03-03-2026THE NEW WAY WE WORK

If you want to start a freelance business, here are the exact first steps

Don’t wait until you’re unemployed to start your side gig.

[Photo: bongkarn/Adobe Stock]

There’s a saying: you can’t control the world, but you can control yourself.

This perspective is critical when navigating an uncertain economy.

I learned this lesson the hard way, right out of college, when taking my first steps into the full-time workforce. The timing was around the 2008 Recession. Despite being lucky to land a job that I loved, the economic instability pushed me to realize I could not depend on a corporate role for my livelihood long-term.So I started exploring freelancing in 2010, when I went on Craigslist and searched for freelance writing roles. That’s how I landed my first client. In 2011, one year after building my portfolio, I earned an extra $20,000 on top of my full-time job. In my second year, that number grew to $90,000 at about 10 hours per week. That was only the beginning.

Almost two decades later, my freelance business is my full-time foundation. It consistently sustains six figures in annual revenue and has helped insulate me from economic uncertainty.

If you’re curious to start your own journey, balancing full-time work and freelancing, here are the exact first steps I’d recommend if I were getting started again:

Approach it like a business, not a series of gigs

The average freelance income in the U.S. is around $99,230 per year in 2025, with top earners making over $200,000, according to Investopedia’s freelance income analysis. 

But those numbers don’t come from chasing one-off gigs. They come from building repeatable systems: clear offerings, reliable clients, and predictable revenue. Where gigs are fleeting and irregular, businesses provide true infrastructure as engines for revenue.

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