enjoyed. In fact, I was less content than I had been in school!
Something had to change…
I could go get another job. But then I would end up in the same place I started. It wasn’t the company I disliked, it was the lack of autonomy and flexibility. I was stuck doing what someone else wanted, how they wanted, when they wanted. And that drove me crazy! My dream was to write about and teach business – while experimenting with my own ventures on the side. But I also had to pay the bills. I wasn’t in a position to just quit and try my own thing.
So I decided to keep my current job AND try my dream job – as a hobby.
Rather than “quit to pursue my dream” or give up on my dream altogether, I decided to do both/and. In addition to working at my regular job, i was going to start writing for B2B (business to business) clients. I worked my eight to nine hours every day, and then I came home and spent another few hours finding clients, writing, building a network, and developing my own websites. And things started going well. Very well!
After three months I started hitting weeks where I earned 50% of my regular job’s pay in just 10 hours of freelancing in the evenings and weekends. There were some weeks where I was even close to doubling my pay. The day finally came where I realized that I was hindering my finances by keeping my job! If I quit, I would actually have the opportunity to earn more – and have more time. More money AND more time, who wouldn’t want that?
So the beginning of this year I left my job – thrilled. Not only did I leave to pursue my passion, but I knew that my passion could replace my paycheck.
Before you quit your job, become self-employed
Ask me if you should quit your job to pursue your passion and I will tell you “no”. Why? Because when you’re already employed is the best time to try freelancing! Not only does your job keep you financially stable, but it allows you to determine how passionate you truly are about your “dream” of working for yourself. If you can come home from work and be excited to spend several hours on your business, you know that it’s something you’ll enjoy working on full time. Meanwhile, if the thought of pursuing this venture seems overwhelming after a full day of work, how do you know that you’ll be able to commit 8-12 hours a day to it once you quit your job?
The best time to quit your job is after your venture is already thriving.
Before quitting your job, I recommend that you:
Try it out!
Will you truly enjoy doing this long term? Can you actually make money with it? The only way to know if freelancing is right for you is to try it out. The only way to discover if your business will succeed is to start selling. Even if you have an 8-5 job during the week, you still have evenings and weekends to give it a shot. It may even be beneficial to take a week of vacation time to really get involved with your idea.
How do you start landing these part time clients? Get on freelance websites and start applying for projects. I get 80% of my business from Upwork – and I was able to do this before ever having my own website. You may need to do a few projects for free or at a very low rate to build up your portfolio, but it doesn’t take long before you can start making good money through freelance platforms – especially if you follow my suggestions here. As you develop your reputation and build up a portfolio, your social media channels and personal website can quickly send additional clients your way.
When you try “hobbylancing” on the side, you should have these three goals in mind:
- Evaluate the demand for your service.
- Ensure that you will enjoy doing this long term.
- Determine how much money you can really make.
Evaluate your work ethic and develop a plan for productivity
Discovering that you enjoy your work is a great first step. However, you also need to take a realistic look at your ability to stay focused and disciplined. Are there TV shows you’ll be tempted to watch at 2 pm? Will friends call you up to help them because they think you aren’t “really” employed? Can you draw clear lines between your work and personal life? Freelancers have a tendency to fall into one of two camps. Either 1) they don’t take their work seriously and never really succeed, or 2) they spend all of their time working and forget to spend time on their personal lives. By taking some time to line up your priorities and develop a solid work schedule, you can ensure that you are working when you need to be working, and relaxing when you need to be relaxing.
Understand your finances
The final step before quitting your job is to make sure that you can afford to quit. Leaving a job is about more than your hourly rate. Consider the value of your health benefits, paid time off, and any other perks at work. Additionally, remember that the office pays a portion of your Social Security and Medicare taxes. Work for yourself and all of these employer-covered expenses suddenly fall on you. For most jobs, these benefits and taxes come out to 30-50% of what you actually get paid. In order to fully replace a $50/hr job, you need to make closer to $75/hr as a freelancer.
Additionally, it takes time to grow your client base. Even if you already have some great clients when you quit, it will probably take a few months before you fully replace your income. If you can save up enough to cover your expenses for 6-9 months, you’ll be in a much more secure place. Sure, this isn’t easy, but if you’re spending 10-20 hours a week freelancing while fully employed, you can sock that money away for when you quit. By doing a conservative audit of your finances, you can ensure that your escape to full-time freelancing is as stress-free as possible.
Will you hobbylance yourself out of a job?
Thanks to the internet and great services like Upwork, it’s easier than ever to freelance your way out of a job. With just a few hours during your evenings and weekends, you can turn that dream of independence into a reality.
Now the question is, what will you do today to get one step closer to freedom?
Rob blogs at Money Nomad – where he shares strategies and tips for becoming a remote entrepreneur. When not working on his own projects, Rob writes articles for businesses and thought leaders. You can find him on Twitter @.
Ready to get serious about your work from anywhere job search? I whole-heartedly recommend Flexjobs, the site where I found my first freelance writing gig. There are zero scams on their site and they have their own 100% remote team, too!
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