Have you Freelanced?
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- exador1-1
years ago, back around summer of 2004 i think, we'd been bought and merged with Allstream (think AT&T Canada ...) after about a year of working there, our entire floor was layed off...
it kind of came out of nowhere...
I was lucky enough to get asked immediately to fill in for a design contract in the marketing dept.
I decided then and there, that I'd take the contract, and also start freelancing...
I guess I did it for about 3/4 of a year all together...
with the contract and the ton of work I was able to pick up, I did really well, considering I'd never thought of going freelance before...
it was pretty scary at first...we're sort of all conditioned to want to work for a big company, get a regular pay-check etc...
But i was lucky... I'd made some great contacts, and called them all and let them know I was available for work, and the phone started ringing...
a few notes though, to anyone thinking of doing the same...
• you have a tendency to say 'yes' to EVERYTHING...because you're worried they'll never call you again if you say no...
which leads to overcrowding your calendar with too much work.• because you're generally working from home, the home/work balance can get pretty wildly off.... you tend to work a LOT....
and weekends become just another workday....you can make a ton of money though, and that's pretty exciting...
but you HAVE to keep a very tight control over what you do with it... always save about 10% atleast of every check for tax etc...
all in all, it was a great experience, and If I had too, at least I know I could probably do it again...(ie, the mortage always got paid, life went on, i did ok...)
it's not easy though
-helps if you're married to a girl that is really good with keeping the books and is super supportive etc etc... :)