Has anyone managed to do freelance/consultancy work or even become a writer?

[Rubineski]

I'm going back to work in sept when DS will be 12m but want to do freelance/consultancy work - esp in area of marketing/communications. I can write, edit, create campaigns, do basic design, etc.

At the moment I have to go back to work to get the basic money to pay bills - although i'm only going back half time.

But I'm aware that it's hard to get outside work - esp in terms of having the time to sell yourself. My spare time will be taken up with DS.

Has anyone else made the transition?

My ultimate dream is to have the time to write - novels, screenplays - but god knows when I'll ever have time for that. I have been toying with the idea of a distance learning course, just to get me writing regularly again.

But having DS has made me want to do all this even more. It's given me a clearer perspective and I feel that it's so important to do the things I really want to do. I don't want DS looking at me in ten years time and seeing someone who regrets never taking her chances.

Does anyone understand what I mean?

When you figure out how to make it happen let me know Rubineski otherwise it is back into HR for me withing the next 6mths or so (DS is 16mo) and can't leave DH to continue carrying the can. I must say that when I was studying writing before I was much more motivated - but I don't think it would be quite the same in a distance course, as hanging with other wannabe writers was half the fun/motivation. It was the sharing and support that was so fab. Most of the time the lecturer/workshop leader didn't have to be there.

In answer ro the question in the title, I have, kind of.

I've been working as a freelance programmer/copy-writer/internet marketing consultant for about 3 years now (only really doing the last 2 things for the past year).

The trick, as you may know is having the contacts. Dp works in a similar area (we've just set up a company together) and has been building contacts for 10 years. That doesn't help you much, I know, but here are some ideas based on our experiences:

• are there any agencies near you specialising in your line of work? It's not secure and you have to be available at short notice sometimes, but it's a good way in.

• phone up all the people you know who work freelance or run small companies and discuss how your work might fit in with theirs. In our case, we have several friends who work as web designers and they regularly pass on coding/copy work.

• don't rely on freelancing initially to earn enough money. We have had some very hard times over the years (as dp has been freelance for 8 years with no regular job). Look into flexible jobs that you can use as backup (eg. "relief" care-working, which I used to do).

• have you looked into contracting?

• you could also try your local adult ed centre. They may have room for someone to run basic marketing courses. It's not really what you want to do I know but it's related and great fun (I used to do this too).

On the writing part, I can't help much, but there are some writers on MN who might have some ideas!

Good luck with it.

Thanks SP, really appreciate the tips. Good - in an odd kind of way - to also hear that it can be very tough. Need to be realistic.

Hi Rubineski

I understand exactly what you mean -- three children and various permutations of part-time and full-time work later, I now do freelance consultancy, mainly from home, during the hours my older two are at school.

It can be fantastic -- I can't think of any other work arrangement that would give me time during the day to play with my baby and allow me to be there to pick the children up from school, have their friends to tea, go to their class assemblies etc.

BUT the downside is that there is no external discipline and no separation between home-work and work-work -- when you take a break to make a cup of coffee, the washing machine will be ready for unloading. Conversely, just when the baby falls asleep and you need a break, the phone will ring, and so forth.

I get round this because I have very specialised skills in the field of legal consultancy, and there is very much more demand than supply for the kind of work I do. This means that I can put off answering phone messages in the knowledge that my clients will wait if it takes me a couple of days to get back to them. Also I don't have to spend time selling myself, as my phone will keep ringing anyway, and my (few) colleagues are more than happy to pass work on to me any time I need it.

In a competitive field like writing, I imagine you would have to be very much more disciplined than I am, and to have very clearly delineated boundaries between work time and home time. It might be an idea to find a good accountant and a financial adviser and talk through the implications with them. In particular you'd want to calculate how much money you would need to be turning over for the whole thing to work at all.

With regard to costs, in someways you can save money compared with having a proper job (fewer formal clothes, dry-cleaning, travel, sandwiches) but there are extra costs (heating and lighting the house for example, and all the kinds of insurance that employed people get from work) which are worth considering when you do your sums.

But overall, yes, if you can make it work, then absolutely it's worth it. I did have cold feet when I handed in my notice (after all, it's like saying, 'Please stop paying £xx into my bank account on the 20th of each month' ) but I've never looked back.

hth

hi rubenski - I do this, I'm a freelance PR consultant. I didn't want to go back to work full time after DS was born and have been freelance for 2 years now. As SP says, contacts are important (rest of her tips are really good too). if you've been working in this field (marketing) for a while you should know some people who can pass on work to you, think about anyone who might be in a position to give you work.

Don't try and work at home without childcare, you have to treat it as you would any other job otherwise you will just get frustrated and stressed. There is work out there and I know of a couple of specialist agencies that you could register with although it's more difficult if you only want to work part time like me. Email me through 'contact another talker' if you want the details.

meant to say that motherinferior and aloha would be able to give you more info about writing specifically although i would think the best thing would be to get some freelance marketing work and then try and get any pieces of writing you can for experience. At first I imagine you wouldn't get paid well for the writing but it would be building up your portfolio.

