For those readers that have been following me for awhile, you’ll probably recall that my day to day job is a Project Manager. I’ve been working in advertising for about seven years, building websites and working in advertising agencies. It’s like Mad Men meets The Social Network. (LOL, that makes it sounds so glamorous!)
When Zoom was born I didn’t want to go back to my previous job for a couple of reasons. The first was the distance and the commute; my old job was across a bridge and about 45 miles away. It was horrible for the nine months I did it. And, frankly, the job was a really bad fit. I’ll leave it at that.
In October, just a month after Zoom was born I very jokingly asked a friend if he might be hiring any Project Managers. And the answer was yes, but that the position might be temporary. I told him I wanted to learn more.
And so, in one of the worst economies in ages, with a baby and bills and a new car, I found myself actually contemplating making a jump into being a freelancer. I found myself really, seriously, thinking about what I wanted to do.
I knew that I really wished I could spend more time with Zoom. And as he gets older, I’d really love to be able to find a way to take the summer off with him so he doesn’t have to go to day camp or something for months on end. My friends who are teachers swing it so they have a summer off, and I love that they have that flexibility. As I started to think about freelancing, it occurred to me that I might be able to find the right jobs that allow me to make my own schedule.
And with all of these dreams in my head, I took the plunge and went freelance. It often requires patience and hard work to get used to freelance work. According to me, blogs, books, articles, and tutorials proved to be of great worth when I was trying to learn how to become a freelancer. After all, freelancing is mostly about higher pay and long contracts. So far, I love it. My current contract is for four days a week, and I’m working on rebranding and relaunching a website. My original contract was through the end of April, but it got extended through June because they liked me and wanted to keep me on a couple of projects (instead of handing them back to the woman who returned from maternity leave).
My plan is to begin looking for a new contract at the end of May so I’ll have about four weeks to firm something up. I have a good feeling about this, and I hope to keep the freelance thing going to see how I like it in other companies.
Do you have any advice? Have you ever freelanced?