I have to confess that I spend hours at my keyboard and work multiple opps.

The great thing about freelancing is that it allows us to work from home; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer work hours–on the contrary, if anything, we probably work harder.

Your site is a great resource for writers.

As my business expands, I’m trying to build a list of potential subcontractors to work on items that I can’t either due to lack of time (my oldest had a lot of health issues about a year ago, causing me to outsource some work) or lack of subject knowledge. If you’d like, send me some background on yourself at spenterprises@wowway.com.

I’ve been in touch with a few others here that I expect to work with in the future, but it sounds like you have a background that offers some different capabilities.

Before I had my son, I’d been a travel agent for four years. I’d gotten out of that business (horrible pay–people think $2 articles are bad – try $6 an hour after four years with a boss who says she can’t afford to give anyone a pay raise, but then went right out and bought a new Caddy because her car was two years old and needed replacing…) After that, I landed a job as the right-hand gal to the president of a mailing firm just in time to find out I was pregnant. Thankfully, my newer boss was the kindest man on the face of the planet and even though I was a new employee and he knew I’d be leaving when I had my son, he spent the 8 months I was there teaching me all about payroll, corporate taxes, and how the postal system really works, so I learned a lot in those 8 months. I still have friends in travel and it’s easy for me to write about different places – especially when Texas, Louisiana, and Florida are the only states I’ve never visited. So travel is certainly my niche.

I do have other clients, but this is a blow to me because the articles were paying $80 for 2,000 words and the subject matter was something I could easily do two articles by noon and then have time to myself and then be ready to help my daughter with her math homework struggles as best I can–I’m not fond of that new math that the school is using which makes it hard to teach her anything.

Happy days off everyone.

I agree with others here though, it´s good to have more than one paycheck coming in, just in case.

Ouch!

I had nearly the same thing happen about four years ago, though I didn’t know about it til January. Finally got a kill fee for about half of what I was due (ability to pay kill fees was standard in agreements with the publisher — as they are with many — but it hadn’t happened before).

However, I still had my other clients, unlike the publisher’s employees, who were left high, dry and broke.

What type of writing do you specialize in?

This has been happening to me recently. My workload would be ok but the other stuff like life that keeps throwing a kink in my plans, lol

The holidays, sick loved ones, and my daughter wanting my attention every second of her waking hours has me spread to thin. It will turnaround.

In Dec., I had my almost-full-time corporate client, a huge freelance journalism project and I released my first audio book, which meant working with my publicist to send out press releases, etc. Not to mention preparing for the holidays and doing the coaching and teaching work I do in the personal growth field.

Although I am usually a go-with-the-flow type of person, I found myself overwhelmed and stressed out. I lost touch spiritually, which is key to my happiness and abundance, too. I actually teach people about why NOT doing what I was doing is so important to their success! So I’m taking it easier now and getting back in touch with the why behind my work and not so much in the details. I even hired a graduate student to handle lots of the details for me. Why do that stuff when I can make 2 to 3 times what I pay her?

One thing is for sure — I have been blessed almost from day one with an abundance of purposeful projects. I certainly do turn down freelance gigs, by the way. I only do work within my life purpose, and consequently, my worklife seems to always be full of meaningful projects.

I’ve also found it helpful to take vacations, even if I spend some time working. I try to take an entire vacation, but sometimes certain elements of projects can’t be completed ahead of time, despite my best efforts. But I know plenty of entrepreneurs who feel they can never even attempt a vacation. Getting away is important to refresh.

One caveat, though. Clients can leave quickly, so it can be important for financial reasons to be spread “a little” thin, though what that means is different for everyone. I took a lot more family time when kids were younger. Now that they’re teens, they spend a lot more time with their own interests.

Actually, I think it’s ok to spread yourself thin for a bit if the end result will be positive. But I agree that going all the time is bad. It’s hard though as a freelancer because there’s always that little worry in the back of your head that a job will end for no reason and you don’t want bills going unpaid.

I think I’ve quit and turned down around eight-ten gigs since summer because I realized that I had too much going on. Like you used to (or still do), I like to collect jobs so it’s hard to say no. It gets easier.