Juggling Web Design and Full Time Job

[hifigrafix]

Hello,

I just wanted to see what the prognosis was on this subject.

Over the past year and a half I've developed my design/development skills and made a lot of contacts in the industry. I've pretty much developed a small client base and have some excellent income coming in from web design.

I also have a full-time job that I love almost as much and haven't put much thought to leaving or changing. My web design skills are even shaping my job description at the company providing both a nice portfolio of prestigeous clients and letting me develop my craft.

I work pretty much 9-6 M-F and then devote 3+ hours every evening and work Saturday for my freelance clients.

I've noticed that there are many pro's and con's to my situation with the biggest pro being - I'm making a solid paycheck no matter what.

There's no real point or question here - rather - I'm just wondering if any of you are facing a similar situation and if any of you have advice for me at this point in my career. I'm 24 and just out of college and didn't have much interest in computers until 16 months ago.

Just opening things up for discussion.

[wbd]

I'm just wondering if any of you are facing a similar situation and if any of you have advice for me at this point in my career. I'm 24 and just out of college

I was in a very similar situation to this about this time last year, in that I had spent 18 months or so improving my development skills and building a small client base.
However, the differences between us are that I am a fair few years older than you are, and I had a specific goal in mind of quitting my full-time job (which I'd been in for over 13 years) to start my own freelance business. I also have a wife and 2 young kids to provide for. So for me, having both a full time job and trying to establish a business wasn't an ideal situation as it left no time left to spend with my family.
I took the plunge and quit last Christmas and started doing my freelance work full-time in January, and have been loving every minute of it.
You sound as though you are happy in your current situation. That being the case, my advice to you is unless you have a specific goal in mind that you are aiming for, keep doing whatever makes you happy. If that means holding down a full-time job and working freelance at nights/weekends, that's great. There's no reason why you should have to choose one over the other if you can do both. You're still young. Eventually other things will happen in your life that change your priorities - marriage, family, career changes, travel, etc. - these will influence your future decisions if and when they occur.
Good luck, I hope it works out well for you.

[cianuro]

I think many people here can relate to what position you are in.

Three years ago, I made the move to 100% self employed. For a year before that I was juggling. It took so much out of me and my home and social life suffered (And being Irish, that is a HUGH no no!).

The day I quit my day job (Which was very highly paid for someone my age) was so so scary. I was so afraid of failing. Luckily, it worked out for me. The time I gained during the day to grow my business in the first few years was essential and I realised I could do it 100 times better without the other job hassling me.

Now, I can successfully say, it was worth it. I am reaping the rewards.

I know a lot of people who had GREAT ideas and GREAT small freelance businesses that would have been quite big if their day job had not have gotten in the way.