Full Time Employee at Day, Part Time Freelancer at Night – Is That Possible?
MJ Ces of PinoyCopywriter had taken time to write an interesting comment on this previous post Before You Go on Freelancing, Ask Yourself. All his points are true for any part time freelancer with a day job. I want to add my own personal notes and experiences when I had been in the same similar situation.
- Part time freelancing requires long hours. This is true. When I was working in my first job as an instructor I was doing part time coding for another company. I had sleepless nights and tired work days. I could not easily concentrate at work because I worry about so many things.

- It’s exhausting. As I was doing that huge gig, I had several sleepless nights just to finish the work. It was a huge gig that I luckily had but it had taken toll over my body. I did not perform well at work and it was difficult for me to learn new things. What’s worse is that my work often required me to work long hours in the office.
- You can hit big time with just one deal. When I got the money paid out to me, I used that money to buy a new computer. I was not good at handling finances way back then, so the rest of that money was spend on useless luxuries that I wanted.
- There are dry seasons. Even as a full time freelancer I had experienced dry seasons too at one point. I did not waste that time idle. I tried learning all the tricks of the freelance trade. I upgraded my skills. I had invested my earnings back to upgrade my computer, repair my old monitor and get a DSL connection. I explored other avenues of earning – that was the time when I turned to blogging and learned that it was possible to earn from them for quite sometime.
MJ Ces thinks that full time work gives him steady income and qualify for loans in getting big ticket items such as a house and a wedding – this is surely the employee mindset that I had mentioned. Entrepreneurs think differently: they are able to delay gratification and they work and decide well with all the available resources at hand. Many successful entrepreneurs started out with nothing in their hands.
As I had mentioned a freelancer should have an entrepreneurial mindset, and any startup business have this kind of problem to overcome at the beginning. Once that the business had been established, the income becomes steady already.
This is actually what’s happening to me right now. I have a steady stream of clients and I keep on getting endless invitations for work in unexpected places. My financial problems are starting to clear up. In no time I will be earning multiple times than the average worker with the same skill set – active and passive income combined from freelancing and blogging.
I never had to worry about lack of sleep, because I can just get enough winks anytime.
To top all that, my previous work was related to electronics engineering and I still have my license for that. My chances at getting another full time job with that experience is much more difficult because of the global financial crisis.
All that started with having a computer that had started to show blue screen of death errors, a monitor that kept on showing rainbow colors at random, a dial up connection at home as well as outdated IT skills that I had which was good to use a decade ago.
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Hi Gem,
I was surprised to read my name here.
Anyway, you made good points here.
I just want to say that I am not closing my doors on full-time freelance work. It’s just that I need a steady flow of income right now because I’m saving for my wedding plus the payments that I am making for the house (and other household expenses). Add them all up and my current earnings as a freelancer is definitely not enough.
But after the wedding, when all the suppliers have been paid, all that would be left are my payments for my house and the car that I’ll be getting come November.
Then after that, that’s when I can consider going full-time on freelancing. Just not right now. The wedding itself will cost me a lot, matapos lang yun malaking kaluwagan na sa ‘kin.
I can’t continue with my part-time freelance work because right now, I need my day job more than my freelance work. Why? Because currently it pays a lot more.
And I can’t do both. Some people can, but I just can’t. Until the wedding is over, I need to focus my time on my regular job so I will not get fired for inefficiency due to lack of sleep and less concentration (which can be caused by part-time freelancing).
Through my day job I am saving enough funds so I can go full-time freelance by next year. It’s what I call my ‘war funds’ to help me and my soon-to-be family sustain our needs for the first few months that I’ll be working freelance.
I enjoyed this article. It made it clearer for me that I need to be much better prepared for my next year’s plans.
full-time online work has definitely worked for me and my wife. On the other hand, let’s not forget, Gem, that what may work for some may not work for others.
Still, sometimes, all it takes is to fully let go of our security blankets and explore the unexplored. only then can we totally tell the difference between two different areas. haphazard efforts just won’t do.
As Master Yoda used to say “Try not. Do… or do not.”
johnV´s last blog post..Java Blow by Blow – Hit by A Low Blow
A lot of good points here. One dilemma for freelancers is the lack of “credibility” for loans, credit card applications, etc. I also think full-time jobs and freelancing both have their pros and cons. For me, freelancing works. Best part of working from home is that you’re always with your family. I always see my kid everyday, and I and my wife enjoy each other’s company while we’re both working.
Mike Wagan´s last blog post..Finally, Web Design Rework Complete!
Me and Vit actually do some freelancing/part-time work writing 200 word articles. We usually get 10 a night on good days but mroe or less on average, we get 3-5. That is still an extra 300-500 bucks per day and pretty big at the end of the month.
Reel Advice´s last blog post..Drag Me to Hell: Movie Review
@reel advice
How about real fake advice. Who gets paid $100 an article? Let me tell you…NOBODY!
Hi Bwoods!
Sorry for the confusion! It’s not in USD! It is supposed to be in Philippine Pesos which amounts to around $2 per article.
Hope that clarifies things.
Reel Advice´s last blog post..The Coffin: Sneak Peek
I’ve had some experience with this, so I felt I needed to drop in and give a warning. I used to do that off and on when I was just getting started. I was doing freelance all the time, it was the fulltime work that was sporadic, being in the depths of the dot-com bubble bursting as it was.
But when I did have both going at the same time — boy, that was exhausting. I wouldn’t be able to do that now, with a wife and kids, it took about 100% of my life to manage. Aside from dinner and maybe a bit of tv, I was working (and/or commuting) from about 6:30am to 1 or 2am, seven days a week. I should mention that one aspect that I really didn’t like was handling freelance business calls via my cell phone while at a full time job. I never actually got into trouble for it, but I felt very uncomfortable doing it.
My advice to anyone thinking about doing this: 1) it’s much easier if you don’t have much of a commute to your full time job; 2) don’t try to take on the same amount of work as if you were freelancing full time, make sure you are actually just spending PART TIME hours on the freelancing; and 3) don’t overpromise delivery dates to your freelance clients, give yourself plenty of time and don’t take tight deadlines unless you KNOW you can do it.
Ultimately, it turned out my problem was my mindset — I thought that the full time job was the ideal I should be striving for. I finally realized one day I had it backwards, and I was much happier doing freelance anyway. I’ve happily stayed away from full time employment for about seven years now.
good thing for you gem, you can juggle all these difficult task. you are really one human dynamo ehehe!
elmot´s last blog post..Know the Origin of A(N1H1)
I have an office mate who is a freelancer at night. Freelancing really requires a lot of your time.
Anyway, my office mate stopped freelancing at night. The reason? He was always late in the office.
Thanks for this great post.
Nino Natividad
http://www.ninonatividad.com
Hi Gem,
The comments made this article more interesting.
I believe in what johnV mentioned in his comment. To each is own in his decision to go into freelancing, either part or full time.
In my opinion, the entrepreneurial mindset is not ‘always’ the concern here. There might be some reasons that these people remain on their day job and take a back seat in their freelance ventures.
I believe that a real entrepreneurial mindset has a vision, thinks ahead, carefully plans everything and takes calculated risks while working on his plans to completion.
He might commit some mistakes along the way and learn from those lessons as he improves his craft and finally become a better freelancer.
Frankly, this is the life that I am looking forward to. I am very excited to know that a lot of freelancers are sharing their experiences and concerns.
This will inspire some more guys to carefully weigh their options and not just plunge into freelancing right away without a blueprint on how to go with it.
Have a great day!
Thanks for the article. Freelance writing is a great option to make extra cash. More people should read about this.