Freelancing Tips for Beginners

Why Freelance While Working Full-Time?

Many writers, designers, and developers have full-time jobs and are thinking of freelancing on the side.

There are three typical reasons you might want to start freelancing when you’re already working 9 – 5.

1. You Want to Earn Extra Income

The most obvious reason to work freelance while employed is to make more money. Think of freelancing as a side hustle.

Maybe you’re saving for a specific reason, such as buying a house, car, or vacation. Perhaps you have bills to pay or just want to stack cash.

Making more money is the primary reason people freelance while employed

2. You Want to Transition to Full-time Freelance

Perhaps you want to work full-time freelance but aren’t ready to cut the cord from your employment yet.

Freelancing on the side is a way to build up your clientele and learn how to run a freelance business while still having the assurance of a paycheck.

3. You Want to Learn Skills You Don’t Use in Your Full-Time Job

Many people use the same skills in their full-time jobs as their freelance work. But often, that’s not the case at all.

For example, many lawyers decided they didn’t want to practice law anymore and became writers. Accountants who were always “good at art” became designers. Factory workers turned into programmers.

Freelancing is one way to get into a completely new line of work. You learn your craft as you learn how to run your business.

Before you start freelancing, here are 20 questions to ask yourself.

How to Begin Freelancing if You’re Working 9 – 5

Here’s where your network comes into play. You have to let people know you’re now freelancing. Talk it up. You never know where potential freelance clients will come from.

Maybe a friend-of-a-friend has opened a business and needs someone to create a website or write blog posts.

But you have to tell them. They won’t know if you keep it a secret.

Think about your social media. Let people know about your services.

But that leads to the next question. What if your employer learns about your freelancing?

What About Your Employer? Should They Know About Your Freelancing?

There are three things to keep in mind here:

Did you sign any contracts that might restrict you from engaging in outside work? It’s essential to review any contract for non-compete clauses, moonlighting policies, or confidentiality agreements.

Some employers require you to disclose outside work and obtain permission before engaging in freelance activities.

Violating these terms could lead to legal action or termination. Pay attention if you signed a contract with any of these clauses.

Secondly, even if you didn’t sign this type of contract, once you start freelancing, ensure you don’t work on anything that could be competitive to your employer or their clients.

For example, suppose you’re a copywriter at an agency with a beer account. In that case, ethically, you can’t freelance for another beer account, even if you don’t work on the agency’s beer account. It’s just not on. You must keep your 9 – 5 separate from your freelance work.

Lastly, check any laws in your region for non-complete contracts. Most countries are doing away with these types of laws, but in the U.S., some states still have versions of them hanging around. It’s worth checking.

Personal freelancing example: at my last agency, we had a designer who was also a very talented illustrator. We would use his illustrations for some of our client projects, but we didn’t have many of them.

He freelanced as an illustrator, which was fine with us. As far as we were concerned, he was improving his craft. We had no issues as long as he was fully committed during the 9 – 5.

Think about your relationship with your boss at the full-time job. Assuming there are no contract issues, would you be comfortable telling them about your freelancing? Would they get upset if they knew? You don’t want this to sour a good working relationship.

There are no rules here. It’s up to you, but it’s worth thinking about.

Freelancing is Fine, But Your Employer Comes First

You have to set clear boundaries. Whatever commitment you’ve made to your employer, stick to it.

Your working hours may become very fluid if you have a full-time job working from home. The notion of “office hours” can go out the window.

Be careful. Remember who’s paying your bills and where you get most of your income. It’s easy to get excited about a freelance gig—something new, I love this!—while your full-time job seems boring by comparison.

When You Freelance, You’re Running a Business

Freelancing makes you a business owner. Here’s what that means:

You have to learn about any applicable government regulations. Are you required to register as a small business? Will you need any type of license? This varies by country and in the U.S., by state. Put it on your list of things to check.

You will certainly have to pay income tax on your freelance earnings. Can you handle this yourself, or should you hire a bookkeeper or accountant?

