How To Transition to Full-Time Freelance Work

Many office workers are quick to romanticize what it's like to be a freelancer. They picture someone traveling the world, working just a few hours a day from the most luxurious and exotic locations without any stress or worries. Being an independent professional can give you the freedom to work remotely and create a schedule that fits your lifestyle, but it also takes hard work and dedication to start your own business and build a career. 

Being an independent professional has many perks, like the flexibility to work anywhere and choose your projects. Many freelancers have a niche, specializing in something they really enjoy and are good at, and work hard to build their reputation and become an expert. Instead of working full time for one company, they actively seek out new clients and projects, building and nurturing relationships. Freelancers are self-employed, and their business is providing services to clients. 

If this sounds like something you want to do, learn more about how you can make this your career and transition into full-time freelance work. 

What to know before transitioning to full-time freelance work

In the U.S., 38% of workers performed freelance work in 2023. Those considering freelancing often ask, “But can you do freelance work full time? Can you make a full-time income as a freelancer?”

The answer is "Yes!" Let's consider Gen Z, the newest generation to enter the labor market. They see freelancing as a flexible career alternative to a nine-to-five. Over 53% of Gen Z freelancers work full time as independent professionals

This number continues to grow as freelancing appeals to Gen Z, the newest generation to enter the labor market. They see freelancing as a flexible career alternative to a nine-to-five. Over 53% of Gen Z freelancers work full time as independent professionals. 

You can start slowly and try freelancing part time (if your current job allows it) to build your skills and portfolio. Before transitioning into full-time freelancing work, here are some aspects of freelancing to consider: 

• Self-discipline is helpful. Successful freelancers know how to manage their time well and be productive. It's up to you how and when you do your work, so you should practice self-discipline to avoid procrastinating and falling behind. 
• Negotiation skills can help you maximize your earnings. As a freelancer, you are your best advocate and decide what is fair to charge for each project, making sure you’re competitive but not selling yourself short. 
• You should enjoy working with clients. Being a freelancer involves working closely with clients to make sure they're happy with the projects you deliver; they’re the key to your success. You want your clients to keep working with you, leave positive feedback, and recommend you to their colleagues. 
• You won't always have coworkers to lean on. Part of the appeal of freelancing is flexibility and independence, but that also means that you often work by yourself and aren't part of a team. 
• Budgeting skills can help with your finances. Your income as a freelancer can vary from week to week, depending on your projects and clients. Budgeting helps you know how much you need to make each week to pay your bills and what that translates to as an hourly wage and working hours required.
• Know how to attract clients and work. Before transitioning to full-time freelancing, you need to plan how you will get clients and win proposals. As a freelancer, marketing your skills and networking to find new clients is vital to success. 

How to transition to full-time freelance work in 8 steps

You typically don't have to turn in your two-week notice the moment you decide to freelance full time; you can test the waters first and transition slowly. Building a freelance career with a steady list of clients and projects takes time. You have to work on marketing your skills, building your portfolio, creating pitches, and finding the clients you think would be interested in your services. 

Once you feel confident that you can support yourself freelancing and that it's the right path, you can give your employer notice and start your full-time freelance career. Here are the eight recommended steps for transitioning into full-time freelance work:

Steps for transitioning to freelance work

1. Choose your niche
2. Build your portfolio
3. Determine pricing for your freelance services
4. Market your freelance services
5. Find freelance clients
6. Grow your freelance business outside of your other job
7. Give proper leave notice to your employer
8. Run your freelance business full time

Step 1: Choose your niche

Successful freelancers find their niche and continuously develop their skills, eventually becoming experts. Clients hire freelancers to fill existing skills gaps on their teams and get specialized talent for projects. Think about the industry you work in (or want to work in), whether it's finance, videography, or nearly anything else, and the type of work you enjoy most: this could be your specialty. 

If you work in social media, do you enjoy the creative side of making graphics and copy, or would you prefer to run ads or negotiate with influencers? A web designer could decide to specialize in creating e-commerce Shopify sites. Having a specialization also makes it easier for you to market yourself, and as you transition into freelancing full time, you know exactly what you want to offer potential clients. 

Tip: Check out the top in-demand skills in every industry that clients on Upwork are looking for right now. 

Step 2: Build your portfolio 

When you get a job as a full-time employee, the potential employer looks at your resume and cover letter. Then, if they want to move forward, they’ll invite you to interview (often with multiple rounds and an on-site visit). The process as a freelancer is different. While you may need to do a few interviews or meetings, potential clients rely heavily on a freelancer’s portfolio and profile to determine who is the best talent for each job.