Yes, I'd back KR; I'm a freelance journalist and the way I do it is with four very strict work days while the girls are at their childminder.

Oh, and I LOVE it.

I was lucky. I'd been a magazine journalist for many years before having my son, so the transition wasn't really hard for me. I have a much more fluid (and inconvenient!) situation than motherinferior, in that my mum looks after ds for three mornings a week as much as she can and dh takes a couple of days off a month and I get my cleaner to come and entertain him while I work. But it works for us. My freelance career definitely began with contacts but now it runs itself. I absolutely love working from home though. I'm feral now - not fit to work in an office again

Oh yes, SouthEast London trembles when Aloha is out on her wild and free prowl

Ah, the thought of roaming free, away from the captivity of the office and the cut-throat, back-stabbing, hunting atmosphere is definitely tempting. Thanks for all this advice. Good to know everyone thinks it's worth it in the end.

Hi Rubeneski

I hope this helps. I can confidently say now that I make my living writing comedy for tv. Nothing has been broadcast yet, but as we speak, a script I've written for a CBBC comedy series is being filmed at Pinewood. The feeling is mighty!!!!! It's taken a long time to get to this stage. I lived on savings for the first year or so, and yes, KR and co are right. You need childcare.

I realised I didn't want to produce tv anymore when I got pregnant, and I had already started writing a sit-com between contracts. I had contacts, but really you just need a script and a Writers and Artsists year book for agents addresses. I found a producer who wanted to develop my sit-com and then an agent (a c*ck as it turned out, but I've got a fantastic one now)but I made a financial loss the first year. I've just started my third year and things look pretty rosy, I'm developing my third series idea and have written two episodes of the CBBC series. I wouldn't say I'm up to full-capacity yet, but earnings were reasonable last year for part-time work, and I'm in it for the long haul.

Back to getting started. You need that first script to start the ball-rolling. You're nowhere without that, and it takes AGES. AGES to find out what you want to write and who your characters are, and AGES to write and re-write to the point where what you're producing doesn't fill you will self-loathing shudders (maybe that's just me).

You just have to start small and keep going. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!! I find it a FANTASTICALLY fulfilling life.

My long term aim is to work from home so it's good to hear these positive stories. One thing I imagine I'd miss is to have colleagues to chat to - do any of you miss this or have coping strategies to make sure you have some social contact?

Mumsnet

Rubineski,
before ds I worked as a freelance technical trainer, but covered the whole UK and spent a huge amount of time away from home. DH was the same and we tried for a while to co-ordinate our clients so we could take turns at being at home doing childcare, and working. It was a horribly stressful life, and the clients just never co-operated to fit around our diaries.

Eventually I became a SAHM and dh took a job so he could get home every night.

DS will start school in Sept, and I am now trying to build up a business again so I can do freelance P.C. training/support for small businesses in the East Midlands/South Yorks, to fit round him. I now have child care 3 days a week, and a cleaning lady 2 mornings, so I can devote time to work (ATM just finding business).

I will repeat what someone else has said, to freelance you need to exploit ALL your contacts. Get in touch with anyone you have worked with or for over your career to date. Let them know what you want to do, know how much to charge (so do research to find out the going rate).

Understand how to pay yourself, make provision for tax and N.I., understand how to take expenses for using your car for work etc. Either discuss with an accountant or ask someone who works for themselves to help (email me if you like).

I guess with actual writing, you just have to produce material in your own time and submit it repeatedly until it gets accepted. J.K. Rowling wrote late into the night, whenever her baby was asleep, whatever opportunity she could get. She must have been kn*ckered most of the time, but was driven by desperation. I don't know what the answer is on that one.

Frogs,
Are you who I think you are? 3 kids, girl, boy, girl, girls both named starting with E, boy starts with D?

If so, see you weekend after next.

Hey, I've killed YET ANOTHER thread

The thread reviver comes to the rescue Easy - what an intriguing message!

Wow, shows just how dedicated I will be as a freelancer...start a thread and then forget to look at it for yonks!
Sorry about that. But comforting to come back and find yet more advice.
Toots - in particular you have given me hope! I totally understand what you say about working out what to write. I am going through that stage and it's painful. I've signed up to an evening class in creative writing in sept, just to get me exercising the writing muscle more.
Recently I went back to a few older pieces I'd written and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was pretty good. Because yes, I too have those self-loathing shudders when I'm writing. If it's not naff, it's corny. If it's not corny, it's just pure cr*p!
In the end though, life just seems too short not to try this.
Can I be really cheeky and ask what roughly people earn for tv scripts? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands? Or JK Rowling money?