The Principles of Successful Freelancing

What will you call your business? Will you work full-time or part-time? How will you fit out your office? What are your best strengths as a freelancer? In this sample chapter from Miles Burke’s new book, The Principles of Successful Freelancing, we’ll learn about some of the questions you’ll need to ask—and answer—before you embark on your new adventure.

The most exciting and eagerly anticipated phase of freelancing happens after all the planning—and we haven’t quite reached it yet! There’s good reason for putting the brakes on until we know exactly where we’re going—a freelancer who has built a solid foundation of planning has a far better chance of surviving than a freelancer who hasn’t prepared for the plunge.

In this chapter, we’ll walk through a couple of options for heading down the freelance road, we’ll make a start on the planning by looking at some elementary tools, and we’ll establish the all-important goals and milestones.

Then we’ll consider your trading name, create your start-up shopping list, and contemplate your business structure. We’ll wrap all this up by discussing how to choose suppliers and whether you should consider outsourcing any bookkeeping and additional legal work.

Deciding How Far to Jump

Now that you’ve made the decision to become a freelancer, we’ve reached the point of short-, medium-, and long-term preparation. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to jump in running as fast as you can. However, it’s been proven time and again that to ensure the best chance of success, you should expend plenty of effort in planning and preparation. This raises the question of which work mode to begin your freelance life with: full-time or part-time.

If you’re a student nearing the end of your studies, you’ve got a distinct time to work towards. (That said, I recommend that unless you have run a business previously, don’t go freelance straight after graduating—spend some time in employment in your chosen field first, to get those skills polished.) This also applies if your current work is coming to a close—you may be on a fixed-term contract, or the company you’ve been working for is winding up. However, for many people, the entry to freelancing is a case of juggling full-time employment with preparations to exit the rat race.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both situations, and you’ll need to weigh these up carefully. Let’s take a moment to look at some of them.

Freelancing on the Side

There’s a lot to be said for freelancing “on the side,” at least in the beginning:

• This is a great way to test the waters without making that big jump.
• You can spend as much after-hours time as you need on planning your business.
• You can save just-in-case money for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable before venturing into the unknown.
• You’re able to be choosier with the work you take on, as your salary is still coming in to help with costs.
• If you don’t have any good recent work to show, part-time freelancing allows you to build a great portfolio before you move to full-time.
• The clients you groom now are likely to be with you once you make that leap, helping with immediate cash flow.
• It allows you to take your time to fit out the home office, without blowing your starting budget.
• Freelancing part-time after hours, as well as holding down a full-time position, gives you the authentic taste of a busy week as a freelancer. This can help you determine your ability to cope with that amount of work at any given time.

There are a few disadvantages to this practice, though:

• Depending on your employment contract, you may be restricted from doing work that directly competes with services offered by your employer. It’s best to approach your boss to discuss this.
• Most clients will want to contact you during their workday hours, which tend to be when you’re busy at your full-time gig.
• You lose out on the all-important downtime hours of evenings and weekends. If you attract lots of work, you may end up exhausting yourself trying to work two jobs.
• You’ll be cautious of growing too fast, given you have restricted hours in which to work. It can become tricky trying to keep everyone happy, and you may have to turn down new work in order not to fail existing clients.

Freelancing Full-time

There are some compelling advantages to jumping in with both feet:

• You’ll have the freedom to set up your freelance life, instead of juggling it with a full-time job.
• Full-time start-up mode means that you have plenty of time in which to network, make important contacts, and meet prospects.
• There are no issues with your employer being aggrieved about you working freelance on the side, and you’ll have no hesitation in taking on as many new clients and projects as you can handle.

There are, however, some disadvantages to full-time freelancing straight away:

• Nothing feeds self-doubt more than work failing to come in during those first few weeks.
• The cash drain while you rush around making contacts and courting business can really hurt your back pocket.
• The all-important planning tends to be the first casualty when those projects come in—understandably, you’ll be more interested in taking an opportunity to earn some much-needed money than mapping out your legal business structure.