Philippine Virtual Assistant Network

Part-Time Freelancing While Keeping Your Day Job

Jay Pasana • July 7, 2012 • Comments (0)

With the status of our economy right now, it is common for most people to have part- time jobs. They usually enter the world of online freelancing as it is the easiest and most convenient way to earn money while keeping their day jobs.

In this article, we will explore the world of part-time freelancing. We will enumerate the benefits of being part- time freelancer, the challenges they usually face, and the things needed in order to be successful.

Benefits of Part Time

You can earn more income while enjoying the employment benefits of you regular day job. – This is one of the reasons why most employees are afraid to leave their regular job. If you work as freelancer full-time, you will lose the employment benefits such as SSS, health insurance, retirement benefits, 13th month, Christmas bonuses etc.

Gives you the opportunity to test the waters first. – There’s a huge money opportunity in freelancing but not all people can make it as a freelancer. Working just part-time can help you decide if you are really for freelancing business while still being safe of having a regular monthly salary.

You can earn extra money. – Part-time freelancing can help you buy things you can’t afford by just relying on you regular monthly salary. It’s also a big help especially for married people.

You don’t have to worry on finding steady clients to be able to sustain your needs. – If you’re freelancing full-time, there’s always a pressure to find lot’s of steady clients for you to pay utility bills, banks, landlords, etc. but if you have a sure monthly salary aside from you freelancing work , you won’t have to worry on how to pay these bills during lean season.

The Challenges

Shortage of Time- This is the usual challenge that part-time freelancers experience. Working full-time on one job and then freelancing during evening’s means that you’re going to have limited hours on your freelance job. You will have to sacrifice other things such as social life in order to fulfill your commitment with the clients.

Limited Projects – Since you have only few hours to work, most part time freelancers cannot accept huge and time consuming projects. Limited project means limited income as well.

Keeping up with clients and other commitments–This is hard for full-time freelancers and is even harder for those who work part-time with day jobs. Working with many clients can be difficult especially if they give you lots of projects with short deadline. If you reject them, there’s a tendency for the client to look for other freelancers who can finish the project on their terms.

Things to Remember

Beware of Conflicts! – Before accepting part-time projects, make sure that it won’t cause a problem with your full-time job. Not being careful may sabotage both your full-time and freelance job.

Think before you bid –Don’t bid on too many projects at once or you could find yourself in a tough situation. Full-time freelancers can easily adjust on additional projects by putting in extra hours in the evening or on weekends but you can’t do that because you already have other commitments to remember.

Don’t be a Workaholic! – Combining a day job and part-time freelancing work can give you lots of money but you should also remember that working too much is bad. It fine to add 10 to 20 hours of freelance work a week but more that that may risk your health and your relationship with your family .

Make sure you have full support from your family- Always include your family in every decision you make especially if you are married and have kids because this will affect them as well. Make sure they understand your work and why you do it. No matter how busy you are, you must also not forget to make time to bond with them.