What Does "Full-time" Freelancing Really Mean?

I've been a full-time freelancer for nearly 17 years now (hard to believe!) but this doesn't mean I work full-time hours. In fact, for me one of the biggest advantages of freelancing is that I can make a full-time living working far fewer than 40 hours/week. During the last couple of years, I've worked between 10 and 20 hours/week and plan to continue to do so until my daughter is in school full-time; then I'll ramp up, hours-wise.

I often say it's not dollars/word that matters when it comes to freelancing; it's dollars/hour. In the same vein, it's not the number of hours I work that is important--it's how productive I am with that time. I aim for an hourly rate of $100, although sometimes I make less than that,a and sometimes significantly more. And that rate helps me make what I want during my working hours. It also means that I can be spend more time with my kids, as well as give me time to pursue other professional interests.  

I'm juggling multiple careers at the moment. In addition to freelancing and ghostwriting, I own and operate Improvise Press, which publishes books to help creative people make money from their passions. (Don't forget--through year's end you'll get 50 percent off of print editions if you use the discount code CHICKENS.) And in January, I started working at my local Y as a personal trainer and I love it. 

This summer I got certified to teach Les Mills Body Pump classes, which I'm now doing at two Ys, and somehow I wound up teaching a circuit class once a week, too. I typically have about five clients I'm training at any given time, and I teach two-five/week depending on the week and sub schedules. The money is nowhere near what I make freelancing and ghostwriting but I love the interaction with clients and being part of something bigger than myself. I've trained clients ranging from high school athletes to seniors post-spinal-surgery and it's rewarding emotionally if not financially. 

However, I'm looking for ways to combine both better. This year I'll be focusing on finding more content marketing gigs in the fitness arena (for obvious reasons) and I've been working for one publishing client as their fitness expert. It's great because I no longer have to interview an "expert" to write the workouts or the Q and As; I am the expert. And that means I can make a great hourly rate--for example, I'm writing a workout now that will take less than an hour for $300. No, I can't make that kind of money training people but it definitely informs my writing work and makes me want to do more of the same! 

So, while I call myself a full-time freelancer, I'm anything but. My plan for the coming year is to continue to do pursue multiple careers, spending about 10-15 hours freelancing/ghostwriting and running Improvise Press, and 5-10 hours training/teaching. It's challenging to "do it all" and be an involved mom, too, but I've found that these different careers use different parts of my brain/personality/etc, and make me happier overall. To me, that's one more huge advantage of freelancing--the freedom to spend my time the way I want to. 

Readers, what about you? Are you really a "full-time" freelancer? If not, how else do you spend your "work" hours? 

Forget Full-time: Make Part-Time Freelancing Work for You

When I started freelancing, I put in a lot of time to get my business going. To get any business started, you must market, and as a freelancer, that started with researching publications. In other words, I read a lot (and I’m talking dozens) of different magazines, trying to familiarize myself with what they covered and find homes for potential story ideas.

            I also spent inordinate amounts of time researching stories. Like many writers, I was worried about not having enough information about a particular topic, so I’d research and research and research before I started writing. You don’t need a doctorate (or even a master’s degree) to write an article, but it took me several years before I realized I didn’t have to comprehend every nuance of a subject to write about it. 

            The bottom line is that I was working at least forty hours a week, often more, in my quest for freelance success. But it’s not the amount of time you put into your career that determines whether you make money—it’s how you spend that time. Once I cut back on unnecessary research, focused on a handful of markets instead of pitching dozens of magazines at once, and developed regular clients, I was much more efficient. Today I work part-time by choice (I'm a stay-at-home mom to two little kids), but I strive to make a full-time living—and many freelancers do the same.

            Gretchen Roberts is a former newspaper editor who has been freelancing part-time since her oldest child was born. “Part-time just made sense for me then, and it still does. I now have three children ages eight, four, and one, and my schedule has changed with their births, milestones, schedules, and child care availability,” says Roberts, author of the e-book Full-TimeIncome in Part-Time Hours: 22 Secrets to Writing Success in under 40 Hours aWeek. “I truly feel I have the best of both worlds—time to spend with my kids, but time to get away from the craziness that is raising three kids, and devote energy to my professional life. I don't consider myself anything less than a full-fledged professional just because I work part-time and am changing dirty diapers when I'm not tapping at my keyboard.”

