It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO or a lowly production artist. Every full-time designer that has ever walked the Earth has a dirty little secret.

They’re still freelancing.

You can no more stop freelancing than you can stop breathing. It might just be a little job here and there for your cousin’s bike repair shop, or you could be pulling 40+ hours of evening and weekend work. If someone offers you a chance to do design and you have 30 seconds a day not booked for sleeping or eating, you’ll do it. There’s no shame in it. Just as artists must paint, we must design, and we might as well get paid while we do it.

If you’re going to be doing side work while fully employed, there are a few things you should do to stay out of trouble. The first is to be totally up front with your employer. Don’t try to hide the fact you have outside clients. It never works. Eventually you’ll get a phone call during the day, leave a print out on your desk, or otherwise slip up and announce to everyone you’re secretly working on the side just like the rest of them. Being honest will save you the trouble, and usually isn’t an issue. Most employers won’t mind, and they’ll appreciate your honesty. The employers that do mind… keep your resume handy and be quiet about it.

You need to be picky about your side clients. Don’t try to do work for anyone your employer wants to work for. Ending up in competition with your own boss can be very unpleasant. Try to focus on clients that are too small for them, or in entirely different industries. Picking work that is very different than what you do from 9 to 5 prevents conflicts and adds variety to your portfolio. If a side client starts to look like they’re getting too big for you to handle, don’t hesitate to suggest they hire the company you work for full-time. That’ll maintain your relationship and get you big kudos with your boss (assuming they approved you doing sidework in the first place).

Make sure your side clients understand you have a day job. If they have to call you, make them do it before or after work, or during your lunch break. Don’t take time off to go to meetings, and don’t spend a lot of time e-mailing clients at work. Absolutely never actually work on side projects at your day job, not even if you have some down time. You have to remember that your day job is your job, and your side work is just something extra. Act like you are a fully-engaged, loyal employee, not someone that is just soaking up a paycheck until you can go back to freelancing.

Pace yourself with side work. Your employer will be okay with it until it starts to impact your performance. If you come in exhausted every day and fall asleep in meetings with 10 million dollar clients because you were up all night doing a brochure for $500, you might as well pack your bags. Limit the amount of side work you can do to about half of the hours you have free each week. Inevitably some of it will take longer than you expect, aiming for half your freetime gives you enough of a buffer you should be safe.

If you get into a situation where you’re going to have to call in sick or screw up a project at your day job to finish some side work, cancel the side work instead. You can afford to lose a side client. In the long run they’re way less valuable than your regular job, the one giving you that nice steady paycheck that covers your rent and groceries.

Doing side work can be a real challenge. I’ve always done it, and I’m doing it now. The truth is, no job is forever, and you never know when you’re going to be a full-time freelancer (unemployed) again. When that happens, you’ll be glad you kept a few backup fires going. Just don’t let those backup fires put out the one that’s already keeping you warm.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0