Few people who make a successful freelance living went from zero to hero without first having to crack open the elbow grease. Like most things that look fairly dreamlike and glamorous, the freelance life is not often served to you on a spoon.
However, most freelancers will tell you that it’s worth the effort (a whopping 78% told us they felt in some way good about their decision to break away from the rat race). With that in mind, we thought we’d offer up a few ideas on how to start a business while working full-time.
1. Know what you’re in it for
OK, so that sounds a bit simplistic, but it’s an important thing to take note of. Are you starting out in the freelance world to make a bit of money on the side, is the aim to ultimately start a business of your own, or are you perhaps looking at it as a way to bridge a gap of some kind – perhaps between two careers, or to support yourself through a gap year out of the ordinary?
Assuming that you’re reading this because you want to do things on your terms and start a business of your own, the first thing you need to do is work out your income target.
You can do this by looking at your current outgoings, your risk tolerance (how comfortably you’ll be able to deal with being out of work from time to time) and the savings you are able to fall back on.
By working out what you’ll be able to live on without freaking out or going beneath the bread line, you’ll have a good idea of what you’ll need to earn, a better idea of the day rate you’d need to charge (which you can read more about in our ‘Setting Your Day Rate‘ article), and subsequently the number of clients you’d need to be able to sustain yourself. By doing this you’re essentially working out the point you’ll need to reach before you can comfortably give up your full-time job.
Different people will offer you different indicators of ‘the right time’ to weigh anchor and go it alone, commonly something along the lines of ‘once you’ve got three-month’s worth of salary saved up’ or ‘once you’re earning 75% of the money you’ll need to keep going’.
The truth is that there is no right or wrong when it comes to this decision, and the ‘risk tolerance’ factor will play a huge part in dictating when you think the time is right.
2. Be clear about what services you want to offer
This is as much for you as it is for any potential client, and while you have a full-time job, it’s worth taking the time to think it through and get it right.
As an example, imagine that you have built up years of experience in digital marketing and have decided to go it alone as a consultant in the field. Being clear up front about what you are offering will mean that you are not expected to get bogged down in day-to-day operations.
As a consultant, you’re expected to offer strong advice based on thorough research; nobody should expect you to be writing the ads yourself! Being clear with yourself and your clients from the off will help you to set expectations as well as setting your day rate.
What’s more, being able to sum up what you do succinctly will help when it comes to marketing yourself as a freelancer. If you can’t pull it all together in the space of a Twitter bio, you’re probably going to end up looking like a jack of all trades.
3. Sole trader vs ltd company: to be or not to be
We’ve written about this in more depth in our ‘sole trader vs ltd company‘ article, and again, it’s something you should be thinking about as you prepare to start a business – much sooner rather than later.
As you can see from the poll above, you’re not alone in worrying about which path is best for you. The best advice we can give you is to speak to an accountant. At My Accountant Friend, we’d be happy to chat to you about the plusses and minuses of the two options.
Invariably, the decision has to do with the amount of money you expect to earn, and once you know that, one-on-one consultation is advisable.
In short, if you’re just doing a bit of freelance work on the side, it’s likely that you’ll want to set up as a sole trader, all of which can be done by registering on the gov.uk website. The good news is that, if you start earning more than you expected (lucky you!), then you can register as a ltd company at any time. In fact, My Accountant Friend can do that for you. You can find out more about that by comparing packages here.
4. Build a brand that’ll get noticed online
While you’re in the thinking phase, and once you’ve got your head around the services you think you might offer, it’s a good idea to think about how you’ll be presenting yourself. Many freelancers find that a well-worked LinkedIn page does the trick, but those that work in the creative industries will want to show off their portfolio and abilities.
While there are plenty of off-the-peg websites that you could make use of, learning a little about how to work a WordPress site to your advantage will at least give you room to express your personality – or your brand – in a way that introduces you sufficiently.
Learn how to build a content calendar and start planning blog posts that will attract people to your page, initially by pushing your pieces via social, but ultimately through organic search. Be the answer to the questions that people are asking. Let Google guide them to you.
5. Think beyond cold calling
Rather than bothering people with constant requests for work, you might want to make them aware of your brilliance. If you run a blog on your website as part of your content marketing, you can begin making mention of clients that you’d like to work with.
Say how useful they are, point out their strengths (and even their weaknesses) in a well-written article, and then get the article in front of as many people as possible.
Drop them a line to let them know how great you think they are and share the link to your article. Wow them with your industry knowledge and get them thinking about how they could make use of someone like you.
Similarly, getting involved in industry events is a great way to get noticed. My Accountant Friend takes every opportunity to get out and get chatting – we love a spot of networking! – and much of our custom comes through these initial meetings.
Attend Meetup events in the evenings after you’ve finished with your day job. Let people know that you’re about to become free and available.
6. Stay legal!
It goes without saying that you need to stay on the right side of the law – or, at least, your contract. Be sure that you’re not doing anything that could jeopardise your current full time position – soliciting for work from your parent company’s client base is probably unwise!
More often than not, the terms of your contract will explain to you what you can and can’t do while on the payroll of your current company. Dig it out and have a good read. You’re going to need all the pay cheques you can get your hands on in the run up to the big leap!
If you’d like to chat with us further on this subject, we’re always up for a chinwag. Drop us a line at My Accountant Friend and find out how we can help you launch your own business.
