Going 'freelance'

Hi Scott, I went freelance for a couple of years from around 2010. i was lucky enough that the local council ran week long courses for people looking to set up their own businesses and that really helped with developing the business plan, identifying potential clients and marketing my services.

My initial aim was to target small businesses, but doing the planning it was clear that to make enough money to be able to cover the bills, i would need a huge amount of small clients very quickly. I therefore decided to incorporate some self employed interim work, ideally on a part time basis, along with smaller clients.

That did work well, but i found that the interim work was more financially sustainable - with smaller clients, you need a lot of them to make enough money and you do have to give up quite a bit of your time for free, having the initial conversation and developing proposals, only to find that they really don't have the budget to cover the cost of the work.

I enjoyed having the freedom, and the income was higher than working for an employer, however, i did find it hard to force myself to take holiday, or have a gap in contracts - I worried that if i took a break, I wouldn't be able to get back into it.

In the end, I did a fairly long term interim assignment and at the end, they offered me a permanent role which I accepted as I did prefer the feeling of security that being employed provided.

Hi Scott, I went freelance for a couple of years from around 2010. i was lucky enough that the local council ran week long courses for people looking to set up their own businesses and that really helped with developing the business plan, identifying potential clients and marketing my services.

My initial aim was to target small businesses, but doing the planning it was clear that to make enough money to be able to cover the bills, i would need a huge amount of small clients very quickly. I therefore decided to incorporate some self employed interim work, ideally on a part time basis, along with smaller clients.

That did work well, but i found that the interim work was more financially sustainable - with smaller clients, you need a lot of them to make enough money and you do have to give up quite a bit of your time for free, having the initial conversation and developing proposals, only to find that they really don't have the budget to cover the cost of the work.

I enjoyed having the freedom, and the income was higher than working for an employer, however, i did find it hard to force myself to take holiday, or have a gap in contracts - I worried that if i took a break, I wouldn't be able to get back into it.

In the end, I did a fairly long term interim assignment and at the end, they offered me a permanent role which I accepted as I did prefer the feeling of security that being employed provided.