- [Matti Haapoja] Hi, everybody! Good to see you.
I'm gonna get straight to the point because
I think we have a lot to cover.
Today we're gonna talk about when
you should actually quit your full-time job
and go after your dreams.
(upbeat music)
So we just got back from Alberta with Peter.
Here's a little teaser for you.
(upbeat, adventurous music)
We got some pretty good footage.
And we had a lot of time to just
sit in the car and just think about things and
talk about things.
And one of the things we talked about is
how lucky we are to be full-time
YouTuber, filmmakers, photographers, whatever we are.
How lucky we are that we we just get to go
travel the world and make our own videos and
we get paid for this.
And now before we go any further,
I just wanna say and clarify that there is
no one right way for everybody.
Whether you're working a full-time job, or
you're a freelancer, or you're an entrepreneur,
there is no one right way for everybody.
Not one of those is better than the other,
they're just different ways of doing things.
Just like with cameras, not one camera is the best for
everybody. It depends what kind of
shooting style you have and what kind of
projects you have, all of that that stuff.
The same thing applies here.
Freelancing is not for everybody and we'll
get more into who it's not for at the end of this video.
So this is not a freelancing is for everybody video.
But apparently, already right now, already 47% of
millennials are freelancing.
And these are all from America.
A hundred and two point seven million people right now
work normal, full-time jobs, essentially
working for somebody else and
57.3 million are freelancers.
But by the time 2027 rolls around,
I don't know where they came up with these numbers,
but apparently there's only gonna be 83.4 million people
that are working just normal jobs, working for somebody else
and 86.5 million freelancers, so
that's when the majority of people are gonna be freelancing.
So whether you like it or not,
apparently everybody is going more
in the freelancing direction.
I'm not sure exactly why that is, but
that's out of the scope of this video.
And I can see a lot of people are asking me,
when I'm doing my live-streams, or Q&A's,
about when should they quit their jobs,
when should they take that step, that scary, scary step of
you're leaving your comfortable, cushy job, where
you're getting a consistent income,
the same amount every month,
you don't have to worry about those things.
When should you leave all of that comfort?
And I think people who are asking that question are
usually people who are working a job, let's say,
like an accountant and you're not really liking,
you're not enjoying it, but it is a good pay check so,
you just keep doing it and doing it but
it's not what you're passionate about and
they're already thinking about something else,
they know what they actually like doing,
whether it's graphic design or photography, videography,
whatever it is,
and that's the thing that you really wanna be doing but
you're scared to make that full commitment to that new thing
This video, I think is really for those people,
but also for people who are
let's say graphic designers, working for another company
but they just wanna go freelance graphic design,
not working for somebody else, specifically,
not like a full-time job.
And that's actually what happened with me,
I was working full-time at a church doing their media so
I was doing film-making work, editing, and
all that stuff already.
But I wanted to freelance and essentially work for myself
instead of for somebody else.
But it's a really scary place making that decision and
again I know that because I've gone through this process,
this journey, myself, so I can, I can say it from
experience that it's not an easy decision to make.
There were a lot of people who were telling me you
shouldn't do it, don't leave a good job for something
that might not even work out at all.
But also this is not a permission video licensed for
you to now just go and quit your job.
Be smart and evaluate it.
Everybody's situation is different so you have to
see what is your situation and
is freelancing gonna work for you?
So here it is. This is kinda my check-list for
when you know you are ready to actually make that jump
quit your job and go into freelancing,
this is the check-list that I kind of used to
figure out when the right time was for me.
But again, these are my ideas, the things that I did,
this is not permission for you to do the same.
Number one is are you actually good enough to
make money from that that thing?
Let's say you wanna be a freelance photographer.
Are you actually getting paid for that already?
Are you at that level in your photography, where other
people are wanting to give you money for your skills?
If you're not there yet, you're not ready to go
freelance, not by a long shot.
So you should already be making money from this
skill of yours, whatever it is.
And then number two is are people actually asking
you to do that skill for them?
Not only are people wanting to pay you for it, but
are people seeing you as a photographer or videographer?
Are people coming to you and saying you're a great
photographer, do photography for me, take photos
of me or for my company or whatever it is?
