Permission to Start Small: How to Dip Your Toe in the Freelancing Ocean – Alex Conde

Welcoming back Alex Conde as a guest poster today! Loved his last guest post Solicit Constructive Criticism and thought he should be invited back for more!

Alex Conde is a writer and a marketing professional. He can be found on twitter at @alexconde, or you can find him on his blog:www.searchingforhappy.com

Freelancing scared me. Not the idea of what it is, but the title of being a freelancer.

I find freelancing to be an intimidating word. There are a number of successful freelancers that you can find around the web – people who are 110% committed to freelancing and who do it with no safety net. This does not describe me. I don’t feel like I have the right to call myself a freelancer, the word seems so big and imposing.

Personally, I love my safety net. I have a 9-5 job that I enjoy, and going 100% freelancing would be an incredibly stressful concept for me (even if I was successful at it). However, I do confess that I’ve fallen in love with the term “side-hustle”. There are a number of different ways to define it, but in its simplest form, a side-hustle is something you do in addition to your main hustle (or career). It can be something as small as a paper route or a part-time job, or it can be as large as a business that can ALMOST support you full-time!

The beauty of a side-hustle is that it doesn’t have to be anything other than a side gig unless you want it to be. It can be a pleasant hobby, or the foothold you use to propel yourself into a new career or business. There are a number of reasons why a side-hustle is an incredible thing to have:

1. Resume Steroids: Essentially, you’ll be accumulating resume experience at twice the rate of everyone else. In addition, you’ll be able to create a record of experience in the job skills that you want.
2. Confidence Building: Writing on the side is an incredible confidence boosters because you get paid for what you do. This pay doubles as great positive feedback.
3. Connections: In this crazy world of ours, more often than not it is who you know that can help you more than what you know. Increasing your work exposure augments your networking opportunities. The more you write, the more connections you make.
4. Extra Money: Let’s be honest, extra money never hurts.

Give yourself permission to start small. No one says that you need to build a business or go full-time right from the get-go. There are many reasons to undertake freelancing (or a side-hustle!) even if you want to remain a 9-5 career person and never become self-employed.

Dip your toe into the freelancing ocean, the water is just fine.