August 20, 2012

Avoiding the pitfalls of merging freelance and full-time work

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During your search for a new job, have you ever had the urge to drop it all and just start your own business? After filling out endless applications, micromanaging your ever-changing resume and practicing your elevator speech into the wee hours to impress a hiring manager whom you've never met, the idea of working for one ideal boss—yourself—can be a liberating daydream.

For many entrepreneurial job-seekers, however, the process of making this dream a reality can be fraught with anxiety and risk. What if you can't find enough clients right away? How can you pay your mortgage if you are building a new business? What about health care coverage for your family? The practical demands are immense if you are starting a business from a dead start. To help build momentum many job seekers look for freelance work to earn some extra cash, build necessary skills sets and gradually transition away from the classic employer/employee model.

"Unfortunately, because many of these people don't know how to manage a jam-packed schedule,... they're running into more problems than payoffs," says Kristin Cardinale, a career coach and freelancing consultant. "Some have even lost jobs on account of the mistakes they've made."

In her new book, The 9-to-5 Cure, Cardinale passionately advocates the freelance lifestyle that she now leads after spending years as a college professor and owner of a national seminar business. However, while freelancing can enable you to "work on your own terms and reinvent your life," she warns that it is not a decision to be made on a whim. "Adding freelancing to an already-overwhelming workload can be a recipe for disaster, so you should approach this scenario with caution," she writes.

Some of Cardinale's most useful advice in "The 9-to-5 Cure" comes early on, when she describes the preparation needed to adopt a freelance mindset. Here are some strategies she invites you to consider if you want to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of a "solopreneur" career:

Reschedule your work week. The most critical factor in the success of any freelance gig is precise time management. If you already have a job and want to keep it while you work on the side, you must rethink your entire work week to make sure nothing is missed. Your work day will surely lengthen as you add freelance hours to your morning, evening and weekend routines. Cardinale recommends bringing in your personal laptop to work to take care of occasional freelance tasks after hours or during break periods, but be extra careful not to let this encroach on the time allotted for your regular job.

Try not to hide it from your boss. One major cause of failure in the freelance world is a lack of communication between you and your employer. "As a preemptive move, depending on your circumstances, you may want to broach the subject with your boss to avoid a potentially sticky situation," Cardinale says. Your current boss expects you to focus 100 percent on the job during normal business hours and likely won't react well if it is discovered that you're moonlighting without permission, she says. Make it clear that your freelance work will be completely separate from your "day job."

Be up front with clients. Another issue is communication with your freelance clients. "You will need to interact with your clients during normal business hours when they, too, are at work," Cardinale writes. "Let your clients know you are currently working full time and may not always be readily available during normal business hours."

Take on new work slowly. As the old saying goes, "under-promise and over-deliver" is a good motto for all freelancers. Speaking with my editor hat on, nothing annoys me more than a client who agrees to an assignment and waits until the last moment to beg for more time. "Be sure the work is a good fit with your available resources, such as time or equipment," Cardinale says.

Separate day job and freelance correspondence. If you take freelance phone calls and answer emails through your current workplace's systems, you are asking for trouble from the network administrator, who is surely monitoring your activity. Cardinale recommends investing in a smartphone to manage all of your freelance communications and ensure that they never cross over into your employer's service providers.

Take care of yourself. If the average worker has a major deadline to meet, it's not unusual to put in some late nights to get the work done. But this is no way to sustain a lengthy freelance career. Without sufficient sleep, you can lose focus, get sloppy and introduce unforced errors. "This lifestyle can quickly lead to burnout and ultimately cause you to call it quits," Cardinale says, "robbing you of the chance to experience living the career lifestyle of your dreams."

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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