Picture this…
Your alarm goes off during the wee hours of the morning and you can barely open your eyes.
You feel lifeless.
You have zero energy.
And the thought of getting up and commuting to place you find no enthusiasm to work at pangs at your very existence.
But still, you brew your cup of coffee, turn on your favorite podcast, and get ready for the soul sucking rigmarole of the daily grind.
For many people, having a traditional 9–5, while secure, isn’t what they envisioned what it would be when they signed up for it:
- The pay is good but not great.
- The people are a bunch of gossipers.
- The “needed vacation” isn’t long enough.
- The word you’re putting in? Let’s just say your degree isn’t going to that much work.
More and more people are starting to move away from a full-time job, especially Millennials. Ascending the ranks of the corporate ladder isn’t an expected career path anymore.
Instead, Millennials often see freelancing, starting your own company, blogging, influencing or growing your own business as the new norm.
And the data shows it; freelancing is on the rise. Over 50 million Americans are choosing to freelance, which equates to nearly 34% of the entire workforce.
Seven years ago, they made up only 15% of the workforce. And it’s only going to keep rising as more people realize the freedom being a “solopreneur” allows.
You’re stuck in limbo
As every day drags on, you find yourself not being able to wait for Friday so you can frequent your local pub and cleanse your psyche of the fruitless work endeavors of the previous week. The weekend brings respite — no more [incompetent] boss breathing down your neck, no more pointless meetings, no more scheduled breaks and no more thinking about work.
When all is said and done — you’re working for the weekend. You’re stuck in limbo.
Whether you want to quit your job and traverse the world, you want to try something new or you’re just bored and unfulfilled at work — you want out but you just don’t know how.
So what the hell do you do?
How do you quit your stable and secure job for a life of hustling for work? And can you even make a living from freelancing?
Spoiler alert: You sure can.
According to a survey by the Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk, 77% of freelancers are making the same amount of money as they did in their previous job and 42% say they are even earning more money.
And to actually get a real life example of someone who took the leap, let’s look at how Colin Newcomer, a copywriter and freelance writer, quit his job and made the leap into solopreneurship:
I don’t think I have a typical journey to freelancing. From ages 17 to 24, I was self-employed thanks to a graphic t-shirt blog that I launched in high school. Then, around 25, I made the decision to get a “real job” at the Vietnamese version of Google (sounded like fun!).
You know how most people wish they could have the freedom of self-employment? Yeah — I was the opposite. I wanted to try what it was like to work the standard 9–5. Don’t mock me too much — I was curious.
Satisfaction at my job lasted…9 months. Then, I realized I was crazy! And so I began plotting my journey back to self-employment. But this time, instead of Internet marketing, I was going to go into freelance writing. And given that WordPress and digital marketing were where my experience lay, those writing niches seemed like the obvious choice.
I told myself that as soon as I made as much from freelance writing as I did from my job, I could quit (I admit that this is more easily done when you live in Vietnam and make an equivalent salary).
That sucked. I would work 10 am to 7 pm, come home, eat, and work on freelance writing until 11 pm. But I was determined not to ever feel desperate for freelance work. And I figured that the best way to achieve that was to wait to quit my job until I could sustain myself from freelancing.
Thankfully, that only lasted less than 2 months. By the time I finished out my 30 days’ notice at my job, I was already making triple my salary from freelancing alone. That was September 2016. Since then, business has only been getting better. I hit a personal milestone for income in March 2017 and have a steady stream of work without needing to pitch clients anymore.
But I’m guessing you’ve seen success stories more times than you can count. You’re thinking, “how do I make this happen for me?”
What is going to follow in this post is guide that helps illustrate how making the leap can be done as seamlessly as possible.
So let’s get into it…
1. Set a timetable for the eventual transition
Unless you’ve experienced the occasions of marriage or the birth of a child, this transition has the potential to be one of the biggest moments of your life — especially your professional life.
To make the change more tangible, make a timetable for when the transition is going to take place. A timetable will help you stay disciplined, accountable and motivated when the change approaches.
It’s a good idea to set an actual date, that way you can keep your current employer in the loop with your future plans.
This is what Jeffery Trull, a copywriter and content strategist, did before making the leap into freelancing,
I left completely on my own terms. My boss actually knew way in advance that I’d be leaving May 2012, and I gave her official notice of my last day about a month ahead of time.
On May 25th, I walked out the door for the last time and never looked back.
When making the transition, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
- How will your expenses change once you quit your job? For example, you may save on gas and commuting, but you may spend more for health insurance.
- Is your company interested in retaining you as a part-time consultant? This can help the company transition and provide you with some guaranteed income while you navigate the solopreneur lifestyle.
2. Have a clearly defined goal in mind
Everyone who leaves the 9–5 for a life as a solopreneur does so for different reasons. After making a timetable of when you plan on leaving your job, figure out the big goal you want to achieve in that time frame.
Carrie Smith, a freelance expert, did this before leaving her bookkeeping/business account job.
I wanted to replace my day job income while having the freedom and flexibility of taking time off work whenever I wanted. No more asking for permission!
And in three months’ time, she was able to achieve her big goal!
Source: carefulcents
According to the Harvard Initiative of Learning and Teaching having a big goal not only helps you keep focused, but it also increases your motivation and achievement. This is especially key when making this life-altering change.