            Still, with limited time, Roberts has had to learn to be extremely efficient. “I treat my working hours as prime time. I don't waste them checking e-mail, writing blog posts, posting my Facebook status. Well, okay … sometimes I post my Facebook status,” says Roberts. “But for the most part I try to really focus on paying projects, because if I lose sight of the big picture, it's too easy to fritter away a day, a week, a month … and my income takes a bit hit.

            “Second, I plan ahead. If I know I'm going to have forty-five minutes while the baby naps, I plan a specific task or two for that time,” she says. “If I have a story due, I block out three or four hours to write it. When you have less time, you absolutely have to be efficient about using it.” That’s why Roberts pursues bigger projects over shorter assignments that require her to constantly change focus, and works with the same clients over and over.

            “Think about it: When you get a new assignment from a new editor or publication, there's a huge learning curve. You have to fill out a flurry of paperwork, learn the style of the publication, communicate in-depth with the editor or client about his or her goals for the assignment, and possibly do a revise or two if you don't quite hit the mark,” says Roberts. “The second time, everything's easier. You're in the system, so no paperwork except for a contract. You've learned the ‘voice’ your client or editor expects from your work. The learning curve is lower, and you're a more efficient writer.”

            Roberts’ attitude and efficiency has produced an income of between $40,000 and $70,000 working fifteen to twenty hours a week for the past five years. “I think writers have to know that this kind of income is possible, rather than settling for less because they figure part-time hours means part-time income,” says Roberts.

             I know writers who put in plenty of hours but don’t make the money they want, and I know writers like Roberts who make full-time money in far less than forty hours a week. My point? Rethink what “full-time” freelancing means. It’s not about how many hours you work but how you spend them that determines whether you can support yourself with your freelance income. 

             More on writing more efficiently in my next post! This one came from Secret 31: Redefine full-time, from Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets to Freelance Success. If you're striving to write more efficiently, you need templates! My ebook, Dollars and Deadlines' 10 Essential Freelance Templates (here's the Smashwords version if you don't have a Kindle) has the 10 most-needed samples to launch your freelance business. 

            Today I'm working about 15 hours/week by choice, though I plan to ramp that up as my kids get older. Readers, what about you? How many hours do you work a week? Are you working more or less than you'd like--or have you found the perfect work balance? Please share your experience in a comment, below. Thank you! 

The State of Fulltime Freelancers' Income

Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked fulltime freelance writers to come forward and share something rather personal—the amount of money they’re making. (Don't worry--it was anonymous.) Specifically, I asked 100 self-employed writers what they made in 2009, how long they’ve been freelancing, what kind of work they do, and—very telling—whether they expect to make more money in 2010 than 2009.

The 100 respondents (yes, this is an admittedly small sample) were relatively new to the fulltime freelancing business. Five percent had been freelancing fulltime for less than a year; another 29 percent, for one to three years; and 24 percent for four to six years. Fourteen percent have self-employed scribes for 7 to 10 years; 15 percent, for 11 to 15 years; and 13 percent have been doing it for 16 years or more. That means that more than half of respondents (58 percent) have been freelancing for six years or fewer, and in my opinion, are still building their businesses.

And you know what? There is some bad news. Out of 100 respondents, 27 percent made less than $20,000 last year. Another 22 percent made between $20,000 and $40,000 in 2009, and 24 percent made between $40,001 and $60,000. If you’re keeping track, that accounts for 73 percent of respondents.

But there's some good news, too. Another 9 percent of respondents made $60,001 to $80,000; 7 percent, $80,001 to $100,000; and 11 percent made more than $100,001 in 2009, a very challenging year for just about everyone. That's one in ten respondents--not bad at all.

I find that inspiring and encouraging—especially as I didn’t hit those kind of numbers last year. (Of course I work part-time by choice, and a number of respondents pointed out that they too work fewer than “full-time” hours, which means these figures may skew a bit lower than they could be.)

Perhaps the best news is what we’re expecting for the future. More than half of respondents (55 percent) say they’re on track to make more in 2010, and another 30 percent expect to make about the same amount of money. Just 15 percent say they’ll make less.

What does this mean for you? That no matter what you’re making, you’re in good company—and if you aspire to make more, there are plenty of other freelancers already doing it. So why not set a more challenging income goal--and go for it?