Are You Consulting on the Side or Freelancing Full Time?
Photo Illustration Copyright by Mike Banks Valentine

Are You Consulting on the Side or Freelancing Full Time?

I've heard that headline question three times in the past week and very happily affirmed the latter. “I’m Freelancing Full-Time now,” I responded to each of the questioners - three past co-workers in this case. I’ve said yes to the former question, “Do you do consulting on the side?” - for the past 8 years while working in-house on staff. This question came up with co-workers during my recent full-time roles in 3 different corporate businesses who didn’t realize I had worked for 9 years as a full-time consultant before accepting the company position where they got to know me.

“Consulting on the side” was something done routinely (and non-stop) while at those corporate positions over the past 8 years. (Direct competitors of the day job were never considered as potential clients.) That is during a 17 year career in the online marketing industry - which if you do the math, means an additional 9 years spent doing full-time consulting for that same industry. The only difference is that during those full-time corporate gigs - everyone I consulted with was made aware that their part-time gig mustn’t interfere with my day job.

While working full-time, that condition meant that I would only speak with those “Side” clients while on a break, at lunch, and before or after regular business hours. Now that I’m freelancing full-time, phone calls happen during business hours - but not much else has changed. Because much of what I do is analyzing, strategizing, recommending, and QA review - I can do it without needing much one-on-one or face-to-face time with clients. Word documents, Excel files and PDFs are exchanged via Dropbox and Email works for much of the needed interaction. In-person meetings are much less frequent than you might think - partly because it’s an added expense for clients.

When employed full-time, I routinely heard from corporate recruiters asking, “Are you looking for a change?” Now while freelancing full-time, I hear from corporate recruiters asking if I’ll consider a full-time corporate role. Both answers for me were, and now are, nearly always “Yes.” There are pluses and minuses to both types of work and there are times I’d prefer one to the other - but I really enjoy either corporate in-house and freelance consulting work. 

A question that I’m often asked while consulting is “Do you have bandwidth for another client?” That question is nearly always answered “Yes" because client churn is normal and keeping the work pipeline full as a freelancer is important. The only time I turn down new work is if I’m not getting enough sleep due to the current workload. There are occasional slow periods to make up for those busy times, so staying busy is preferred when the choice is there.

Word-of-mouth referrals have kept me very busy for much of my freelancing career. I feel very lucky to have chosen work that is highly valued and in high demand. I don’t need to put up a billboard, run print advertisements or hire sales representatives because I’m happy to remain a one-man shop, working from a home office, for people I enjoy, in an industry I love. I’m available and have bandwidth for another client - and maybe one of those three people I mentioned in the opening paragraph may help use up that extra bandwidth.

Mike Valentine Consults on Organic SEO to both small business startups and enterprise clients through RealitySEO.com

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