Make More Time for You and Your Family by Becoming a Freelancer (with Patrick Olson)

Becoming a freelancer and leaving your corporate job can be a harrowing decision to make for the majority of people out there. While a 9-5 offers a greater sense of stability when compared to freelancing, the primary drawback is the fact you often find yourself stuck in that schedule with little-to-no flexibility.

Additionally, corporate jobs will often have a set salary when it comes to pay, starting you at a specific rate with select opportunities for a raise. Your cash flow is thereby placed under the whims of a corporate giant, and you essentially become another zero in the system.

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If achieving better work-life balance is something you find yourself constantly striving for, then freelancing is most definitely the way to go. Freelancing not only allows individuals to retake control of how much time they have and how they spend it, but also their very livelihood.

For OdeCloud community member and expert NetSuite consultant Patrick Olson, becoming a freelancer is all about making more time for his family. As his 4-year-old son continues to grow, Patrick simply wants to be there for all of it.

“That’s a big thing for me with this idea going into freelancing, that — not to make it about money, but hopefully my bill rate can be a little higher so I can work fewer hours and (not have to) to grind out and make as much money as possible. I want to be able to enjoy my life and be able to punch out in the middle of the day and be able to play with my kid if I want to — and not feel guilty about it,” Patrick said.

Patrick explains that by committing to a salary with a company, he felt that he was committing to a set number of hours and responsibilities — which he certainly was. By becoming a freelancer, he feels much more empowered to do what he actually wants to do now that he’s the one setting his own work hours and pay rate.

And while he mentioned a number of different hobbies he has and a couple passion projects he’s undertaken (aka “pandemic projects”) such as learning how to play guitar and grow mushrooms (the legal kind), his heart and soul truly is his family, and I honestly don’t think I’ve had a consultant give a reason to freelance that was more pure and heartwarming.

“I’m really into being a dad. We spend a lot of time together. I like hanging out with him and my wife,” Patrick said, smiling.“As he’s gotten older now, we do a lot of hiking. He’s gotten to the point where he can go on a couple-mile hike with us and he just learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels so we’ve been biking around town. Just really have a lot of fun playing with him.”