As you transition into freelancing full time, build your portfolio in your spare time. Dedicate a few hours each week to creating a portfolio that will impress clients. Your portfolio is the home for all your freelance projects and where clients can see your skills and the quality of your work. 

If you’re new to freelancing, you may not have many projects to put in your portfolio, but that's OK. You can create mock projects in your niche to use as examples to land your first few clients.  To avoid any legal issues, make sure that it's clear these aren't real clients. You can work on these mock projects while you still have your nine-to-five job, even if you don't have any clients lined up yet. 

If you work as a graphic designer, you could create a mock-up of a design you would make for a client that you’d love to work with. A UX designer could create a website or app landing page in Figma for their dream client. You can also add public projects you were a part of as an employee to your portfolio if your past employers allow it. 

Tip: Create a standout profile on Upwork to attract clients and win proposals with these tips: 

Step 3: Determine pricing for your freelance services

How much will you charge your clients? Determining a competitive price for your freelancing services is important. What you charge may change depending on the client and the project, but you should have a baseline idea of how much you want to make hourly. Take time to research what other freelancers in your niche with your level of experience charge. When just starting out, you typically don't want to be the cheapest option, but you also don’t want to be the most expensive so you can build your reputation and portfolio. 

As a freelancer, you may charge clients hourly, by project, or on a retainer for recurring services. Depending on whether you get paid through Upwork or have to invoice clients directly, it may take time between finishing a project and getting paid. One of the benefits of continuing to work as an employee while you’re transitioning to freelancing full time is that you can hopefully save up and build a financial safety net in case business is slow or a client takes a while to pay their invoice.

You can use the Freelance Rate Calculator to help determine how much you need to earn per hour to cover your monthly expenses. As a freelancer, you’re running a small business, which means you’re responsible for finding clients. The blocks of time you spend applying for jobs and doing administrative tasks like invoicing are non-billable hours that you’ll need to account for in your work week. 

Under the health insurance / other category you can factor in other monthly overhead costs, such as: 

• Internet service
• Upwork Connects
• Software subscriptions
• Professional development 
• Marketing and advertising
• Accounting services 
• Project management tools 
• Freelancer Plus membership 

Keep in mind you may not be able to start out charging your target rate, especially in the beginning. Many freelancers initially charge lower than their hourly goal to build up a client base, reputation, and portfolio. As they complete more projects successfully and the demand for their services rises, they may adjust their rates over time.

‍Tip: Learn more about how much you can make as a freelancer and the average earnings for popular skills. 

Step 4: Market your freelance services 

Once you decide you're ready to start freelancing and are planning on doing it full time, you need to figure out how you’ll market your services. Marketing is an essential part of creating a business plan as a freelancer. How will clients hear about your services? You can reach out directly to clients, but if you market yourself right, you can have clients coming to you. 

Three ways you can market yourself:

• Create an Upwork profile
• Use social media
• Build a personal website

Set aside time each week, whether after work during the weekdays or spending a weekend morning at a coffee shop, to work on marketing. Create content that demonstrates your expertise and industry knowledge for your social media channels or website. While these aren't billable hours, this work is important for building your business as you transition into full-time freelance work. You want to set yourself up for success and have a strong marketing plan so you can have clients and projects lined up. 

Step 5: Find freelance clients

Ideally, by the time you transition to freelancing full time, you’ll have enthusiastic clients with interesting projects that you can start on immediately. The first couple of clients are typically the hardest to get, but once you have some completed items in your portfolio, gather positive reviews, and earn Talent Badges, it's often easier to win more proposals. 

Some tips for finding those first few freelance clients include: 

• Network. Reach out to people you know professionally and personally to see if they know of any potential clients. You can also attend networking events and occasionally use  co-working spaces. Successful freelancers know how to network. 
• Connect on social media. Make sure you're following your dream clients, other businesses, and entrepreneurs you think may be interested in your services.
• Pitch potential clients. Even if you don't see a job opening, you can send an email or direct message on social media (DM) to potential clients and directly pitch your services. 
• Submit proposals. Dedicate time to checking new jobs and submitting proposals to the ones that best fit your skills. See what available jobs are on Talent Marketplace right now. 

Tip: Prepare a 30-second elevator pitch to answer the "So tell me about yourself" or "What do you do?" questions that may come up in an interview or casual conversation. You never know where your next client or lead may come from.  

