Why I Quit Freelancing (and What I’m Doing Instead!)

Long-time readers know that I’ve been a freelance writer for roughly four years now. I started freelance writing when I had my first baby, who is now four years old! Freelancing allowed me to stay at home with her and provide some side money for my family. My husband’s income at the time paid all of our bills, but it didn’t leave any extra for savings, vacations, or fun! That’s where my freelancing income came in.

My first month of freelancing, I made $300ish. Within seven months, I was clearly $1,000. By the time my second daughter was born (just 16 months after my first), I was making close to $3,000 per month while at home with my toddler and newborn baby. I was busy, but I managed. I loved what I did and thoroughly enjoyed being at home with my girls.

Fast forward another year, and we packed up and moved from Arizona to North Carolina. We sold our house and my husband quit his job. Because I was still freelancing, we were confident we would be fine for at least a year if it took my husband a while to find work. It was around that time (Sept 2014) that I started this blog, too 🙂

In July of 2015, I accepted a full-time position very similar to what I was doing as a freelancer (financial editing and writing). By that point, I was a little bit burnt out from freelancing, to be honest. I missed the perks that came with full-time employment: office comradery, coworkers, coffee breaks, oh and you know health benefits, a matching 401K plan and PTO 🙂 I also wasn’t quite sure the direction I wanted to head with freelancing. Do I take on more work even though my kids are little and I’m already strapped for time? Do I try to sub out my work to other writers? Or do I just throw in the towel?

Why I Quit Freelancing

I didn’t throw in the towel immediately. In fact, about a month after accepting my full-time position, I got the crazy idea to take on more clients and try to increase my freelancing income while working full-time. This worked for a few months, until finally I got sick of being so busy, to say the least. I hadn’t had a “day off” in pretty much the entire four years I had been freelancing. Sure, I could have set specific work hours, but with two little kids, nap time and early mornings was what worked best for me. Considering that’s only 15 hours in any given week, I would work during nap time on the weekends, too. It’s no wonder I got burnt out!

I made the decision around December of 2015 to quit freelancing altogether. I’m still working full-time and wanted to enjoy my family, my city and my life a little bit more. Since we no longer “needed” my money for savings (my husband and I both have full-time jobs), it was harder to stay motivated. Plus, I wanted to go a different direction…

What I’m Doing Instead!

While I’ve had a ton of amazing clients throughout my freelancing career, I didn’t want to be working for clients my entire life. Instead, I eventually want to work fully for myself. I’m sure you know, but instead of freelancing I am focusing my energy on blogging 🙂

With blogging, I completely set my own schedule. If I don’t want to post one week, I don’t have to. If my kids are sick or I’m having a super busy week at work, blogging is the first thing to go (rather than my family and free time).

Likewise, if I am feeling extra creative or wanting to take in some extra cash, I amp up my blogging. Right now, my blog is not my full-time job, so I have the ability to do exactly as I please. (If my blog were my full-time job, it would be treated with a bit more seriousness!! Eventually 😉 )

My goal over the next few years is to slowly grow my blog and my business to get to the point where both my husband and I can quit our full-time jobs. It may seem like a pipe dream, but I truly believe that we will eventually meet this goal.

For now, I’m blogging because I love it and it’s extremely flexible. Like I said, if I’m not able to blog for a week (or even a month), I don’t; and I don’t stress about it.

If you have big dreams for your family too, I highly recommend jumping on this blogging bandwagon. It can be intimidating at first, and you WILL have to work hard at it (15 hours per week minimum) at the beginning in order to get some good, quality posts under your belt, connect with others, build a following, and just learn the ins and outs of blogging. That being said, starting this blog and committing to it for a solid year was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Last month, I made almost $600 from blogging (and I didn’t even write any posts!!). This month, I’m set to take in closer to $1,000! That’s crazy; considering I now spend just 15 minutes or so per week on my blog (a little bit more if I write a post!).

Are you thinking of starting a blog? If so, what’s stopping you from doing it? Do you have any questions about blogging or freelancing for me? I’m always happy to help!