BlogHer - Business, Career & Personal Finance - Comments

Kelly

AnnieN. — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:04:30 -0500

Kelly has done my hair for over a year and a sweeter, selfless gal you'll never find. SOME time ago, even before wedding plans were being made, she said that she'd always wanted to be a "princess bride," so what she uttered in interviews about being a queen for just one day, was NOT contrived or untrue.

If you knew Kelly, you'd know that this was only her way of trying to make HER DAY happen. Not to see if she could 'milk the media' or take away the dignity from her wedding. Kelly is an honest hard-working gal who happens not to have the money for her dream wedding, but is creative enough to try something different. Is this a character flaw? She wasn't playing ANYONE for a bridesmaid!

"It is the stuff that fairy tales are made of. But, if it reads like a
fairy tale, and sounds like a fairy tale,could it just be that it
actually is a fairy tale'

It's wonderful, but not easy

Cindy La Ferle — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:55:43 -0500

I began freelance writing at home after the travel magazine I was edited was suddenly folded by the publisher. The timing was right. My son was in preschool and the magazine job had been less flexible (and involved more travel) than I'd hoped. Luckily, my experience at the magazine (plus my previous experience as a features writer for a newspaper) gave me the editorial contacts I needed to get started as a freelancer at home. Still, the income was considerably less -- and I couldn't have done it without the support of my gainfully employed and very supportive husband. In the early years of freelancing, the payoff was being able to stay home with my son while he was small.

I've been writing from home for almost 17 years, and even though I could go back to an office now, I wouldn't. I'm used to organizing my own schedule, and I love the creative freedom of writing for a few hours, then heading out to the garden to pull weeds. I supplement my writing income teaching writing classes -- which I also love. All said and done, I counsel my students to be realistic about the writing life -- don't romanticize it -- and to have a backup plan.

Cindy's Home Office: www.laferle.com

I would love to freelance

cucinanicolina — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:41:58 -0500

I would love to freelance full-time; it's a goal for down the road, though not necessarily because I hate my job. I do a lot of freelance now, but it's hard to balance with the whole full-time-job thing ... still, I love it, and when it works, there's nothing more satisfying. However ... when a check is late, or I haven't gotten a new assignment in awhile, I certainly appreciate my job and it's steady direct-deposit twice a month.

I Took The Plunge and Wouldn't Have it Any Other Way

Wifey — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:35:42 -0500

No wonder you love your job - smiles! I took the plunge in January and love it, minus my steady paycheck. BUT, I'm much happier. I have the best husband with a great income and insurance so that definitely makes it easier, ...but I still have some income to account for. I freelance part-time, just published a book and fell in love with blogging. I love the flexibility of working for myself, especially since I have a 7 and 5 year old.

Cliff Jumping

baconism — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:22:32 -0500

I too, used to work at a nonprofit and got waaay burnt out so I quit. It has been the best thing that I have ever done for myself. I am so much happier now.

To support my daughter and I, I am doing some organizational design consulting and write policies and procedures as well. I love being on my own, but it's only been three months. Once you get over the fear portion of it, really wonderful things start to happen. I get to write more, which is something that I have never done before and get immense joy out of. I plan to transition to doing it full time in the near future.

Women are resourceful and resilient. I got a kid to feed and a mortgage to pay, so that keeps me motivated to be successful too!

Whether it's part-time or full-time, it's so important to carve out a little piece of happiness right now. :-)

Giyen

http://www.baconismyenemy.com

Query letters

HeatherB — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:00:58 -0500

The same friend I referenced in this piece also made the point that there's the whole query letter hell and marketing of oneself that goes into freelancing. I remember another friend - either Kristin or Moose - telling me that she used to go to work and then come home and write query letters and that cycle just continued and continued. Yeah, I would suck at that. Let's just say in more ways than one I have been lucky in both writing and my real job.

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Ahhh there's the difference

HeatherB — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:58:17 -0500

I think I've only once mentioned before what I do for a living but it's a job where essentially I can make up my own schedule about 7 months out of the year. It leaves me enough 'free' time to use half the day to work and the other half to sit in a hotel room or a coffee shop while in some other city to write. So I get most of my writing done not from my own home but in airports or in restaurants in Union Station. I am very, very lucky to have an employer who gives me roughly 5 weeks of vacation a year in addition to lord knows how many sick days, two personal days and two "floating holidays" and to make up for the multiple weekends I have to work, I can get a "comp day". Obviously not everyone has that but I think that's what makes it easier for me to have two jobs.

Come to think of it with my past job I was miserable towards the end and at one point so miserable that I had to stop writing because the misery was so overwhelming.That was the one time I ever really contemplated becoming a freelance writer. Though now that I have a job that requires way more work I also have way more writing opportunities. It's crazy how that works.

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Suzanne! You've said it!

Atena — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:27:33 -0500

With the way we treat the care and education of young children in this country we are asking for trouble. There is no good reason for not investing in children and families early on - it speaks to the fundamental contempt that is held for women and children in our society.

