How To Escape The Nine-to-Five Grind
If you are someone who is fed up with working for someone else, why not think about changing the record and working for yourself? You will probably have a lot of skills and knowledge that you may have amassed in previous jobs, and these may well be best served to create profits for yourself. There are many opportunities to become a freelancer, working on a project-by-project basis.
Are you tired of the grind of the nine-to-five? Was the bus late again this morning? Did you get soaked in the rain, and then get into work only to find that there was no coffee left? Do you find working hard to help somebody else profit is slowly wearing you down?
Being in an employment rut is nothing new, and is entirely normal. Most of us go through it at some time or another. Many people manage to push their way through and continue on until retirement. While some of these people find some kind of peace of mind through distraction from the drudgery of a job that they dislike, many others don’t.
If you are someone who is fed up with working for someone else, why not think about changing the record and working for yourself? You will probably have a lot of skills and knowledge that you may have amassed in previous jobs, and these may well be best served to create profits for yourself. There are many opportunities to become a freelancer, working on a project-by-project basis.
Graphic Designer
If you are someone who has a flair for the creative, as well as some skills on applications such as Illustrator, or Photoshop, why not look at Graphic Design? You may want to brush up your knowledge by taking an InDesign training course before you take the plunge. But there are plenty of opportunities to create fantastic visuals for use in advertising, for websites, newspapers, magazines, flyers, posters, and so much more.
Getting work may be a challenge, and you will have to get out there and sell yourself. You will need a portfolio with some examples of the best work that you have created. As you start to get customers through, you will begin to establish a more extensive body of work that you can use to demonstrate your skills to future clients.
Get yourself a website set up, and as you are a graphic designer, make sure it looks sleek. Join as many networking sites as possible such as Fiverr and People Per Hour.
Copywriter
If you have a way with words, why not put digital pen to paper and write for a living? There are plenty of opportunities for copywriters, and you can get a steady stream of work with minimal experience. When you think about all of the different places that you read something each day, chances are somebody got paid for writing that. From advertising copy, through to website content, product descriptions, blog posts, reviews, and news articles; there are plenty of opportunities out there.
Think about signing up for sites such as Freelancer, or Iwriter, or Copify. There are a number of routes toward getting your writing out there. To gain experience, these ‘content mills’ are an excellent place to start as they match up writers with people that need something written. The pay may start off being low; however, if you can turn good quality work around quickly, your earning potential lays in your productivity.
Once you have gained experience in this way, you could look at submitting articles directly to websites for cash, or even starting your own blog, which you can monetize through advertising and affiliate links.
Managing Your Time
As your own boss, you will be responsible for managing your time. This does mean that you can lay in bed all day, or work from the bath. Whatever you do, you need to treat it as a job. You should try and set yourself a schedule and keep to it. It can be very easy to allow your work to run into your relaxation time, and you need to be careful to not burn yourself out in this way. Set yourself up an area of your house that you will work from and try to stick to it.
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You may also want to think about taking up some additional social activities that will get you out of the house and seeing other people during your relaxation time. It may seem great working from home, but when you don’t get outside for days and rarely speak to other people, it can be a mental challenge.
If you are concerned about making a big break into any of these areas, remember, you can always start off small and do this alongside your current job. Take a few assignments and see what the work is like. Gradually build it up and keep on looking for more extensive opportunities. Once you feel secure in your ability to hunt down work, and to manage your own workload, then you can quit your job and freelance fulltime.