That's when you start seeing that like, okay,
there's, there's something to this.
People are seeing my work and they consider me as a
photographer or as a graphic designer, as a videographer.
That's a really good gauge, when people start actually
asking you to do this thing and you're not even having
to push it to other people asking them,
oh can I take photos at your wedding or
at that birthday party or whatever it is.
When people are starting to ask you,
then you know there's something to this.
Number three I would say is check your motivations.
This one's really important, even though
it's kind of hard to think about but
really check your motivation.
Don't do it just because everybody else is doing it and
it's the cool thing to do, go freelance.
That is definitely not the reason to go freelance, and
also don't go freelance just because you have a really
hard situation at your job or
you don't like some of the people at your workplace.
Don't do it for any of those reasons,
do it actually because you want that freedom,
you wanna be your own boss.
Those are the motivations I think that you should have and
none of that other stuff.
You need to figure out is this actually the best thing for
you and your family, to go freelance
instead of working for somebody else?
Number four, are you diversified in your skill set?
So let's say you're a videographer.
Are you only shooting weddings?
Or are you only doing music videos and that's it?
If that's your situation, I don't think you're ready to
go freelance, I think you need to diversify your
income stream so you're doing all sorts of stuff in
the beginning and then as your career progresses,
then you can a little bit more picky and choosy
about what you're doing, but in the beginning,
you want as many places that you're getting work from,
not just I only shoot music videos, that's the only
thing I'm doing. You're probably not gonna do very well
if you quit your full-time job and that's your attitude.
For me, when I quit my full-time job,
I was getting about 47% of my income
from my actual full-time job.
25% was from weddings that I was
shooting on weekends and my off time.
About 16% was from corporate videos for other companies.
And then about 11% was from passive income streams,
like my teaching courses or selling stock footage online.
So you can see when I quit my full-time job,
I was actually already making more money from the
freelancing for that year, than from my full-time job,
so it felt really safe taking that jump because
I was already making money freelancing,
even though I had this full-time job,
I was already freelancing and making money from it.
And number five, and I think this one is the most important
is are you getting more work than you can actually do
with your full-time job?
So you're an accountant and you're getting
photography gigs and you're actually getting more
photography gigs than you can do with the time
that you have, you can't just do it as
a side hustle anymore, or you have to start turning down
those jobs. That is the pivotal moment.
That is they key moment where it's really safe to
now quit your full-time job and start freelancing.
When you actually have more work coming in than you
can do; more demand for your skill set than
you actually have time to give.
A lot of people are wanting to pay you for what you do.
That, I think, is like the pivotal moment.
Once that moment happens, then I think it's
pretty much a no-brainer to go freelance and
as long as you know you've diversified your income streams
and all of that stuff,
I think it's pretty safe to take that step and
I think one of the biggest things from
most people is, is this insecurity of you're not having a
stable income anymore.
This idea that freelancing, it's just not safe.
And I think that's actually a big misconception.
That's not true, as long as you're doing it smart,
as long as you're diversifying your income streams,
it's actually really, really stable.
And this is the reason for it.
When you're working a traditional, full-time job,
if something happens, let's say the economy crashes and
you lose your job, you have nothing.
You just have that one job, if you lose that one job,
you have nothing.
Whereas if you're freelancing, let's say you're doing
weddings and music videos and corporate gigs,
let's say, you know, the corporate gigs dry up a little bit,
you're not really getting that many of those anymore,
well you still have your music videos and
your weddings going on, so just because you lose
a few clients even, you're totally fine,
you still have all these other clients.
Whereas again, with the traditional, full-time job,
if you lose that one job, you got nothing.
But I wanna give you guys just a few more things to
think about because this is not an easy topic.
I've been freelancing for about seven, eight years,
I think, and I think three full-time now and
these are the reasons, kind of why I chose to freelance and
the things that I've liked while I've been freelancing and
to illustrate this, I'm gonna put into a pie chart
into percentages, so I'd say one of the best things,
about 10% of the reason why I went to go freelance is
the diversity in the work.
