OK I’ve decided to do it, I’m going to quit my job and start for myself as a freelancer! It’s not a very mustachian thing to do money-wise as my job is very cushy and comes with a nice big salary, but I just can’t handle the commute/pointless time-wasting meetings/boring colleagues anymore!
We figure we can survive about 2 years on our savings without making any money at all, before we’d have to start worrying about money. We have a very basic lifestyle and could easily survive on a low income job so we are not too worried about the future. It helps that we don’t live in the US so we have social securities like affordable health care and a state pension.
In order to maintain our current lifestyle me and my partner would each have to earn about 1000 euros a month, which seems doable. My partner is already bringing in his share and now it will be up to me to do the same.
I currently work as a production technician where I publish scientific books. The part of my job I like best (and am best at) is doing the book design, so lay-out, cover, front and back matter, proofreading etc. And that is the part I would like to explore on a freelance basis. I’ve been doing it for about 6 years so have plenty of experience and technical know-how.
I am (near)fluent in 4 languages so I was planning to advertise all over the world. I might explore specializing in the niche of scientific publications because that is what I do now, plus these type of publications are a lot harder to lay-out due to hyperlinks, references, complex tables etc. so there might be more of a market for my skills.
I have 3 kids who now go to private school but they will be moved to (free and excellent) public school starting September. Because of this I will quit my job around June so that we dont have to move the kids to another school in the middle of the year.
I am not allowed to have an income next to my current salary, but I am looking for ways to expand my portfolio before launching my business. I have thought of 2 ways to do this. 1) laying out some books that are in the public domain and 2) asking people in my network if they have a finished work that they would like to self-publish and that I can lay-out for them for free including cover design/epub. This way I’ll have something to show to potential customers.
Apart from reading a lot about my field and about how to start my own business while on my commute (train), and preparing my portfolio/thinking about what I want, I will not have a lot of time to build my company before I quit my current job (full time job with long commute + 3 kids).
My questions to you here:
1. If you have any advice/criticism/tips/websites/knowledge that you would like to pass on to me please do
2. If you have any finished books that you would like to self publish and you were thinking of outsourcing the lay-out don’t hesitate to contact me, and maybe I can do it for free in return for including your book in my portfolio
3. Did any of you quit working to start on your own? I would be really interested in your experiences
4. Any questions you would like to ask me, things I should consider that I didn't mention in my post?
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I can’t wait to start this new chapter in my life, but at the same time am a bit scared and can use all the advice I can get!