To Freelance or Not to Freelance? – Pick Dave’s Brain

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This week’s question comes from Amanpreet from Amritsar, India.

Q: I want to quit my job and start working as a freelancer. Is it a good idea to leave the job and start working at home?

Click to tweet this: Freelancing isn’t temp work. Think of freelancing like a small business. The product? You! @DaveCrenshaw

Video transcript:

Did you know that Tarzan was an amazing freelancer? I’m Dave Crenshaw and it’s time to Pick Dave’s Brain!

This week’s question comes from Amanpreet from Amritsar, India.

Amanpreet:

I want to quit my job and start working as a freelancer. Is it a good idea to leave the job and start working at home?

Dave Crenshaw:

This is actually a very complex question. A lot of factors go into whether or not this step is right for you. However, I’d like to start by talking about the Tarzan principle.

Now, if you think about Tarzan going through the jungle, he doesn’t let go of one vine until he has a firm grasp on the next vine. What does that have to do with your question?

Well, I would not recommend quitting your job until you know, first of all, that you like being a freelancer. And second of all, that you feel like you can make a sustainable income from it.

I recommend starting by dabbling on a site such as Upwork. Upwork is a place that I use on a regular basis to hire freelancers for my company.

The second tip is to think about this experience not as a freelancer but as a business owner. I believe that fundamentally changes your mindset. You become an entrepreneur. You need to think about “How am I going to market my services? How am I going to be profitable? How do I schedule my time?” Think more like an entrepreneur and less like a freelancer.

Even on a site like Upwork, you can market your services. Even the way that you craft your introductory letter to people is sales. Think about yourself as an entrepreneur.

As an entrepreneur, I recommend that you look into two of my courses on LinkedIn Learning, (formerly lynda). These courses are Small Business Secrets and Sales Secrets for Small Business. These will give you a variety of in-depth tutorials that you can use as you start to build your freelancing business.

Thanks for the question, Amanpreet!

And if you would like to pick Dave’s brain, all you need to do is click on the button underneath this video. Or go DaveCrenshaw.com/ask and give me your best shot. I want to hear great questions.


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