Freelance work whilst contracting

[JohnM]

Do any of you do any small freelance gigs while in a full time contract ? I have a couple of offers and as I work away from home through the week and don't really do to much in the evening I am considering them.

Keen to see if anyone else does this and find out if it becomes to much a burden on your time ?

[TheGreenBastard]

I do this, under a similar situation, work away from home Mon-Thurs so have several hours each evening to dedicate to freelance work. I also juggle "Plan B" in this time.

If you can gauge requirements and juggle workloads it's great. Always charge hourly rate vs. project based pricing.

I can't stress being able to gauge workload enough. I've fallen foul in the past, taking too much on and embarrassing myself.

[northernladuk]

We had a post from a guy recently that did. Bloody idiot did it in client time and got himself sacked but he couldn't understand why.

[doconline]

Do any of you do any small freelance gigs while in a full time contract ? I have a couple of offers and as I work away from home through the week and don't really do to much in the evening I am considering them.

Keen to see if anyone else does this and find out if it becomes to much a burden on your time ?

Yes, I do this occasionally. As a front end developer I have picked up small bits of work through my network and also on the job boards. As long as you are clear on the amount of time needed to do the work it's fine, just don't take too much. Also, if you haven't worked with the client before, make sure you are clear about communication. If you are unable to take calls / answer emails during the day because of your other client, try and make the other clients aware as gently as possible. Say you will answer emails within x number of hours etc, and will return phone messages at your earliest convenience. They will think their project is the most important thing in the world, where as for you it is extra work. I'm not trying to say anything about your professionalism, it's just about managing expectations at the end of the day.

But most of us are running a business at the end of the day (Ltd vs umbrella for example) so go for it if you have the time and inclination.

[jmo21]

I do bits and pieces of work for old clients.

Usually fixed price, and I fit them into my spare time in evenings and weekends.

I never work away from home though (so far!) and it would be ideal to have that evening free time to do some of it.

In other words, go for it!!

[northernladyuk]

We had a post from a guy recently that did. Bloody idiot did it in client time and got caught and got himself sacked but he couldn't understand why.

FTFY

I did once take on a nominally one day per week contract which I did on my train journey to and from gig. Nice to earn an extra 500 quid / week, but long-term it wouldn't have been sustainable to be getting the laptop fired up at 7:30 a.m. and straight into productive work.

Don't have that kind of commute anymore. I'm just talking to a potential client about taking on some similar work, but I'll probably look to take some days off in the week and sub 30% of it out.

[edison]

We had a post from a guy recently that did. Bloody idiot did it in client time and got himself sacked but he couldn't understand why.

I don't know if there is an IT equivalent of the Darwin Award but I want to instigate one after hearing that! Priceless!

[SueEllen]

I don't know if there is an IT equivalent of the Darwin Award but I want to instigate one after hearing that! Priceless!

To be fair the business wasn't in IT but he got caught.

[edison]

I sometimes do small pieces of ad hoc freelance work via a contact who runs a PR and Marketing company. Many of his clients are tech or software firms and I get asked to help out when they have client deadlines approaching. It's a mixture of using my IT experience as well as business experience on things like software implementation case studies, presentations, pitches etc. Can be quite interesting because many of his clients' end clients are in sectors that I've never worked in myself like Financial Services.

Bit like a zero hours contract but I do invoice by the hour

I only usually take small amounts on, especially if I'm on a contract, usually I do it on the train or in the evening.

[JohnM]

We had a post from a guy recently that did. Bloody idiot did it in client time and got himself sacked but he couldn't understand why.

"he couldn't understand why"

ha ha ha that is hilarious