Get a Better Life - Freelance Style

Now that my wife and I are expecting our first child, it’s really made me think seriously about my priorities and what I actually want from life. I suppose that’s normal given the circumstances, I don’t know – this is after all our first baby - but what I do know is that what I thought was important only a few weeks ago is seeming less crucial today.

A few weeks ago I believed that the best thing for me was to go out everyday and earn the pay to keep us both comfortable and secure. Now that we two are to become three however, all I’ve been thinking about recently is how to spend more time at home. In fact I’m beginning to feel like I just want to quit this job altogether.

I currently work as a contractor, though I also do some consulting, speaking and freelance writing. Contracting is my main source of income, and if I was to ditch that then life would be a real struggle to say the least - we couldn’t even pay the mortgage. So unless I can find a way to increase my writing and speaking gigs, my feelings about quitting have to be placed firmly on hold (so if my wife’s reading this… relax, breath easy darling, everything’s okay).

It’s with thinking such thoughts that I happened upon this post over at Freelance Switch. It’s written by Carlos Feliciano and outlines the steps he took in building his freelance writing business (despite having no experience in his chosen profession). One of the main points he makes is just doing it, rather than reading up on how to do it. That’s a big problem with me. I day-dream too much, reading and researching opportunities but never taking them.

Well all that’s got to change. I’ve placed Freelance Switch on my Blogroll, if only to make it easier for me to click through to. However, for those of you who wish to spend more quality time with their family, check out some of their posts, all written by professionals in the freelancing game.

As for me, here’s my plan that will hopefully reduce the time I’m away from home and allow me to spend one or two extra days a week with my family. Drop me a comment if you have any other tips (I need them).

My Plan for a Better Life - Freelance Style

Ideally I would like to cut back on contracting to maybe three or four days a week and work from home the rest. Though you may think differently (in which case leave a comment and let me know), I believe I’m a pretty good writer and so will focus on that by looking for some copy-editing and proof-reading gigs to get me going and my name known.

There’s also this blog of course. I earn a little now but hopefully that will improve in time. I’m starting to get the traffic – thanks everyone – and hopefully that will continue to increase through my marketing. With traffic I can sell monthly/quarterly priced ad space, which is more dependable than the PPC or referral ads I currently display.

I’ve also written a book that was published a short while ago, and currently I’m finishing a second whilst researching a third. These make great promotional material and though it’s definitely a long-term strategy, if I can manage a book a year then together they should provide me with some residual income, which is always good to know, especialy when you have nappies to buy.

I’m going to set up another site www.andrew-scotchmer.com to advertise my writing business and myself to prospective clients. One tip if you want to start a business online is to get your own URL (that’s the address you type in the browser). Using a hosted service such as www.myname.myISP.com gives the impression you’re an amateur; and first impressions count in this game.

I also found this post on Bootstrapping Blog, which advices those thinking about the freelance life to first research both the market and the competition; sound advice for any business. Coincidently another great post lists the top industries which regularly hire freelancers and so I’ll begin my research there.

As I’m writing this I’m printing out an article written by Bob Younce over on Writing Journey entitled, “Why Writers Fail.” Once it’s finished printing I’m going to tape it to my laptop.

Two points he makes about why writers fail are: 1.Writers (and I suppose any self employed person for that matter) need to be good at selling themselves, so as to find work; and 2.Writers need to be good at maths, for costing purposes.

Hmmm. Though I sort of work for myself as a contractor, I have agents to do the selling and they also negotiate fees on my behalf so I’ll have to study more about those topics.

And finally, just to bring me down to earth, this post on Freelance Writing Gigs argues the total opposite to what I’ve just been writing about. Freelancing can actually mean spending less time with your family than the regular nine-to-five. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Being realistic, I’m not expecting great things to happen next week or even next month. I understand that any business takes time to develop and become a going concern. However, I hope that with this plan and by taking small steps, in twelve months I can be earning about £300 (US$600) per week and thereby reduce my reliance on the nine-to-five and spend more time at home with my wife and baby.

If anyone has any other suggestions about how to break free from the all-consuming rat race and wants to join in the conversation, then just leave a comment below. It would be great to hear of your experiences and tips.

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