Also, determine what you can legitimately write off against your freelance income. This is tricky because you can’t write anything off as an employee if you’re working from home for your 9 – 5.

But with freelance income, you can likely write off certain expenses against that. Remember, any write-offs can only go against freelance income and won’t reduce the taxes deducted from your 9 – 5 income. You can “do your own research”, but I recommend getting advice from an accountant for eligible deductions.

Get your client admin in order. Figure out how you’ll handle writing estimates and invoices and how you’ll manage your projects. Will you do this on a specific app or platform or use writing and spreadsheet software?

My $0.02 of advice on this: when you start, keep it simple. You can do many things with a pencil and paper; no apps are required. Try not to let your admin get too fancy. It sucks up time and energy.

Related to that, determine how you want to bill. By the hour or project? I wrote about the best pricing models for creative services here.

Consider Which Business Structure Works Best for You

The simplest way to go into business as a freelancer in the U.S., Canada, and India is to be a Sole Proprietor. In the U.K., you’d be a Sole Trader. I assume most other countries will have similar designations.

As a Sole Proprietor or Sole Trader, you have an unincorporated business owned by one individual. In most cases, if you operate under your name, you don’t have to file any paperwork with your state or province.

Or you could decide to form a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC). An LLC is a typical business structure for solo freelancers and partnerships. The main benefit is spelled out in the name—limited liability for the owners.

An LLC separates you from your company for purposes of liability. For most agreements, you’re only signing on behalf of the LLC.

Lastly, you could decide to incorporate it. Freelancers form corporations for many reasons. To create a corporation, you have to file in your state, province, or country.

Incorporation laws vary, so check the rules for your jurisdiction.

With a corporation, you have a separate entity. That means the corporation has its own bank account and files a separate tax return. In some states and provinces, there are also specific corporate fees.

You’ll also have to maintain corporate books and have shareholder meetings (a formality).

Although you can DIY a corporation start-up, given the number of forms, filings, and fees involved, you’re better off hiring someone. There are many lawyers and consultants who specialize in this. Find someone to ensure you get the details right.

Managing Your Time and Burnout

To keep things simple, let’s say your full-time job is truly 9 – 5. That means you’re doing your freelance before nine, after five, and on weekends. That can be exhausting.

Make sure to schedule downtime to rest and recharge to prevent burnout and maintain productivity.

Also, if you have a partner or family, you need to spend time with them. As much as everyone will appreciate the added income, “always working” will soon become tiresome. (Ask me how I know.)

Freelancing With No Experience?

If you’ve thought about freelancing but have little or no experience, may I recommend a book? See the green one below ;-).

New Book For Freelancers

I’ve just published How to Become a Successful Creative Freelancer. It’s the essential business guide for freelance writers, designers, developers, filmmakers, and photographers.

Whether you’re just starting as a freelancer or have years of experience, you’ll learn a lot from this book.

It’s broken down into easy-to-understand chapters with strategies and tips you can use today. Not just “what to do”, but also “how to do it”.

It’s available now in Kindle ebook and paperback on Amazon.

Want to Grow An Agency? The Agency Book is For You

If you’re looking for tips on how to build and grow your agency, you’ll want to read How to Start a Successful Creative Agency.

Available at Amazon (Paper & Kindle), Kobo (ebook), Apple Books (ebook), and Gumroad (PDF).

The book is packed with useful information to help creatives start and grow their business.

 Testimonial: “Just bought your book”

“I just bought your book, per the recommendation of that very kind list of resources people gave me for freelancing books! Excited to get into it :)”

The Nomad Brad, Twitter DM

Want a Free Taste First?

Sure! Sign up in the footer below to get a free PDF of Chapter 14, Working With Clients.

This chapter covers essential areas such as Clients vs. Projects, Corporate Clients vs. Small Business Clients, How to Create an Opportunity Document, Benefits of Finding a Niche… and much more.

Questions? On Twitter, I’m @StroteBook. D.M.s are always open. On LinkedIn, I’m Andy Strote. Ask away.