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5 Key Considerations For Moms Switching To Freelancing Careers

The world is changing at a swift pace and the trend of freelancing professionals is booming in a colossal way. Freelancing gives you a perfect opportunity to break the monotony of typical nine to five jobs. If we talk about it in the context of working mothers, it is something that we all should be amply grateful for. Playing the perfect balancing act between being a mother and an ambitious professional has always been hard for women.

However, now things are changing for the better as telecommuting and freelancing cultures open new doors of opportunities for working mothers. We do not want to miss any chance to see our children grow in front of us. To add, we always aspire to have an active role to play in their righteous upbringing. At the same time, we want to keep thriving on the path of our careers, and if there was ever an ideal midway, freelancing it is.

Having said that, it is quite obvious why a lot of working mothers are now getting attracted to the idea of freelancing jobs. Are you planning to switch to a full-time freelancing career as well? Well, while that may be a great idea, you need to consider a few important things before you make this crucial decision.

5 Key Considerations For Moms Switching To Freelancing Careers

After all, when it comes to your career and your means of sustaining your family, you do not want to leave things to chance. In this blog, we look at the most essential considerations you need to take into account when you decide to switch to being a permanent freelancer. So, without further ado, let us get started.

Things to ensure before you start a freelancing career

1. Setting boundaries

Let me put it in the simplest way possible to understand. When you start working from home as a freelancer with your toddlers and loads of work, it does get tougher. Yes, it is lovely that you get to be a part of your children’s journeys and spend more time with them. However, when it comes to managing things in a simultaneous way, it will get overwhelming more often than not. Having said that, as a freelancer with kids, you must prioritize the following things.

- Self-Care
- Mental Wellness
- Productivity

For you to give your best as a mother and to keep scoring your career goals, the above three dimensions are of utmost importance. How do you think you are going to work on these three things? To work your way around these dimensions in a worthwhile manner, you need to set boundaries for yourself. Your boundaries have to be your barriers such that nothing penetrates your mental health and your productivity. When you lose either of them, you begin to lose control of things.

In fact, you have to look after your overall well being with of course special attention to the idea of mental wellness. As stated above, you have to set boundaries around yourself to avoid burnout situations. Besides, you have to pamper yourself with a great influx of self-love, self-care, and compassion to stay patient and productive.

Speaking of the need for setting boundaries, it implies that you need to define certain limits. The first, of course, is the volume of work you are willing to take on a usual day so that you can succeed in being a great mother as well as a great professional. Besides, you have to set boundaries in terms of timings after which you do not want to receive any work-related calls or emails unless it is urgent. You can also discuss with your partner the clear division of roles in parenting and household chores.

To put it in an uncomplicated way, when you are with your children and family, work should not come in the way, and vice versa. Setting boundaries is an effective and smart tactic to manage the workload of being a selfless mother and an excellent professional. The key to setting boundaries is to first recognize your limits and then communicate them to your family and your employers.

2. Investing in the right technology

When you commit yourself to a full-time freelancing career, technology will be your greatest asset. To work as a freelancer and advance your career in the same, you will require some sophisticated gadgets and tools. Needless to say, all your communication with clients or your employers in freelance projects will be via digital modes. Having said that, you will need the most effective and versatile communication tools.

Moreover, you may also need to invest in some essential project management tools or even time tracking software. To add, state-of-the-art collaboration tools may also have a great role to play in your success as a freelancer. The bottom line is that you may have to invest in different kinds of software, tools, or applications subject to the kind of freelancing services you offer. These tools will hold the key to facilitating your freelancing career. What is important in this context is to carry out ample research before you go for such crucial investments.

From the viewpoint of expenses and efficiency, the right choice of tools and technologies becomes significant. I have been into freelancing for years now and I have to update my tools and software corresponding to the latest requirements. I make sure that I carry out enough research and go through a wide spectrum of reviews before I choose to invest in a tool. Investing in the wrong tools can be a big drawback in a freelancing career. Besides, it is also important to protect your gadgets from damage to keep the workflow smooth.

3. Decent savings

When you decide to leave a full-time job for a freelancing career, savings ought to be a major consideration. Freelancing does give you a great opportunity to strike the perfect balance between your responsibilities as a mother and your passion for your career. This great flexibility is what attracts most working mothers to give up on their conventional careers. However, freelancing has its own share of challenges and uncertainties.

The biggest uncertainty in freelancing is that you do not remain employed throughout the year like in a traditional job. Your earnings are subject to winning projects unless you are in a long-term contract with a firm. Having said that, I will like to lay emphasis on the suggestion that you ought to take the call of switching to freelancing on the back of decent savings.
5 Key Considerations For Moms Switching To Freelancing Careers

It may so happen that you may not find good or well-paid projects from the word go unless you have a great network already. Besides, there may also be phases in between when there may be no projects or there is a slump like the one caused by the COVID-19 crisis. For such unprecedented situations, having enough savings in the bank is a great idea, to begin with.

