Transitioning From My 9-5 Job

28 Jun, 2008 Web Development, Software Development, Internet Marketing

So I’m in the process of making a transition from my 9-5 job to working from home. I originally anticipated making this transition sometime next year so that I can finish my math degree, but my 9-5 has been forced to reduce its workforce. Unfortunately for me, I was one of those to be reduced. My wife cringes when I say the words laid off, but that’s what they call it. At least it comes with a severance package.

My first attempt at working from home will be freelance programming. This seems to be the best way for me to generate income in the immediate future, so I created profiles on eLance and Guru:

ryanjparker.elance.com
profile.guru.com/994494

So far I like eLance the best, but I haven’t even been doing this a week, so that is subject to change. I’ve had a small success so far, as I accepted my first eLance project on Friday.

To be honest I haven’t heard rave reviews about freelance coding services, as the feeling seems to be that most people want the world at a cheap price. Hopefully I can avoid those sorts of projects.

My plan is to develop one of my own websites during this process, WhichTeamWins.com and work on some open source software. Hopefully I can generate some meaningful income (either directly or indirectly) through those projects as well.

I’m interested in hearing from anyone that has made a similar transition (successfully or unsuccessfully). If anyone has any tips I’m all ears!

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9 Comments so far »

Grzesiek said

on June 29 2008 @ 1:49 am

Hi Ryan,
i actually made similar transition but in other direction, i went from freelance programming to full time job (8-4 instead 9-5).

What i didn’t like about freelancing is that i had to work more then 8 hours a day and had to be web designer, programmer, manager, marketer and custommer support in one person, when all i wanted to do was build websites.

The other problem was that, like you said people want huge pages like (youtube) to be build for less then 1000$, i won’t do it but there are a lot of guys who will.

On the other hand if you will get into good transactions then the payoff will be probably a lot better then the pay you got from the full time job.

Anyway, i didn’t want to discourage you, i am just shareing my experience and my point of view. Personally i know some web developers who make good amount of money from freelance programming.
Ryan J. Parker said

on June 29 2008 @ 6:41 pm

Grzesiek, thank you for sharing your experience. I’m trying to stick with mostly application development (since I’m no artist and do not do well with those sorts of projects), so I’m hoping that niche works for me. If not, then I might have to go back to working for the man.

I imagine trying to keep up with all of the different hats will be tough, and I’m already starting to see that in less than a week of submitting for jobs.

Thanks again for sharing.
Grzesiek said

on June 30 2008 @ 1:47 pm

Sticking to a niche is great idea, i think i discouraged you a bit with my last comment, that wasn’t my intent.

Actually i think it is like with everything, once you get a hang of it, then it will become easier and easier to get new projects.
HMTKSteve said

on June 30 2008 @ 10:03 pm

I picked up a few thousand dollars last year doing some piece work until I figured out the guy was trying to get me to code a facebook clone on the cheap!
Halim-Belajar SEO said

on July 9 2008 @ 4:28 am

Become a freelance is quite challenging as you also compete with other freelance especially those that willingly do for cheap price e.g: India, Indonesia. Why don’t you write some ebook about programming?
web hosting said

on August 7 2008 @ 8:28 pm

Hey….about brokering website sales…there’s a bunch of people on sitepoint who are looking for people to sell their sites for them!~
Kim from gift ideas for kids said

on September 1 2008 @ 8:58 am

One main thing is to set up your goal and work to achieve it.
Linda Albicans said

on December 26 2008 @ 5:24 am

I too made this transition for good. But I made one mistake and that was instead of making websites on topics i was skilled in i ventured into other niche topics.

Had I been with my skill to build wordpress themes I would have seen much greater success.

regards,
Linda Albicans.