Are you finding it challenging to handle your stress levels? Is your personal life being affected negatively? Maybe you have less time to pursue activities that bring you joy and are spending more hours working on a regular workday.
Regardless of whether you are employed or working as a freelancer, it is crucial to prioritize self-care by allocating time for vacation or, at the very minimum, taking a day off to concentrate on your personal life or mental well-being.
What Is Work-Life Balance?
Working from home is one of the advantages of being a freelancer. It grants you the flexibility to determine your own work schedule, select your clients, and have the freedom to work anywhere and anytime you desire. Nevertheless, telecommuting can also intrude on your personal time considerably. As a freelancer operating from your own home, your living space doubles as your workplace. Consequently, it becomes challenging to separate work from your personal life, and your professional commitments may end up dominating your entire existence.
What is work-life balance exactly? It refers to the time allocated to both work and personal activities like hobbies, socializing with friends, and spending time with family. It is important to note that work-life balance is not exclusive to working parents; everyone should strive to find some level of work-life balance if they are employed.
Why Is Work-Life Balance Important?
Experts now say that working long hours, although you may think it helps with productivity, is actually counterproductive. This is because we are human and will become tired from overworking. When we are energized, alert, and fresh, we tend to do our best work. Having an imbalance between work and personal life not only affects the quality of our work but also has negative effects on our health. Numerous studies have shown that constant overwork can lead to various health issues.
- Compromised immune system, which means you fall sick more often.
- Constantly feeling tired
- Not being able to fall asleep (insomnia)
- Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression
- Type 2 diabetes and heart disease
No one wants chronic overwork at its worst as it inevitably leads to burnout, which is undesirable for both employers and employees.
How to start freelancing while working full-time
When it comes to freelancing, the barrier to entry is low. All you require is a skill set that can be sold and an initial project. Of course, you will need to invest effort in finding the first opportunity and ensuring its completion.
We should proceed by taking one step at a time.
1. Determine Your Availability
Your availability will be determined by two factors.
- Your full-time work schedule and employment conditions (aka any clauses prohibiting or restricting moonlighting)
- Your time management skills (aka the ability to create a realistic schedule for juggling FT work with side gigs)
Despite the fact that you have limited control over employment terms, your time is within your control. Therefore, it is essential to learn how to utilize it wisely.
Must-remember tips to balance work-life balance when freelancing part-time
- Don’t overbook yourself. The point of having blocked hours for part-time freelancing is to understand how much work you can fit in each week/month. As you start taking gigs, you’ll learn how much time each project takes on average — and then be able to set realistic deadlines for yourself, plus avoid stress or overlaps with work hours.
- Batch tasks. Bundle up similar auxiliary tasks (e.g. client outreach, intake document collection, invoicing) into one time block to finish them in one sitting. Reserve others for “deep” productive work.
- Be up-front about your limits. Don’t say “yes” to urgent requests or jobs with fast turn-around. More times than not, you’ll end up more frustrated with chasing it up than satisfied from earning those extra coins.
2. Shape Your Skills into a Service Offering
Contrary to a traditional 9-to-5 job, freelancing revolves around marketing a particular skill set, rather than a comprehensive combination of primary and secondary hard skills along with soft skills.
The majority of freelance clients are not concerned with your education, cultural compatibility, or exceptional skills in participating in group meetings. Instead, they are interested in determining whether you are capable of completing a particular task, such as designing a logo, translating a document, or writing a blog post.
Consider the various specific tasks you can undertake in a systematic manner. An ideal freelance service entails:
- Easy to do remotely
- Well-scoped (aka has a deliverable)
- Pays well
3. Figure Out Your Flow For Delivering Work
Once you have identified a product or service to sell, your next step is to determine the best approach. Despite having limited time, it is crucial that your customers receive an exceptional experience.
To effectively manage client freelance work, one must simply maintain discipline and actively set and fulfill client expectations.
In order to achieve the above, you will need to:
- Be upfront about projects you can or cannot handle due to time or skill constraints.
- Create repetitive workflows for onboarding new clients and securing all project deets you need to get started.
- Be firm with your communication preferences. State upfront when you can take calls or have video conferencing meetings, plus the time frame for replying to emails.
- Avoid “last-moment” or “super urgent” tasks (even if they pay well) and push back on unrealistic deadlines.
- Prioritize projects (and teams!) that value async work and have well-established remote work practices.
Even if you are only freelancing part-time, always remember that you have control over your work process, not your clients. Do not allow them to enforce collaboration terms or workflows that are not suitable for you.
To achieve a profitable side hustle, it is advisable to consider transforming your service into a product. This can be done by offering a well-defined and repeatable service that can be delivered for a set price and within a specific timeframe.
The main objective of a productized service is to enhance its appeal to the client by offering a specific product or package at a set price, all the while simplifying the process of delivering the service.
4. Decide How You’ll Manage Finances as a Part-Time Freelancer
The initial task at hand is to determine the method of receiving payment as a freelancer.
To accomplish that, you will require:
- An invoicing app to generate client bills
- Payment processing app or a business bank account
If you work as a sole trader, which means you are freelance and not incorporated, you generally do not have a legal requirement to open a business bank account in most countries. However, it is important to verify the specific requirements in your local area.
It is considered a budgeting best practice to separate personal and business money. By doing so, you can prevent the mixing of personal and business expenses and reduce difficulties with account reconciliation in preparation for tax time.
Most clients use account-to-account bank payments as their standard option. Additionally, you have the choice to establish an account with PayPal or Stripe for processing card payments.
However, in every instance, it will be necessary for you to generate an invoice for your clients.
The components of a freelancer invoice are:
- Biller details
- Payee details
- Provided service(s)
- Per item + total before tax price
- Applicable taxes and the final price
5. Strategize On Your Prices
Even experienced freelancers are often stumped when determining how much to charge for their freelance service due to the vast market and extensive price variations.
While it is recommended to research and explore the freelance rates in your specific field and skill level, it is not necessary to set your prices based solely on what others are charging.
To determine your pricing as a part-time freelancer, the simplest approach is to perform a speedy calculation in reverse.
- Decide how much money you want/need to make from freelancing part-time.
- Estimate how much you need to bring in with each client or project to hit that target
- Give your number a “sanity check” against market rates (but don’t get too caught up about this)
- Start quoting your rate to prospects and see how they respond. Remember: If you’re getting a “yes” to your rate 95% times or more, you’re aiming too low.
Although this method of determining prices is not flawless, it provides a point from which you can begin to feel satisfied with your earnings. This is crucial since engaging in freelance work part-time results in less available leisure time. Therefore, it is essential that the monetary compensation truly justifies your efforts.
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