When you leave the 9–5, you aren’t going to have anyone holding you accountable for the work that needs to be done. It is all going to be up to you. According to a study from the University of Scranton, 92 percent of people fail at setting goals.
The chances that you fail is unbelievably high. This further illustrates how this isn’t for everyone and how careful strategy need be applied.
3. Do it as a side hustle first
Most solopreneurs help reduce their risk when taking the plunge by retaining their full time job and “hustling” on the side when they have time to do so. This allows for the individual to “get their feet wet” with how do conduct their business and see if they have the means, motivation and drive to keep at this work for the long haul.
By freelancing, working on your Etsy shop products, or building your monetized blog via WordPress during your downtime, it will help you see if you can actually do this full-time.
Be warned, though, this doesn’t always give you a true picture. If you have the luxury of guaranteed income from your job to fall back on, are you the type of person that can push through the comfort and build an income entirely contingent on yourself?
Laziness and procrastination can kill your drive even before it gets started.
Also, as a side hustler, you’re still responsible for “boring” administrative tasks, paperwork, billing and invoicing, as well as managing sales or projects — something that may be new to you. This can be a huge time suck when you only have limited time.
For some, leaving the comfort of their 9–5 and dealing with these dynamic responsibilities is a godsend. For others, the feeling is too overwhelming and it’s a death sentence.
For many people, however, side hustling helps them get started with branding, networking and earning side income.
Take Kali Hawk for instance, a freelance writer and content marketer, did before she went full-time with her digital business.
In November of 2013, I casually applied to a few writing gigs that I found on sites like Problogger… By December of the same year, I was getting nibbles from almost every line I cast… In January 2014, I started dropping lower-paying gigs to make room for better opportunities and higher-paying offers… I’m still a little bemused that everything happened so quickly, and in three months I went from making $0 off my writing skills to making over $2,000 (my side income total from January).
4. Don’t forget to always be saving money
With the extra income you have been making with your side hustle, you should be building a decent nest egg.
Often times, people get sidetracked here and tend to spend the newly earned bump in their income. Some people are often blinded by the new money with a Google Pixel 3 when they already have the 2 or they end up taking a weekend vacation to Tuluum when they need to keep grinding on their Saturdays and Sundays.
Saving is key.
So how much does one need to save in order to consider making the leap?
According to experts, the standard is to save three to six months’ worth of your income to account for any emergencies, slow periods of work and client attrition. For freelancers with obligations like a family or a mortgage, however, the recommendation is to save six to twelve months’ worth of expenses.
For the money you earn with this side gig, it’s recommended that you put it all into another account entirely so you don’t cross any financial boundaries with yourself (I use my PayPal Business account for everything that I make on the side and only use it for business expenses — if at all).
5. Finally — take the plunge
You can finally feel it now.
For a length of time, you’ve juggled two different lives. Just like how it’s illustrated in the Native American myth about the battle of two wolves, you have a fight going inside you.
You’re solopreneur life is starting to win the battle against the 9–5.
Before you hand in your resignation, here are a few things to make sure you have in order before cutting ties with your employer and taking your side hustle to full-time status.
1. Secure enough clients beforehand
At this point, I’m sure you have been able to pinpoint what type of budgeting you’ll need on a monthly basis to maintain a lifestyle that your income permits.
How many gigs or projects do you need to feel safe enough to quit your job for good? You’ve saved enough income for slow periods, so now you need to look at whether or not the clients you have will allow you to cover your expenses — and then some — every month.
2. Have a pipeline to land more clients down the road
By now, you should see yourself as a hustler.
Just because you have steady gigs or are making regular sales from your products or services, it doesn’t mean everything can’t change next month.
Hell, I remember the first time I was laid off by my client (no…it wasn’t due to poor work people — they laid of 20% of their internal workforce due to losing money on every sale of their service). I was shook. It was a HUGE learning experience for me to know I should always have fishing poles in the water waiting for the next fish to nibble and then reel it in.
It’s important to have a strategy in place for when a client cuts down your work or they end the collaboration.
Typically, you want to work on reducing or eliminating lower-paying clients as you start to replace them with higher-paying clients. This will free up some time and move you up the pay scale.
3. Put in place an optimal daily structure
Without a boss to delegate tasks to you, the onus is on you to create a productive schedule every day.
The idea of just stopping work and going for coffee with a friend is tempting, but if you aren’t working, then you aren’t making money.
On the other hand, some solopreneurs lean heavier on the other side of the working spectrum and end up putting in 50–60 hour weeks in front of their computer with no freedom to speak of (which is why they joined this game in the first place).
Proper balance is key here.
I know what works for me, when I start to feel that pang behind my eyes and I start to lose focus, I go to the gym to release some of my stresses or read the book that is in my backpack (I would guess if you’re a writer — you’re also a reader…).
Perhaps you are in need of some productivity tools to help you stay on track.
Bringing it all together
At first glance, the idea of becoming a solopreneur and joining the “New Rich” might seem like an overwhelmingly daunting task.
With your plan in place, however, you will soon be able to join the ranks of other solopreneurs similar to the ones discussed in this article.
It’ll be an exciting reward when the day comes, you quit your 9–5 and you have a blank canvas of opportunity to help change the world with your creative work.
We need you and your creativity now more than ever.
So go forth and accomplish your dream.
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