So when I was working at the church, I was just doing
those church videos the whole time,
but then once I went freelance,
I was shooting some weddings, doing some corporate jobs,
I was, I was working Nike or San Pellegrino,
you never really knew what you were doing and
I like that. I like having diversity in my work so
I don't get bored doing the same thing
over and over and over again.
I'd say about 15% of the reason why I quit my full-time job
was getting to choose who I work with.
So when I was working at the church, I didn't get to work
with people that were way better than me,
so that I could, you know, make better products but
also get better, myself.
I wanted to work with other directors, and
other cinematographers, and other editors who are
better than me, so that we could make even better videos and
that I could just get better and better at my craft,
whereas if I'm kind of the best and other people are
just learning from me, I'm not really learning and
I always wanna be, you know, taking things to the next
step and going forward in my career.
About 25% was the fact that I could affect my income so
I can do more freelance work, and therefore,
I'm gonna make more money.
Whereas, if I'm doing a full-time job,
it doesn't really matter how much I work or
how (chuckles) I just get paid that same amount.
So, with freelancing, you can affect the amount of
money you make a lot more.
You have a lot more flexibility there,
depending on how much work you wanna do.
And then the big one for me, about 50% of the reason
why I went freelance was the freedom to
choose the work that you do.
So with freelance, you get to be more picky,
especially as your career goes along,
about what kind of projects you take on.
You don't have to do the work that's just given to you
by your bosses, you get to choose do you wanna do that
Nike commercial or do you wanna do those YouTube videos or
do you wanna shoot that wedding, whatever it is,
you get to choose a lot more the work that you're doing.
So those were the reasons why I chose to go freelance.
And then lastly, I just wanna quickly give you guys
a little bit of a warning, if you fit into any of
these categories, I don't think you're ready to go freelance
these are kind of like the red flags
that you're not yet ready, at least, to go freelance.
Number one is if you're not disciplined.
If you're lacking discipline, you should not be a freelancer
because you're your own boss, so you have to make
your own hours, you have to decide if you're gonna edit
that project now or later. You have to do all of those
things, you need to be disciplined.
Two, if you're bad with your money, do not go freelance.
First, learn how to save, be good with your money because
with freelancing comes a whole bunch of other things like
having to save more money because you don't have all
these benefits and that kind of stuff.
You need to be really good with your money because
you're gonna be making all those decisions and
nobody else is making, you know,
what to invest in, what gear, and all that kinda stuff.
You need to be making those decisions.
So, you need to be good with your money.
Three, if you get really, really
stressed out about the unknown.
Because you don't know where your money is necessarily
gonna be coming in the next month or the month after that,
it can bring some stress and that's probably one of
the biggest or hardest things for a lot of people,
when they talk about freelancing, is that kind of
unknown about where you're gonna get paid and just
having to trust and rely that those gigs are gonna
keep coming, but if that would just stress the crap
out of you, you're not ready for freelancing.
Four, if you don't take initiative,
again you're not cutout for the freelancing world, because
you have to go after those jobs.
Nobody else is just gonna give them to you,
just hand them to you, you have to especially in
the beginning, take the initiative, send an email to
that company or ask that director can you work with them,
or whatever it is, you need to take that initiative,
so that you're getting work.
Nobody is just giving you that work.
Five, plain and simple, if you don't wanna run your
own thing, you shouldn't freelance because
even if you're just freelancing,
it's pretty much the same as running your own company.
You become an entrepreneur, so if you don't wanna run
your own thing, don't go freelance, work for somebody else,
find some like-minded people that you can work with.
So there you go, that's my big spiel about when you
should quit your full-time job to go freelance and
I hope you can take some of these ideas and again,
be smart, evaluate them for yourself, look at your own
situation, go through some of these checks, and
then you're gonna have to make that decision for
yourself and this is not a license to go and
quit your job right now.
I don't want to make your wife or husband angry (chuckles)
Do not quit your full-time job unless you're really,
really ready to take on everything that comes along with
the freelancing world.
Alright, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and
that you got something out of it.
I know a lot of you have been asking me questions so
I wanted to take some time and really address it.
Alright, hit that like button, subscribe to the channel,
and I guess I'll see you guys in the next video.
Bye!
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