When is the right time to go freelance?
Earlier this week, I saw a post in a freelancer forum asking how people knew when it was the right time to make the switch from employment to self-employment.
They'd just got a qualification and were thinking about quitting their job to start their own business.
It's a tough question because there is no right or wrong answer.
There is never a "perfect" time to make the switch. And the "right" time depends on your circumstances.
Some people make the switch following redundancy. They have a nice chunk of money, so they can cover their bills for a few months while they test the water.
Other people go freelance after having children or becoming a carer for a family member. They need the flexibility.
And, for some, the decision comes about because they are unhappy in their job, or they've had a change of circumstance, or they just feel ready to try something new.
For me, it was probably the last one.
It wasn't that I didn't like my job - I actually really enjoyed it. The company was great and the job I was in at the time had been created especially for me. I was good at the job and I made good money.
But I'd started freelancing around my full-time job two years earlier and I was enjoying that too.
My plan had been to slowly build up the freelance work until it could replace my salary, but I realised that wouldn't happen. If I wanted to make a full-time living from freelancing, I needed to dedicate more time to it. I needed to go all-in.
So in December 2015, I handed in my notice and I worked three months notice, finishing at the end of March 2016.
Financially, it was the right time. We'd been in our house for two years, so we'd bought most of the big furniture items. And we'd been married a couple of months, so the wedding and honeymoon were all paid off.
I had zero debt (except my mortgage) and the money I'd previously been spending on house and wedding stuff was now money I could save. I managed to build up a nice little buffer from my last few pay packets so I went into self-employment with a bit of a cushion.
But finance wasn't the only consideration.
I did already have some clients. I'd built up some good reviews. And I had a website, examples of my work, and some idea how to run a business. It also helped that I had a background in sales.
I wasn't starting completely from scratch. I knew I could get clients because I had already done it.
And if I was going to give any advice on when to make the switch from employment to self-employment, it would be: get clients first.
Of course, that will depend on your circumstances. But if there is no immediate reason to leave your job, wait until you know for sure you can win business.
Quitting your job and then expecting clients just to appear because you've announced your new venture to the world, is naïve.
It doesn't matter how good you are at what you do. If you can't get people to pay you for it, you won't have a business.
That's not me being harsh. That's just fact.
If you can't sell your services, you won't make money.
And so many freelancers underestimate how much of running your own business involves marketing and selling.
So learn how to do that before you quit your job.
Or get some clients lined up.
Maybe your employer will give you work as a freelancer. It's quite common for new freelancers to get work from past employers or stay on with them part-time in a freelance capacity. Obviously, that will depend on the relationship you have with them and whether you are going into the same or similar industry.
If your employer isn't an option, reach out to other people in your network, for example, previous managers or colleagues. And if you get no joy there, you need to connect with some new people.
I met my first client at a networking event. But you could try cold outreach - direct mail, cold calling, emailing people you'd like to work with or contacting people on LinkedIn.
If that fills you with dread, then there are some longer-term strategies you could try. You could start a blog or newsletter and build a subscriber list that you can then market your services to. Or you could build a website and use paid ads to drive people to it.
There are hundreds of ways to market your services, you just need to find the ways that work for you.
But do not go into self-employment without already having some clients or having a plan to get clients.
Even the most highly qualified, highly experienced, highly skilled people can fail at business because they have no idea how to market or sell themselves.
So I guess to answer the original question, the right time to go freelance is when you're sure you can get clients.
If you're thinking about going freelance, here are some in-depth guides that might help:
lisa
lisa
lisa