Step 6: Grow your freelance business outside of your other job

When you decide to start freelancing full time, you're starting your own business. The time you spend growing that business outside your other job is the soft launch, preparing you for the transition to full time. Many independent professionals work extra hours freelancing in addition to their full-time jobs to make sure they like it while testing the demand for their services. 

Launching any business takes time. If you were to open a bakery, even if you have the best-tasting cupcakes in town, you’d still have to market them. Before the official launch, you’d do social media campaigns, make a website, and reach out to the local community to let everyone know when and where you’d be available. You’d organize a soft opening as you work on smoothing out any potential issues with a limited number of customers who want to be the first to sample your goods. The goal is to have customers lined up out the door when you officially open because they’ve heard about how amazing your cupcakes are. 

While having customers "lined up out the door" may not be as realistic for a freelancer, you can still reach out to clients, submit proposals, and take on smaller projects as you continue to work at your nine-to-five. Start building relationships with your clients and let them know you’ll have more availability soon if they have any other projects for you or if they have colleagues they can refer to you. You'll feel more confident going full-time freelancing if you have some clients you can rely on for future work and successfully complete projects with positive feedback.

Before starting a freelance business on the side, you may want to check your contract. Some companies include non-compete clauses or other statements that prevent you from legally freelancing. How strict these non-compete clauses are may depend on where you live. Some states and countries allow more binding non-compete laws than others. If you have any questions or concerns about your current contract, you can get help from contract law lawyers and other legal professionals on Upwork.

Step 7: Give proper leave notice to your employer 

Once you feel ready to become a full-time freelancer, you need to let your employer know and formally resign. The standard notice period in the U.S. is two weeks, but you may want to give them more time depending on your relationship and how long you've been with the company. Ideally, you can resign once the current project you're working on ends, tying up any loose ends and supporting your team.

Each company handles resignations differently. You may have to leave as soon as you hand in your resignation letter without having the opportunity to finish your last two weeks—this is common if you work with classified or highly sensitive information. 

The goal is to leave on a positive note, explaining that you want to explore freelancing and, while you've enjoyed this opportunity, it's time for you to move on to the next phase in your career. You can offer to help train your replacement and the team transition. If you’re still getting ready to freelance full time, you could offer to stay on part time or even have your employer become a client. 

Tip: If you're not sure what to say in your resignation letter, follow this guideline for examples. 

Step 8: Run your freelance business full time 

The final step in transitioning to freelancing full time is running your business. Create a daily routine that works for you, deciding how much time you'll dedicate to marketing your business, reaching out to clients, and getting the real work done. As a full-time freelancer, you can set your schedule and decide what your workday looks like. 

When you're ready, you can officially launch your business and let friends, family, and colleagues know you're ready to accept clients:

• Turn on your "Available Now" badge on Upwork. 
• Start spending time each day exploring Talent Marketplace and submitting proposals
• Put "Open to Work" on LinkedIn
• Send DMs and cold emails to potential clients
• Post on social media announcing your services (and continue to post regularly)

The bottom line

As a freelancer, you have more flexibility and control over where and what you work on, but with this freedom comes more responsibility. Instead of working full time for an employer, you're an independent professional and have to find clients and market your services. Freelancing can have less stability, especially in the beginning, as you work to build a list of clients and projects to work on, which is why many people choose to test freelancing out first before making a full-time commitment.

Before transitioning into freelancing full time, think about the type of work environment you do best in. Freelancing has pros and cons, just like working full time as an employee. Some people thrive in an independent environment, working remotely and traveling. Other people enjoy office culture and the security of being a full-time employee and receiving salaried pay, benefits, and paid time off. Knowing your workstyle and when you’re the most productive is important for setting yourself up for success. 

Find full-time freelance opportunities on Upwork

Make Upwork your home for your freelance career. Whether you're ready to start freelancing full time or want to try it out first, see what jobs are available right now. Businesses of all different sizes, from small startups to the Fortune 100, use Upwork to find the independent talent they need. 

You can create proposals, chat with clients, submit your work, and get paid all through Upwork. Payments are secure; you can wait until a client deposits the money in escrow before starting a project. Read client reviews from other freelancers to evaluate what projects you say yes to. Create an Upwork account today, It all happens right here. 

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This article is intended for educational purposes and should not be viewed as legal or tax advice. Please consult a professional to find the solution that best fits your situation.