Hey all,
I am a graphic designer / web guy, and I do a ton of freelance via 1099’s for marketing companies.
This is in addition to being a project manager for a web company full-time. I recently scaled back the job and put in my two weeks due to the environment and being a little sick of the full-time web gigs for “the man.”
The problem is I have tons of freelance coming in and just started talking to a startup company that works from home and has some cool projects…but it’s risky.
The problem with that is I also just received an offer from a small local web company that seems pretty cool. They want me to be their sole project manager for a group of 12…but it’s a full-time gig.
Now I could handle both some freelance and the new gig, but I wish I could decide. To top it off I do freelance with my significant other…who is a programmer, so I would love to spend more time doing just that.
Would you take a risk and stick to just freelance, take both and see them both for a little while before deciding, or something else?
could you farm some of the easier stuff out to a friend? This way, you keep the FT work, and all your clients, and make a profit of a couple of dollars an hour on the work you had your friend do. This way if you decide to go all freelance in the future you have a more solid client base.
Forthe “freelance” work can you put it under a company name, and start branding yourself and the SO? This way you still do what you want to do, but start preparing for the future and building your own team.
Could you enter into a joint venture with those that have offered you jobs?
thanks guys, I am really going to have to think this through. I am having the company that gave me an offer let me see them in action tomorrow for a few hours to try to get a feel for the environment, but I don’t know. I have no debt and part of me just wants to take the risk hehe.
If you quit because you hated your old job and knew that you had freelance to tide you over, then that’s points toward taking this new offer – sometimes the grass really is greener! But if you quit because you genuinely wanted grow your freelance business, then I think you should do what you were planning to do in the first place. Just because an opportunity falls in your lap doesn’t mean you have to take it.
If it were me I’d take the new job but I’m perfectly happy to sit in a cube all day and work on a project that someone else sold. But I’m not you, you know?
update: I was just talking with the owner of a really cool little web startup. He admitted he cannot pay me what the fulltime gig does, but if after 6 months of freelance I work out I get benefits paid for and salary+freelance rate. They seem really cool and this is in addition to the work I already do for like 10-20 hrs/week.
I am thinking I might say no to the 40-hour gig if anything just to push myself to learn more, see the world, etc.
one more update:
I went to the company that offered me a job to check out their studio-etc. They are being very accommodating and I told them I would have an answer by Monday. The pay is good, their projects are cool, but it’s a full-time gig.
The marketing company I do freelance with is a little different. They told me that in six months, provided we’re in good standing etc, that you become a full-time telecommute employee, which means they pay you a small salary plus per-project cash. These guys, while riskier, seem to be focused more on the concept of not being a typical company (more free time, focused on just the work (i.e. telecommute, etc), and the owner is trying to impliment things like housing stipens for all telecommuters, etc-it’s kind of cool but who knows how long they can do this. They have sales guys pounding the phones and a ton of idealism.
So what do you guys think based on that? I am still not sure. I would get to do way more creative for the freelance place as the full-time gig is project management plus some creative. The wage for the full time gig is good, but they seem more rigid.
I am kind of leaning towards the riskier move as I would get to do more creative, have time to travel/be with significant other, etc.
I would take the job. My DH is a graphic designer, and he’s in the opposite position - he’s been freelancing since he was laid off a couple of summers ago, and now he’s looking for a FT job since his biggest client has had to start scaling back. Someone told us that freelance could be feast or famine, and we’re definitely in the famine part!