Moonlight Your Way To Success  

By Barnaby Kalan 

If you are still employed at your current job, but want  your own business, there is smart strategy for getting into business with minimum risk – and that’s moonlighting your way into business independence.  

Six months to a year in advance of when you want to have  your own freelance practice or independent consultancy, start taking on small projects on the side in your specialty.  

Obviously, you’ll want to check to make sure the terms of your employment with your current company or organization  do not prohibit this, and it’s unethical to take on work that is  directly competitive to what you’re doing for your employer. But that still leaves a lot of opportunities.   

Completing projects while working a few extra hours at night or on weekends can give you a much-needed second income stream. It will also open up a whole bunch of tax advantages that you don’t have right now as a full-time employee — such as being able to deduct a percentage of your household expenses,  

repairs, home office supplies of course, perhaps even a portion of your car expenses. You accountant can tell you what’s legitimate and what’s not.  

Moonlighting will also give you the time and money to design your letterhead and business cards the way you like, buy office equipment and set up your home office. But even more importantly, it will give you a chance to get some initial clients, establish a track record as an independent professional, and gradually expand your professional contacts.  

If it’s too risky to pursue clients in your geographic area, for fear that your employer might find out about it, then consider getting your first projects from freelance or consultant job posting exchanges. You might want to check out websites such as:   

Freelance Work Exchange   

www.freelanceworkexchange.com   

Monster.com                          

www.monster.com    

eLance Online                         

www.elance.com   

Or do a Google search. Chances are there are websites set up  to post projects in your particular specialty.   

Whether you first work for clients and companies you already know or bid and win jobs from new prospects,  moonlighting remains one of the safest, smartest ways to gradually make the transition to full-time self-employment.