Therefore, you need to work on your contingency plans and accumulate sufficient savings before you make the switch. That is how I planned my switch to a freelancing career. I started diverting more funds to my savings at least six to eight months before putting in my resignation.

The more planned approach you have to your contingencies the better you can sustain yourself and your family in unprecedented situations. Otherwise, going into freelancing without much saving from your payroll job can create a lot of discomfort in uncertain times. Even otherwise, tomorrow if you plan to set up your own business, you will need strong finances to succeed in your freelancing objectives.

4. Personal finance knowledge

It is time working mothers get smart with their expertise in personal finance. Who said women cannot ace finance? You must know the different ways in which you can make your money work for you. As stated above, you may not have freelancing projects all through the year to support a consistent and assured income. Having said that, knowing ways in which you can grow your money in an efficient manner becomes imperative.

Let us be honest to ourselves here, we do measure our success and happiness in terms of our finances and there is nothing wrong with that as I see it. So, growing your money should be one of your key priorities from the purview of sustaining the happiness and privileges of your family. You do not want money constraints to come in the way of the sweet smiles of your children after all!

Having said that, before you hop onto a full-time freelancing career, you should grow your knowledge of personal finances. Mind my words, it is always better to get started with a freelancing career knowing the ways in which you can invest and amplify your finances. There has to be a clear plan as to how much of your earnings are you going to use for sustaining your family and how much of it you want to invest.

Besides, you should also identify two or three great ideas for investment that offer high returns on your money. All this knowledge is of course going to come to you when you devote your time to learning about personal finances. So, I suggest that you start scrolling through high-quality content on personal finances with immediate effect! These little things are what make the largest differences later after all!

In fact, your personal finance knowledge is something that you need to keep building on in a consistent manner. There will always be some novel investment ideas around the corner. You have to be quick to assimilate the desired knowledge about them and make well-informed decisions with your investments. I reiterate, for freelancers, smart investments hold overwhelming importance. Little investments can compound to make massive portfolios.

5. Skill building

If we look at how the corporate world has reshaped in recent years, we would find that changes have been rampant. Even in the future, these changes will keep coming at a greater pace with more automation and breakthroughs. Having said that, you have to ensure that you keep upgrading your skills as per the latest developments in the commercial world.

If I talk about myself, despite the hassle to manage between freelancing projects and being a full-time mother, I commit myself to skill-building. When it comes to skills and learning, I never tell myself that I know it all. In fact, one cannot learn it all given how things are overhauling every day. I know I have to keep learning new skills and dimensions to stay employable in the future. Being complacent is the last thing I would ever want to do.
5 Key Considerations For Moms Switching To Freelancing Careers

Hence, I make sure that I dedicate a part of my everyday routine to work on my skills. The same is my humble recommendation for other moms planning to switch to a full-time freelancing career. As I see it, there is a sea of freelancers out there and the number is growing every day. Hence, freelancers have to develop competitive advantages to ensure that they grow and prosper amid the competition. For working mothers looking to sustain their families via freelancing, this pursuit of skill-building becomes far more important.

So, when you take that call to shift careers to freelancing, have a plan in your mind about the skills and proficiencies you need to keep working on. There is so much to learn and you can leverage some great learning apps to advance your professional career. With these brilliant apps, you can learn at your own pace with impressive personalization features.

I would personally recommend you to work on the development of the following skills in a consistent manner.

- Resilience
- Virtual collaboration
- Stress management
- Creativity
- Adaptability
- Emotional intelligence
- Time management skills
- Leadership
- Analytical skills

The above skills are quintessential for your success as a freelancer. Thanks to advanced learning methodologies, you can now easily acquire new skills via professional learning apps. As long as you keep working on these skills, you will have the best chance of getting a handsome number of freelance projects. I know it is hard to concentrate on your own learning with kids and their education to manage, but this is where your determination will be put to test. Are you up for the challenge?

To encapsulate, thanks to the saga of technological advancements that we can now choose freelancing careers. For a mother, there could not be a better opportunity for excelling at motherhood and career in a simultaneous manner than freelancing. However, the decision to switch careers to freelancing has to be well-informed and well planned. You cannot choose to resign from your job and take the road to a career in freelancing out of the blues. There are some key considerations on which you need to base your decisions. When mothers plan their journeys and pursuits, they become far more powerful and competitive. The above considerations would be of great help for sure.
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