How do you know when to go from part-time to full time

[pfar54]

I just started free-lancing in web design. I am in the very beginning stages of it. I have technically been doing it now for 1.5 weeks - 2 weeks, at least that is when I received my first client (1.5 weeks ago). I am modeling my business plan to become a company, but until I have some work under my belt, I don't feel I can even call myself that. I am filling my sales pipeline at a moderate pace for now as I am just starting. I just finished my first clients job, I almost had another client a couple of days ago - I sent the contract and lost them at the very last second, I have 2 meetings this week for new clients, and I have several others I am communicating with.

I will be launching a website I designed for myself this weekend. I know this will help me, so I can show my prospective clients my own design and future work that I do. At least for now, showing my site is something.


I work full time as a market developer as well as a front-end developer. (I love the combination of both marketing/web design). This week between my full time job, my client work, trying to get my business off the ground and general business practices I worked around 80-90 hours. I am fine with doing this for a while and have done it in the past, but I do see it being tougher with a family and being older.

In the past week and a half, I made as much as I do in 3 weeks at my full time job with one client. I know this won't always happen and currently I am clientless for a couple of days until who knows. When I do start getting a continuous stream of clients to where I am working 80-90 hours a week between my job and business and making more than my full time job, how long would you all recommend I do this for? Do I do it until I am denying jobs because I am so busy? I know being tired would eventually catch up to me. I'm sure this answer will be different for everyone. I have job security, but I don't make the most. It pays the bills, though. So, if I have more work then I can do coming to me, would it be wise to say "good-bye" to the job and do this full time at a rate of whatever is coming in - still possibly working 80-90 hours a week? At least then I am sure I will be making MUCH more and getting a company started with work to show.

Now to be even more proactive. If I do that for a while, when is the right time to get an office space and an employee. I am not the best programmer in the world and I know there are better people out there than me. I love the business end to it more than the programming. I know with only 1-2 employees I would still code in order to save on costs, but when should I even think about doing that? I know this will make my overhead go from basically inexistant to thousands a month.


What would you all recommend?

 

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[pfar54]

Anyone?

 

[GuestUser450]

You're probably not getting much because you're asking entrepreneurs how to do something that inherently doesn't scale/isn't sustainable in the long run, at least as a fastlane business. You can make money, no doubt, but the guy you want to be at freelancer isn't the highest paid consultant; it's Matt Barrie.

For example: With every new client, you have to hop on an hour-long skype and do the dance, learn their needs, guesstimate the difference between what they want and what they really need, and then spend 4 hours writing up the perfect proposal. And even so, like you mentioned...sometimes they decline. Lots of work, lots of effort, wasted. Wash, rinse, repeat, all while having to solve brand new problems for every new project.

The only way I see freelancing being a vehicle is by productizing the service, meaning: one product, one price, paid upfront. Then you have fixed costs and can scale with outsourced help. That can be a business you can sell and leverage into something else.

Also, for this I'd skip the site. Whatever you were going to put up, put it in an book for clients instead. And anything blog-ish might as well go on medium, you'll get more eyeballs.

 

[Royael]

Been in a similar position as you. You say you love the business end more than the programming, so here's my opinion. Web design is too competitive to build a "business" in. Its a good source of income, if you NEED some. But as TeveTorbes said basically you just create your own job for yourself. And even if you have some start-up capital I wouldn't go the "Web design agency" route. The barrier to entry for web design gets lower and lower, and my feeling tells me there is already more supply than demand. So ultimately I would either go very very niche and position myself as an expert for .. web design for automotive ... mobile only web design .. web design for community portals or I would try to take a completely different service - which might be the better option for you considering that you are in for the the business of it.

So take a look at newer services that aren't as competitive. I'm talking about instagram management, retargeting marketing, conversion rate optimization (maybe in combination with landing page design?). The upside on those is that you probably can scale faster because there is some recurring revenue...

 

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[pfar54]

First off, what does this mean:

but the guy you want to be at freelancer isn't the highest paid consultant; it's Matt Barrie.

I agree, there is a lot of back and fourth with this business. Some of which lands in nothing for sales, but that can be compared to any business in general.

Regarding my niche, for right now I do not have a set one, but I have a game plan for it. I do Real Estate marketing at my day job and have huge client lists that I am familiar with. This is the route I will go for and specialize in.


To get a bit more into this, as it may help me later. I am just a guy that still has no idea what he wants to do. My interests change frequently sometimes. I love marketing/capturing business relationships/helping businesses grow and am going back so school to finish my marketing degree. When I first bought the Fastlane book, I read 3-4 chapters into it and got interested in web development and never even finished the book. Then I got out of web design for a while and started reading the book again and then I was drawn back to web design again (I think the book does it to me?).

I kept hearing about niche markets, so I bought some product from a source and created an ecommerce product to sell. When I launched it to my facebook I hardly got any attention, so that hit me hard for a bit. That is when I stopped web design for a while because I was more focused on the web design aspect and wanting people to recognize that than the product. To this day I still can't think of a niche product to sell, though two ideas I have had for a while I have seen on Shark Tank. I just have to think of them.


To the direct point. I never had any intentions of becoming a web design company. It all began 6 months ago or so. I wanted my floors resurfaced, so I told a few service men/construction crews that I would design a website in exchange for them to do this. One of these arrangements was very close to where I sent a contract out, but he backed out (wasted a lot of time). I thought, "hmm I could make some money doing this"... I was tired of being a wantrenpreneur so, I gave it a shot. Since I got my first client a little over two weeks ago, I have landed $4,800 in sales. I have 0 overhead other than if I factored out the electricity it takes to run my computer, my gas to meet the clients occasionally and my hosting charges. I am projecting about $7,000+ in a month. I have no idea if that will be sustainable, but to me that is really good...maybe not for you guys. I do not make much money at my job or never have. I make like $33,000 a year, so to make what I did in such a short time feels good. The downside is I am working my life away, which I know comes with starting any business and working a day job.

If anything, this is a transitionary path for me. I have been limited by what I could do in terms of product ideas, etc quite simply because I was living dime for dime each paycheck. My initial goal was to pay off a computer I bought last year, which I did with one client signing. Maybe building space isn't the route to go or this business, that could be very well true. However, if I can do this and make enough and get enough work to where I can quit my current job and make 2-3x the money, then I definitely think that is a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, I was to jump on the fast lane. I just have no idea or what to do yet to get there. I'm hoping this is a step to at least make some more money that can hopefully lead to that.

I hope this helps or some general feedback can be given. Thanks!