This is part 2 of a 4 part series that looks at dif­fer­ent approaches to free­lanc­ing and which one may be best for your sit­u­a­tion. In part 1 of this series, we dis­cussed work­ing full-time while free­lanc­ing.

Work a part-time job while freelancing

The pros:

I call this the ‘hybrid solution’—working a part-time job while free­lanc­ing full-time. It can be a good tran­si­tion from work­ing full-time to going com­pletely on your own, espe­cially if you have lim­ited sav­ings or a spouse and fam­ily to sup­port while build­ing your new free­lance empire. Many of the pros from hav­ing a “reg­u­lar” job still apply—the steady pay­check, the social aspect, the steady paycheck…

But now you have more time to devote to build­ing your free­lance busi­ness. The steady pay gives you some secu­rity, know­ing it will be there. And the addi­tional time should be used to do client work, attend meet­ings, net­work and mar­ket the you-know-what out of your free­lance business.

With some part-time jobs, you can work evenings and have your work day free to devote to your free­lance busi­ness, which works well for com­mu­ni­cat­ing with clients. Or you may have a job where you work week­ends or a cou­ple days a week and you can free­lance on your days off.

While work­ing part-time, you can often increase the amount of hours you are work­ing to help you get through slow periods—or decrease the amount of hours when you need to as your free­lance busi­ness grows.

In short, you can com­bine the best of both worlds and ease down the steps of the shal­low end of the pool rather than jump­ing off the high dive. Let’s face it, some­times it can be hard to let go of the secu­rity of the 9–5 world, so this approach could be a good compromise.

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The cons:

You likely won’t have any benefits—or you will at least have reduced benefits—compared to work­ing full-time. So you may have to pick up your own health insur­ance or go on your spouse’s plan. Of course, in the U.S., health insur­ance can be hard to come by and expensive.

You may make less money until you build up your free­lance busi­ness, so you will need to be pre­pared to tighten up or work from a bud­get. If you don’t have ade­quate sav­ings in place, this can make for a very stress­ful situation.

You may have to work a part-time job that is com­pletely unre­lated to your cre­ative field. But there are many who actu­ally pre­fer that and say it gives them some needed vari­ety. So depend­ing on the indi­vid­ual, that can be a pro or a con.

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Sum­mary:

I rec­om­mend this sit­u­a­tion as a tran­si­tion between work­ing full-time and free­lanc­ing full-time. For those who have fears about mak­ing it as a free­lancer, this offers some secu­rity and peace of mind.

For most peo­ple, the long-term goal would be to phase out the part-time job and focus solely on the free­lance busi­ness. Set a goal of at least 6 months of income in sav­ings, estab­lish a good client base and assign a date to cut ties with the cor­po­rate world forever!

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Your turn…

Are you cur­rently work­ing a part-time job while free­lanc­ing? What type of job is it? How long do you plan on work­ing part-time while free­lanc­ing? Please take a moment to com­ment below and let me know what you think!

Photo by David Hilowitz