Freelancing and the Day Job

[davidklecha]

Everyone else is, so why not me?

My response, then, to Scalzi’s unsolicited advice to writers about money:

Cool. Wish I’d thought of the “putting away half of all writing income” a while ago, but that’s the learning curve, I suppose, but otherwise I’m more or less on track.

As far as quitting the day job goes… I’m of two minds. The job doesn’t offer a lot of built-in incentives other than the 401(k) matching, but there are quite a few intangibles, including a ridiculous amount of personal freedom for a job that pays so well. The downside of that, of course, is the ridiculous amount of driving, and the hellish state of roads in Michigan in the winter.

So there’s no little appeal to the idea of not having to drive further than the daycare on most workdays.

The last year-plus has been a tremendous learning experience in terms of how to manage the writing as a business; I feel like we’ve got a handle on it now, which in turn makes me think the time might be ripe for a transition to freelancing. My ideal situation would be to make a measured withdrawal from the day job, which seems to be at least theoretically possible given the company’s flexibility (and the inability of the salesman for my territory to make significant sales lately). Eventually, I could break it down to working for them just a day or two a week, perhaps.

But I don’t think I’d want to leave IT entirely. I think I would still want to stay in the game, either as a contractor to my current employers or as an otherwise self-employed consultant working locally. Mostly, I think it would be a nice safety net for if the writing dried up suddenly or somesuch.

Especially after this winter, though, I’m really really really not interested in experiencing another one on the road every day.

Crossposted with klech.net