A lot of fellow web designers and developers ask me why I freelance. How do I make it through the slow periods? How do I pay bills? What happens when I have no clients? Freelancing can definitely be a scary thing, especially during recession times. You’d be crazy to quit your steady job to go into the unknown world of sitting in your office doing nothing all day right? While I hadn’t planned on quitting my job at the time (I left for medical reasons) I sat thinking yesterday if I would be happier if I was still at my job. Sure I miss the atmosphere, I miss @IsaacVanName‘s lame beer jokes and the rest of my co-workers. But given the chance to go back, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I love freelancing and I bet you’d love it too. Here are 10 reasons for you to quit your job now and start freelancing.

1. Wake up when you want to

That’s right, when you’re freelancing you set your own hours! I tend to work better in the late afternoon and early evening, so I adjusted my coding times to that.

2. Beat traffic

You’ll no longer have to waste money and gas driving to work and/or sitting in traffic on the way home.

3. Make more money

When you’re freelancing, you’re no longer dependent on a boss to tell you what you’re worth or if they can afford a raise. The full-time web professional makes an average of $35,000 a year, that’s only $18 an hour before taxes. As a freelancer with real experience, you should be charging $30, $50 or even $100 an hour depending on the type of work and clients you’re going after. You can also decide when you want to give yourself a raise (as long as your market can bear it of course.) You can choose to work 20 hours this week, or 200 hours.

When you first start out freelancing, you might be completely dead in terms of work and clients. You may have to live off savings for a month or two – but keep it up and don’t be discouraged. You’ll eventually have a steady stream of clients.

4. You can choose the work you want to do

No longer will you be forced to do projects involving politics and values you don’t believe in. You can choose to take a project, or you can turn it down. Your goal as a freelancer should be to have enough work to be able to choose the projects you want for the money you want.

5. Pick your own teammates

I once had a job where I had to work with a guy who fought with me on everything! Not only was it annoying, it was mentally draining. When you freelance, you’ll probably need to surround yourself with other freelancers who provide services you don’t. Just like clients and projects, you can choose who you want to work with.

6. Work Anywhere

Yesterday I decide to work at Books-a-Million. I love being surrounded by books and the visuals are very inspiring. Today I’m working out of my home office and looking at the clouds. At my old job I worked in a dark cave with poor lighting, ugly walls and no windows. Do I miss that? Nope.

7. Your own equipment

Just like working anywhere, you can work on anything. You no longer have to be told to work on a PC if you’re a Mac user, to use an old CRT monitor older than you, to turn your music down, or to use outdated software. It’s up to you!

8. Say goodbye to useless meetings

Since time is money and you’re in charge, you’ll no longer have to sit through useless meetings. A very close relative of mine once told me that they would have a meeting in the morning to discuss what they would talk about in their afternoon meeting. He guessed that there was maybe only an hour or two of real work time at his job. How much money could you make if you converted all 8 hours to work time?

9. Learn new things

We tend to fall into a routine when we work full-time. We do the same things over and over and we stop learning. You have to be more versatile as a freelancer and you’ll never stop learning new ways to code or design.

10. More time for yourself

Since you no longer have to take the time to dress up, drive to work, drive home or do other things that take time away from you, you’ll be able to do more things for yourself. You can also make appointments during work hours, which means faster in and out times for your. I gave myself 30 minutes for exercise everyday after lunch, as well as 30 minutes before and after work for Yoga. It still gives me time to cook dinner before Nikita makes it home from work. Which gives us more time to spend together!

In conclusion, there was many things you’ll worry about when freelancing. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons, and if you’re really serious about web development, it can really take your skills to the next level. Always challenge yourself and never settle for the mundane, just because it’s easy or guaranteed. There’s no better time to start a business than during a recession (it’s a proven fact more businesses are started during a recession, than during any other time), our chosen careers are somewhat recession proof as everyone needs web work and can no longer ignore that the web is reaching more customers than the physical retail world. You’ll have to be disciplined and you’ll need nerves of steel, but if I can do it, anyone can!

What are some of the reasons you started freelancing or what are some reasons you haven’t started freelancing?

Amber Weinberg

Amber is a freelance front-end developer specializing in semantic and accessible custom WordPress themes. She works with agencies and other freelancers to bring their designs to life using custom ACF flexible layout builds - making them more performant and less buggy while allowing the client easy customization without breaking the design system.