Please help me decide whether I should take the 'freelance' plunge....

[Helzapoppin]

Hello,

I work as a psychologist in the public sector and am currently on maternity leave with DC2. DH works long hours in the City and I take responsibility for (almost) all the childcare. My mum cares for DD two days a week, so I am very luck to have flexible, reliable and free childcare. I work 2.5 days a week and love my job, although it is a long commute and sometimes get bogged down with the politics of it all. The money from my job is my independence and my contribution to the coffers, but we don't rely on it to pay the bills.

I've been offered some private work while on maternity leave, which I'm happy to do and it's started me thinking about what my options are for the future. I reckon I'd be able to cobble together a couple of days each week (at least) of independent (and, on the surface, very well paid) work if I set myself up as a private psychologist.

I'd really appreciate some advice/thoughts of experienced freelancers about whether this is a good career move. Specifically:

What are the disadvantages (financial, time, logistics) I may not have thought about?
Do you miss having colleagues and how do you develop yourself professionally when you work on your own?
Does freelance/independent work offer the flexibility I am hoping it will or are there issues here I've not considered?

Is there anything else I haven't considered?

Thanks in advance :)

forums are virtual water coolers
I've been free range for 14 years - would never go back
go for it - but be on the constant lookout for opportunities and ideas

Lots of questions there. I've been freelance for 16 years, possibly in a similar field (depends what kind of psychologist you are).

I have never once regretted it.

In the early years I worked about 2 to 3 days a week. I could always be available for all the important things my children needed me there for. I never had to ask for time off.

But the flip side was that I juggled like crazy to make sure I very rarely turned work down. Lots of late nights completing jobs, lots of travel at inconvenient times and complicated child care sometimes.

Recently my DH had a very dry spell for about 3 years (also freelance, but a different field) and I managed to up my work to full time. I'm very proud of this, as many colleagues were struggling to get as much work. But I did it by being 100% reliable, professional, and working through a number of different companies, to widen my net as far as possible. This has also helped to feel part of a team, have colleagues and long term working relationships.

It's much easier to have a professional network and CPD type activity these days than when I started. I use linkedin as a professional forum.

There is a buzz in sending off invoices, especially when it looks like so much more than you used to earn as an employee, but remember to factor in insurances, pensions, costs of running the business. This can take quite a chunk off your day rate. For my field, some day rates now are no higher than when I started 16 years ago, that's quite hard to swallow.

But it's still worth it for the flexibility and control I have.

PM me if you want to share more on the psychologist aspect / more detail on what I do.