Nearly five months today I left my previous employment for the world of freelance development. There hasn’t been a single person who hasn’t commented how much happier I am and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve loved every minute of the past five months freelancing and I’m looking forward to 2010 heading into it in a really good place.
2010 for me will be a mix of some (hopefully all) of the following:
Bringing back the personal projects
It’s time I started spending some time putting some ideas into practice instead of just talking about them all the time. Personal projects I have in the pipeline so far include gaming, Magento and an iPhone app.
Working for the dream client(s)
There are a few of those “dream clients” I’ve always dreamt of doing sites for ever since I first encountered their brand or using their products. This year I’m hoping to work with at least one of these dream clients.
Doing more outside of work/Nottingham
It’d be nice to spend some more time away from Nottingham, even if only for a day to a week at client offices or visiting just to get a feel of other places and other approaches to working. As I didn’t previously spend all that much time away from working before freelance, I’m looking to enjoy my time after work and on the weekends more instead of repeating old patterns.
Here’s to 2010
Here’s to 2010: The Year Of The Freelance and all that comes with it. It’s going to be a great year.
I just made the switch from full-time to freelance about three weeks ago. Sometimes I wonder how I spent over a decade in a cubicle. I have to admit, I do miss one thing about full-time work: I’m doing all my work from home and coffee shops now, and I miss the random conversations and debates you get into throughout the day. Other than that, I can’t believe I sat in a cubicle for over a decade. :)
Definitely Kevin, I felt the same. The key in solving this I found was to rent a desk from a local digital agency. That way I’m in the same environment of random conversation and being sociable. It breaks down that ‘lonely feeling’ that gathers sometimes when working independently without regular communication.
Office sharing is a great idea, not to long ago i was in the same position and i have to say it did start to get to me not having any interaction with others.
Thanks for sharing this, I’ve just left my old employer on the 31st september to work full time on my business and my partner has said that they can see a difference already.
They say that once you work for yourself you can’t work for anyone else again, I can see why now!