If you’re like me, trying to balance family, full-time work and freelancing on a regular basis, you probably have already wished that the time some people “waste away” chatting on their mobile phones, laughing at “senseless” jokes or just plain “doing nothing value-adding” can magically be awarded to you and those others who don’t have enough time left of their 24-hour ration to sleep a full seven hours everyday.
That, of course, is wishful thinking.
Just like the sun shines on both the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, 24 hours – no more, no less – is everything an individual walking this planet makes do with everyday. You can save it all you want, but the time you save can never be used or “borrowed” to make up for the time you lose, squander or don’t have.
That being the premise, time cannot be captured in a bottle or placed in a loin cloth for use in an emergency. It’s best that it be spent wisely while you have it.
The point?
I’ll get there, I promise.
But first, let me tell you a story.
There was once a woman who finally got sick and tired of living from paycheck to paycheck. If there was any consolation to the situation, her family always had three decent meals a day and the kids went to equally decent schools – all this without having to resort to credit card debt.
The problem, however, was that even when her salary was increasing, albeit not dramatically, she was walking in financial limbo, which meant she had no emergency savings to fall back on when the going suddenly decides to take a left turn instead of a right.
Insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein
Surely, it couldn’t have been an issue with the amount she was making. Before the salary increases, her money complaints already took the same shape and form: Except for the coins resting inside her piggy bank, she had no savings.
And then, it hit her. It was MONEY MISMANAGEMENT. Yes, in all caps!
This basic mindset tweak changed a lot of things, eventually.
Through sheer will, she managed to learn the basics of proper money management and discovered that financial freedom/independence isn’t about how much someone makes but how much someone saves and invests.
Let me say that again for good measure.
It’s not how much you make but how much you save and invest.
One day, she found herself scouring online job boards for freelance writing jobs, which she fortunately got at rates that weren’t dismal. She labelled these jobs “side jobs.”
The job frequency was pretty decent, in her opinion, considering she had a full-time job to contend with, too. She was learning a lot and earning some, which was perfectly fine with her. The most important freelancing lesson she had to learn, however, she learned a year after:
Freelance writing is a business. It should, therefore, be treated just like any regular business.
Side job or business?
Side jobs are jobs you do that augment the base salary you receive from your main job. And because they’re just that, people don’t expect too much from them – financially, at least. If they do well, well and good. If not, well, it’s because they’re side jobs, right?
But when you start treating freelance writing like a business, you start seeing it in a different light. And that’s when a lot of things change.
Here are some of the things you’ll be prompted to do the moment you start shifting your perspective from side job to business:
- You devise a business plan, which includes your brand and location, your specialization, your target clients/audience/market, and, last but not least, how you will make money in the overall scheme of things.
- You study the market, particularly to understand what the industry needs, how you’ll survive in a sea of freelance writers that had already been in the industry for some time, how not to sell yourself short, especially if you have something of value to offer.
- You become willing to shell out some amount for equipment, tools and essential knowledge upgrade. A tribe of freelance writers to give you the boost and point you in the right direction when you find yourself lost is golden. Depending on which crowd you plan to associate yourself with, these tribes can both be free and premium.
The above isn’t a comprehensive list. But my point is, this simple mindset tweak can spell a whole world of difference.
Final word
That woman in the story turned out to be me. Don’t make the same mistake I did. The same way a money perspective overhaul was all I needed to put my finances in better order, freelance writing is a business. It is but fitting that you make it your business to treat it like a business.
So, what about you? Is freelance writing a side job or business for you?
Image credit: graur codrin | FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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for me, if you took it seriously it will become a business…pero syempre depende pa rin sa maraming bagay, isa na rito yung halaga ng kinikita mo sa pagsusulat…
Anjo Lie recently posted … Business Ideas: Freelance Writing (Write Essay for Money)
Hello, Anjo, thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts.
You’re right, it depends on a lot of things. But remember the business vs. employee mentality? The argument actually stems from there. If right at the onset you already think of freelance writing as a business as opposed to being a side job, a lot of good things can happen. We can always start businesses on the side, right?
Maricel Rivera recently posted … Writing Productivity: How to Self-Motivate
well, maybe they just want to make sure na kumita muna before they realize na ang side job is pwede nang maging business, just like what you did.
Anjo Lie recently posted … Online Freelance Businesses You Can Start Doing Today
Sometimes it’s not that fulfilling to work as freelance writer. But when the time comes you are getting paid well in what you do, then you get motivated again.
Archie de Lara recently posted … Home-Based Jobs for Home-Based Moms
I know where that is coming from, Archie. It’s not easy being a freelance writer, and equally, it’s not easy making a living as a freelance writer, particularly if you don’t know where to start. That is, I guess, the reason why if you want to succeed as an online freelance writer, you have to, right at the outset, treat freelance writing as a business.
Thanks for visiting and commenting, by the way. Nice to see you here.
Maricel Rivera recently posted … Write Everyday – Good or Bad Advice?
Hi Maricel,
Sincerely, I got it figured out right from the beginning that the woman in the story is you. That’s because we’ve been friends for long and I can tell where you are mentioned in a story 😉
I think any business that’s not treated as a real business is no business. Freelance writing will be boring, just like any other activity if the proper knowledge and materials are not acquired and if time is not put in for its development.
Whatever the case, any side job can be developed into a real full time business. That may depend on passion and income possibility, well – some think income should come first 😉
BTW Maricel, I can’t remember ever reading this blog. How about Career moms online.
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Hey, Enstine, you’re here! Welcome to The Sourcing Pen. I’ll answer your question first. Career Mom Online is still very much up and running. This one is a secondary blog. Call it an experimental niche blog. I’ve been doing some SEO on it, and so far, it’s doing great in the search engines compared to Career Mom Online, which actually is in the no-niche niche. Like a lot of bloggers attest to, not having a niche is probably not good, unless you’re Forbes or Huffington or some other big-name blog out there. They might be right, based on the performance of this blog so far.
As for a side job’s possibility of turning into a full-blown business, I would have to agree with you on that one. Indeed, the earning potential has to come first and foremost. Otherwise, it’s better off as a side job, eh? Then again, even those with full-time jobs can have side businesses, too, right? Freelance writing should be treated as a business from the get-go, in my opinion.
It’s a simple mind trick, actually, that I’m trying to explain here. If the freelance writer thinks of writing as a business, then you’ll have the mindset of a businessman whenever you deal with it, not the mindset of an employee. Hmmm, I think I might write a follow-up article regarding the business vs. employee mindset.
Maricel Rivera recently posted … Freelance Writing: Side Job or Business?
Hello,
Well side job is best for freelancing, there are lot of reasons behind it. The first one shall be it needs lot of effort to work on original content. So i always prefer it was sidejob.
thanks
Hello, Kuldeep. Thanks for being here. Well, yes, you have your point and your reasons, of course. But in my case, I think treating a side job as a business have better returns.
Maricel Rivera recently posted … Employed and Seeking to Diversify Your Revenue Stream? Try Freelancing.