I agree with your comments (though I must say that it was actually cheaper for my husband to quit his job and care for my daughter than to pay for quality childcare while we were both working). I hope that BlogHer readers will find out what early-childhood/family - related legislation is happening in their communities, and support it. In Illinois we are urging people to remind their legislators to support Preschool for All, which is our state's universal Pre-K initiative. Contact your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency to find out what the relevant advocacy issues are.

Thanks for writing this!

Atena

Assumptions, Biases & Irrational Fantasies

Stickering Counts :)

Elana Centor — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:26:33 -0500

I am trying to decide how to decorate mine -- I think the sticker tattoo makes a lot of sense.

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness

Does "stickering" your laptop count?

debra roby — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:36:44 -0500

While my laptop is not tattoed, it does have a unique combination of stickers that I could clearly use to identify it as mine. (or describe to someone as verification). Perhaps not the most professional of solutions, but it makes my HP different than anyone else's HP.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Weight for Deb

I freelance full time. Would not have it ANY other way.

Pam — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:25:25 -0500

Lemme got a few critical details out of the way first.

1. My health insurance is both crappy and expensive! Hooray! And I have no dental coverage.
2. My retirement plan consists of my seeing if I have enough money at the end of the year to hurl at my IRA or my Roth. Surely there's a better way!
3. I am the primary breadwinner at our house.
4. We have no kids.

Okay, stage set. A few years back I took a job at a tech start up thinking that they paid well, had potential, could make me some nice $$$ and okay, stability. I HATED IT. HATED IT. HATED IT. I didn't hate the work or the people. I hated going to work every day, I hated feeling like I had to be in the office even when things were glacially slow, I hated the fights for extra vacation time, the office politics, I can go on and on about the things I hated.Like a clairvoyant rat leaving a sinking ship before it went down, I bailed a little over a year before the company failed. During my time as an employee, I learned a sh*tload about business and decided that without extreme circumstances, I would never take a full time job again. I'm open to the idea that those extreme circumstances could involve really falling in love with a company I work for.

I found being in an office every day so constitutionally depressing that I just could not keep going. It makes it sounds like I've worked in some Office-Space-esque environment,but that's just not the case. I have made some of my best friends here in Seattle at work. But I felt a sense of soul crushing dread every minute I spent commutning, I felt a righteous indignation whenever faced with power politics, and well, I just hated GOING to work every day.

I work my behind off as a freelancer. And I experience stretches of terrifying worklessness - projects don't start on time, the savings dwindle, my mate suggests that we'd be more economically secure in his part of the world... but I love being a freelancer. And I don't think it's that I took some leap towards happiness, it's that I fled the crushing unhappiness of the day job grind.

If I found an employer that would allow me to work at home as often as possible and was open to the idea of regular leave time that would allow me to travel, I'd be all over it - you think I don't want insurance and a nice 401k? But employers are still resistant.

You can meet your deadlines, show up in person for weekly meetings, deliver quality work, and be met with suspicion merely for your lack of physical presence. This seems to be a top down thing - I did some work for a Large Software Company and my direct manager cared not one whit about my location, but her boss? Sorry, workers MUST BE ONSITE. When corporate policies allow more unconventional workers to contribute, I'll be the first in line.Until then, and uncrushed soul wins out over a crushed wallet.

Nerd's Eye View

double sigh

Diana — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:17:55 -0500

Well said, Rita. Corporate America thinks it's so progressive, but when it comes down to it, much like women's rights, while we've come a long way we still have a long journey left ahead.

I'd love to cut back to part-time corporate grind and freelance part-time as well, but the opportunity just doesn't exist for me. And I am entirely too chicken to quit entirely and freelance full-time. I like knowing that my paycheck is on it's way, no matter what!

Not for me

maryrwise — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:55:34 -0500

I'm an instructional designer/technical writer, which has great freelance/independent contractor potential, but l am way too chicken to take that leap. I really like having health insurance, paid vacation, and a place to go to work. (When I work from home I end up having a very clean house. I don't do any work, though.) Not only that, I am very bad at marketing myself, so I would never have any work.

The Blog: Red Nose The Book: Girl Clown

How it works for me

Suzanne Reisman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:51:51 -0500

I quit my job as a non-profit program manager in October 2006 due to burn out issues, and didn't I haven't had another regular job since. There is only one way that this works for me, and that is my partner. He works in finance and earns enough money to cover our current lifestyle, save for retirement, and offer me health insurance. I do policy consulting, teaching, and writing to bring in a paltry income that I could never survive on in NYC. My biggest regret is that I am not getting matching funds for retirement, and that I essentially live off my hubby, which freaks out the feminist in me.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

(sigh)

Rita Arens — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:35:14 -0500

I would love, love, love to freelance full-time. I'm trying to figure out a way to cut back at least to part-time in corporate America, but unfortunately, as progressive as it thinks it is, it's not really full of those opportunities yet.

Surrender, Dorothy - When I was your age, we just let them ride in the back window.

Rita Arens is a contributing editor for BlogHer -- Mommy & Family.