@Emina – Thanks for the congrats. You know what, if truth be told I put in very little effort with regards to marketing – I should probably do more. What I did do before I went full time is similar to you, for a number of years I combined freelance stuff with full time work and built up a small client base. I also put in effort blogging and networking online for years before I eventually took the plunge, and it paid off – as soon as I went full time several people I knew exclusively from my online network offered me work straight away.

I think the fact that I was working *towards* going full time freelance for a number of years before I eventually did it is important – rather than just jumping in without any clients or contacts. That said, there comes a point where you have to go for it as once you’re sat at home all day everyday you can put more effort into getting your name out there than when you’re trying to combine two jobs at once. A bit chicken and egg. Anyway, I wish you luck!

@Fred – Phew – there’s probably a blog post in that answer! Although it’s probably not as daunting as you’d think. With taxes I know I have to pay a massive chunk of cash once a year so it’s crucial to put money aside. As a rule of thumb I chuck 20% of everything I earn into a savings account just for tax (as per UK tax rate), I make sure I keep records of everything I earn and, more importantly, everything I spend. I just use a spreadsheet to keep track of it all. Then once a year I have to count it all and offset my expenses against my earnings and send the tax man a massive cheque! As long as you keep on top of it through the year it’s not too bad.

It wasn’t until I saw this post I realised I too have just clocked up my first year, having become an ‘official ‘ self trading freelancer last July 7th. And I’d say your experience has pretty much mirrored mine – a steady trickle of work has been more than enough to keep me busy (50+ hour weeks are common), even though the economic downturn has hit my area hard (Cornwall). Such are the benfits of webwork – location needn’t effect you.

One thing I’ve decided nevertheless is to resist the temptation to ease my workload by getting full-time help and going Ltd. If that trickle does dry up, I’m not sure I want to be responsible for paying wages. Stories I’ve heard about the sheer cost of running a full agency / limited company mean I’ll be putting that off for some time.

It’s damn hard work, and eventually like you say, you have to realise you just can’t keep everyone happy all of the time, unless you want to stop sleeping completely, or work for peanuts – in which case you’ll become unhappy and resent the work you loved. Sticking to your guns and getting paid what you’re worth is one of the hardest things I think when starting out – the fear that work dry up makes it hard not to make concessions.

Those are the times when I think I might be less stressed if I jacked it all in and sold ice cream to tourists. But I’d be a terrible ice cream seller, and I’m too far in to stop thinking about grid systems, typography and colour theory.

Year 2 then: onwards and upwards!