It's crowded and it's not very pretty but the home office is a work in progress. However, work can't stop in order to rearrange furniture quite yet - that phase is coming.
Well, it has been a few days since we walked away from our downtown storefront location and life goes on. It hasn’t really slowed down all that much, either. I feel as if I am almost as busy as I was when I still had daily newspaper chores to do. The main difference at this point is that I now have a home office I work out of and although most of our house and shed are stuffed with boxes of things from the newspaper office, I am still able to focus on my freelance work.
I started writing freelance in January 2014 as a way to earn some extra cash when things slowed down at our newspaper business. I don’t think I realized at the time that it would eventually lead to my new full-time career. That was never the reason why I started it but over the course of the first year and a bit it started to produce results that got me thinking that I could possibly transition into freelance writing as a semi-retirement plan.
I currently am writing for a handful of different clients. I have a total of six regular clients in Australia who make up the majority of my jobs. Of them four are husband/wife combinations and I write for each separately. In addition to those regular clients I write for one Canadian and two American clients. Two of them are new clients I picked up in the past month and one I wrote for about 18-months ago who contacted me last month with another long-term project.
I can insert other small jobs into the flexible schedule I have with all my other clients as I don’t really have a huge workload at this point. When I was writing freelance on a part-time basis it was strictly in the evenings for about three hours a night. That meant a number of jobs got carried over into the follow night or several nights. Now that I can put a six or eight hour day to my writing chores, and not after a full day at the office, I find I am getting jobs done quicker.
Once I get all of my computer gear relocated into the home office I will be able to do much more than freelance writing and that will make things better overall. At the present time I will also be working on personal online projects including a handful of my websites and other website projects and podcasts on my podcast channel “Ninja on the Loose” which I launched in July 2016. Add to this internet webcasting chores during the winter where I will be providing play-by-play for the local Junior B hockey club plus freelance writing for a local online newspaper AND various volunteer responsibilities and you can see what I mean about not really slowing down.
Weekends throughout the summer and into September have also including vending chores with my wife, Brenda. She produces a number of interesting jams, jellies, relishes and salsas under the JamBusters! name. I have been a big part of the success of that product as I handle all the online elements promoting the items as well as being an active on-site product salesman when we are at a vending venue. I’m not sure how I would be able to fit all of that in with the hours I used to put in at the newspaper but it happened.
What I am enjoying the most at this point is being able to sleep in if I want and the freedom to go to work upstairs whenever I want and wearing whatever I want. Typically I’m working in pajamas or jeans with a t-shirt. The weather is no longer a factor in my clothing selection and any time I feel like taking a break during the day, I do. I even have lunch at home daily! I can’t tell you the last time I did that on a regular basis.
There are still a number of things yet to do in order to get the house and home office in perfect harmony, but that will happen and it will start soon. My main goal was to be able to shift gears from working at my business downtown to working at my new business at home quickly and seamlessly. I think I have accomplished that without any major glitches or hurdles. It has been an interesting trip so far and I am looking forward to seeing where it takes me from here.
I started writing freelance in January 2014 as a way to earn some extra cash when things slowed down at our newspaper business. I don’t think I realized at the time that it would eventually lead to my new full-time career. That was never the reason why I started it but over the course of the first year and a bit it started to produce results that got me thinking that I could possibly transition into freelance writing as a semi-retirement plan.
I currently am writing for a handful of different clients. I have a total of six regular clients in Australia who make up the majority of my jobs. Of them four are husband/wife combinations and I write for each separately. In addition to those regular clients I write for one Canadian and two American clients. Two of them are new clients I picked up in the past month and one I wrote for about 18-months ago who contacted me last month with another long-term project.
I can insert other small jobs into the flexible schedule I have with all my other clients as I don’t really have a huge workload at this point. When I was writing freelance on a part-time basis it was strictly in the evenings for about three hours a night. That meant a number of jobs got carried over into the follow night or several nights. Now that I can put a six or eight hour day to my writing chores, and not after a full day at the office, I find I am getting jobs done quicker.
Once I get all of my computer gear relocated into the home office I will be able to do much more than freelance writing and that will make things better overall. At the present time I will also be working on personal online projects including a handful of my websites and other website projects and podcasts on my podcast channel “Ninja on the Loose” which I launched in July 2016. Add to this internet webcasting chores during the winter where I will be providing play-by-play for the local Junior B hockey club plus freelance writing for a local online newspaper AND various volunteer responsibilities and you can see what I mean about not really slowing down.
Weekends throughout the summer and into September have also including vending chores with my wife, Brenda. She produces a number of interesting jams, jellies, relishes and salsas under the JamBusters! name. I have been a big part of the success of that product as I handle all the online elements promoting the items as well as being an active on-site product salesman when we are at a vending venue. I’m not sure how I would be able to fit all of that in with the hours I used to put in at the newspaper but it happened.
What I am enjoying the most at this point is being able to sleep in if I want and the freedom to go to work upstairs whenever I want and wearing whatever I want. Typically I’m working in pajamas or jeans with a t-shirt. The weather is no longer a factor in my clothing selection and any time I feel like taking a break during the day, I do. I even have lunch at home daily! I can’t tell you the last time I did that on a regular basis.
There are still a number of things yet to do in order to get the house and home office in perfect harmony, but that will happen and it will start soon. My main goal was to be able to shift gears from working at my business downtown to working at my new business at home quickly and seamlessly. I think I have accomplished that without any major glitches or hurdles. It has been an interesting trip so far and I am looking forward to seeing where it takes me from here.
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