Freelance
Out of context: Reply #36
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- gramme0
The flow of work at my last job (before starting my own business) was all over the map. Sometimes I'd work every day, seven days a week, for seven weeks straight; sometimes I wouldn't have anything to do for an entire week or more.
I was always diligent in telling my boss when I encountered holding patterns, and would ask coworkers if they needed help. Failing that, I did a little bit of freelance here and there—mainly friends and family stuff that wasn't really lucrative, i.e. clients that were too small for the studio. At times I would even show side work to my boss to see if she had any input.
When things really started to slow down last year, I worked extra hours to bring in new clients. One of them was my church, which wasn't lucrative but was good portfolio work. Frankly, I didn't want to bring the work in to my employer since I had such a personal connection to it, but I knew I simply couldn't get away with doing that much work on the sly. After we created a substantial visual ID for the church, I was given my boss's blessing to start taking work for them on the side if I wanted. I also campaigned to bring in another more lucrative client, and it would've happened if I hadn't lost that job for ill-considered reasons already mentioned here. The good news is that I was able to take that client with me, and they are a very big reason I've been able to pay my mortgage and provide for wife + son.
So. Everything was gravy until I made public my unrest at that studio. That was just plain stupid on my part. This is why I now cringe every time I see someone coming on here now and complaining about their job. This place ranks high in Google search results, for anyone who hasn't discovered this yet. I can only be somewhat candid about this subject now, since I have no desire to work full time for another studio or agency.
- yes... it is easy to complain about studio life until you have to deal with clients all the time yourself...vaxorcist