I feel relieved going back to a 9–5 after 2 years of freelancing
because I do not have to worry about where my next paycheque is going to come from.
The freedom of working for yourself, making a decent amount of money and getting to work from anywhere are the usual three selling points to starting a freelancing business.
And they are great perks but NO ONE talks about the toll working for yourself long term can take. I didn’t even freelance “long term” I made it two years.
And I am still recovering from the burnout.
My Freelance / Side Hustle Story
I started out as Virtual Assistant and Social Media Manager in 2019 the most I made was about $2000 per month working with four clients. I significantly undersold myself and burnt out. That income level took me ten months to achieve.
This is an amazing milestone — I know a lot of people who would be incredible happy with $2000 a month. My problem came with comparing myself to the narrative that you need to hit 10K. Other people were making SO MUCH more and I could seem to crack the code.
But the universe had other plans for me. The good old pandemic hit and all my clients had to close their stores and could not afford my services. Plus, there was no point in posting when no one could come in store.
This is when I turned to selling Canva Templates as a digital product business. I didn’t want to just sell pretty templates for anyone so I made Instagram Templates with Captions for Social Media Managers like myself. I opened my shop in 2020 and over two years I sold roughly $1000 worth of templates in two years. TWO YEARS. That’s roughly $42 per month.
Not rolling in dough over here.
But I genuinely love making Templates and still have my shop making per some money from it. The Template Creative Shop
Since my Template Shop was not making an livable wage I did work for a social media agency for contract term. Then I started making TikTok videos for brands.
Now this where I at today.
The same week I applied to a 9–5 I signed on three UGC Clients. Now I have a booming freelance business PLUS my 9–5 and I am beyond happy.
I get to say no to clients because I don’t NEED the money to pay bills. I will also be able to invest in other creative ventures because of the secured income I have.
I feel relieved going back to a 9–5 after 2 years of freelancing. This goes against all of the TikTok videos that talk about quitting your 9–5 to make more income then you could every imagine in Freelancing.
But I get to do both and I am okay with that.
Are there any side hustles you want to try while balancing a 9–5?
