Floating Vs. Full-Time

What kind of freelancer are you? Floater or Full-time? As for me, I’m a full-time writer. Really, I don’t have any choice in the matter ever since the “Duck Incident” that happened at the place I used to work and the resulting psychological screening (I call it profiling). Apparently, orally decapitating live animals while wearing parachute pants does not “prove a point” and is generally frowned upon in corporate culture. Who knew?

So, what’s left for me is to hack out a living as a hired gun. It’s not so bad at all, but it took that initial nudge to get me going in the right direction–being a social outcast that’s completely broke. It’s completely fine though. Just fine. I’m certainly not a nervous wreck living from project to project. Just fine…anybody got a job for me?

On to the point! There are different things to consider depending on which style of work you’re looking for.

Floating

Floating is what you do when you already have an established source of income, and you’re just “making extra money on the side.” Floaters have a lot more freedom when it comes to which jobs they take and for what amount of money. If you’re a floater, you can afford to set your prices a little higher than a full-time person, but you won’t be making nearly the same amount of money. You can also be picky about your jobs to a certain degree because paying the rent/mortgage isn’t dependent on your having a constant supply of work.

The flip-side is that if you’re just floating for extra cash, it’s much easier to take on jobs you don’t really like because you won’t be doing it day-in, day-out. Since you don’t have to build a reputation in a field, you can also try out a variety of skills on different projects without having to worry about said reputation. Pretty-much, a floater can do whatever they would like without the repercussions that a full-timer would face. If your rating goes down the tubes–oh well! At least you kept your day job.

Full-Time

This is where the scary happens. This is where the money happens. If you’re a full-time freelance writer/coder/artist/PA/duck-wrangler, you have to keep the cash flowing in your direction at all times. You have a whole lot less freedom, but it’s actually good in a way.

Unlike the Floater, you can’t:

• Hold a 9-5 job
• Screw up projects because you’re lazy
• Decide to quit in the middle of a project
• Take on jobs you don’t enjoy
• Ask for insane rates on long-term jobs
• Wrangle ducks unless you’re a duck-wrangler

You can’t do those things because they will hurt your overall income flow. This is the part where the Business degree guy walks in and says “you’ve got to see the big picture” right before you slap him in the face with a duck. You do need to see towards the future. Try this: you could take a two hour job for $40/hr, or you can take an on-going job for $20/hr. Obviously, the $20/hr job will allow you to earn more. It will take longer, but the potential income from that job will be much needed when there’s a dry spell of quick jobs.

A lot of the time, I am more than willing to drop my hourly rate a few bucks to accommodate a long-term buyer if it will seal the deal for the job. If it’s something very short yet requires high skill, then I’m far less likely to budge. I would rather let a job like that slide like water off a duck’s back.

So, Which Are You?

You should decide what kind of freelancer you want to be. If you just want to play around with it for a while, then float. If you’re wanting to switch now or eventually to full-time, then you need to start working towards that goal immediately by building a client base and high ratings.

P.S. Guess what else can float?

Goose.