How Freelancing Can Help You Make The Leap Into Entrepreneurship
Ali Hale has jumped in with this post explaining the virtues of becoming a freelancer as an in-between step to become a full on entrepreneur. Since this is the exact path she is walking now, Ali in a great position to help explain what it is like.
If you’re feeling the fear regarding quitting your job to start up a business because you’re worried about the financial strain, freelancing as a cash flow source is a great idea. Here’s what Ali has to say about it…
Entrepreneurship. Attractive, enticing … and risky. Let’s face it, however attractive the idea of quitting your day job to start your business is, it might just not be a realistic option. Maybe you have a family – or an expensive gadget habit – to support. Maybe you’re not convinced that your dreams can stand up to reality.
The problem is, starting up a business venture while you’re working full time is hard. You might well have already experienced this – either you end up with lots of plans but no energy to put them into action, or you work evenings and weekends and quickly burn out.
There is, however, a middle road between employment and entrepreneurship. It’s called freelancing, and it can help you over that chasm between where you are and where you want to be.
How Freelancing Can Get You Over the Gap
Are Freelancers Really Business Owners?
I just completed a great podcast interview with Collis Ta’eed from the NorthxEast blog, although the focus was not on that blog, it was on his newer blog, Freelance Switch. Freelance Switch is all about freelancing and skyrocketed in popularity in a matter of weeks, nearing 4000 RSS readers at one point – not bad for a three week old blog!
We talked about how he managed to grow the traffic to his blog so quickly and it turned out to be a very good interview with lots of cutting edge blog traffic tips. I’m only releasing the podcast to my Blog Mastermind members (sorry readers – I do have to have something premium for my members), so if you want to hear the full interview you better be on the early notification list to get into the mentoring program.
After talking with Collis and his success with a blog about freelancing I started thinking more about the whole freelance industry. I suspect there are quite a few freelancers who read Entrepreneurs-Journey.com given that working as a freelancer is often considered running a business. Personally I have never wanted to be a freelancer, although I have certainly worked from time to time on freelance projects, especially during the days when I ran a web hosting company.
What Is A Freelancer?
Freelancers, as far as I understand it, are individuals – talented creative types usually – who chose not to seek permanent employment with a single company but instead take on contract projects working for many different businesses.
The idea is that by not committing to a full time job you gain some semblance of freedom and more control over your working lifestyle and income. You take on only as many projects as you need/want to, you can work from home and you don’t have any boss telling you what to do.
That all sounds good, but is freelancing really the best option if you are looking to improve your working lifestyle?
