Morning Brew - 🤿 Taking the freelance plunge

Time-saving tools and products we’re really into rn.

If you’re sick of buying plastic refills for your water filter, try Walter, a neat-looking ceramic pitcher that purifies your tap water using clay. The filter is supposed to last through 3,000 gallons of water (about two years). Which…might be the amount of time since we last changed our Brita, tbh.

One part home improvement, one part grown-up dollhouse, the Planner 5D: Interior Design app helps you create 2D and 3D floor plans and test out thousands of configurations for furniture and home decor items.

If you find yourself constantly being asked to take on tasks that aren’t related to your actual job function, this article from The Cut has tips for how to say no—diplomatically, of course.

A head start on your hustle.

If you’ve ever considered leaving behind the 9–5 grind, you’re not alone. A 2021 study from Upwork reports that there are 59 million freelance workers across industries in the US today—that amounts to 36% of the entire workforce. In an increasingly worker-friendly job market, where applicants tend to have the upper hand, more and more people are saying goodbye to corporate bosses and hello to freelance life.

But for those with little to no experience with freelancing, it can be difficult to know where to start, where to find clients, and exactly how much money to put aside for taxes.

So what’s the real deal with freelancing? Sidekick spoke with Sandy Sanchez, a freelance copywriter, strategist, and the creator of freelancing community Freelance Friends; and Tina Yip, a freelance community builder and brand strategist, who is also the creator of the freelance starter pack, a 10-week course that preps prospective freelancers on the ins and outs of the business.

While Sanchez and Yip are both freelance workers, they arrived at the decision to strike out on their own for different reasons. In Sanchez’s case, she always knew she wanted to go the freelance route, so she spent a few years working with ad agencies and DTC brands to learn new skills, make connections, and do some freelance work on the side of her 9–5. After giving herself a February 2022 deadline, Sanchez made sure she had several projects lined up and some money saved before leaving her full-time job.

Yip spent a decade working her way up the corporate ladder in advertising, and eventually realized she needed a change. After taking a sabbatical from her corporate job, she decided to pursue freelancing full-time, which gave her room to work on personal creative projects and build her own business.

Preparing to go freelance

If you’re interested in freelancing, you should develop a wide skill set. The more skills you have in your industry, the more services you can offer to your clients. According to Sanchez, the first step you should take when dipping your toe into the freelance pool is to find a 9–5 job that allows you to gain as many new skills as possible, while also working across different departments.

As a next step, Yip recommends compiling any questions you have about freelancing and then reaching out to every freelancer you know (especially those in your industry) to get a strong idea of what your life and work will look like.

Financially, you’ll need to decide what works best for you and your lifestyle. Sanchez decided to line up several clients and projects for her first few months of freelancing, but others will want to save a healthy runway of funds before leaving the biweekly corporate check behind for good. For Yip, it was important to be in the right mindset. “I had to work through my relationship with money and understanding how much I need to make, understanding my expenses, understanding my budgets, being better with money,” she told Sidekick, adding that she feels more empowered now handling her own finances because she has a better understanding of how they work.

Lastly, you should create an online portfolio of your work, as it’s generally one of the first things prospective clients will ask for. Don’t be afraid to announce to your network that you’re now looking for freelancing opportunities. LinkedIn is a great place to do this, but also utilize Twitter, TikTok, and even Instagram. You never know where your next gig might come from and what connections you might already have.

While freelancing

People tend to imagine freelance work as a flexible setup of working whenever you feel like it. In reality, setting boundaries around your working habits is crucial to building a strong freelance framework. Whether that looks like intro calls with every client before agreeing to take on any new projects or negotiating your payment terms up front, you’ll need to decide what makes you feel protected and excited and then take it on in a professional manner.

And be sure to understand your clients’ pay schedules, to get a better understanding of when you can expect payments to come in. As Sanchez explains, “[It’s] really good to know [that] how you get paid might depend on what kind of company it is, whether it’s super old school [with] old accounting software, or [if] they’re new and using all the new paying platforms.”

Another strong recommendation from Sanchez is to find a great accountant and set aside your income (25%–30%) for taxes, to avoid paying thousands of dollars to the IRS at the end of the year (our friends over at Money Scoop have a helpful guide on paying freelance taxes, which you can find here).

Some final thoughts

“Freelancing is a vehicle to help you make a living on your own terms,” Yip said. “And I believe that people deserve to live in a way where they can feel like they’re thriving, and they’re happy every single day waking up.” Freelancing will look different for every person based on industry, temperament, and financial goals. In her 10-week course, Yip stresses the fact that it’s not just one thing: It’s what you make it. So whether you’re ready to take the leap now or want to put in some more facetime at the office first, use these tips as your guide for shaping what you want freelancing to look like for you.—MW

Tech tips and tricks.

We all know how annoying constant notifications are, which is why last time, we talked about how to avoid losing the important ones in the abyss when you delete them all in a fit of rage. But what if you could just stop getting them?

Go ahead and turn off your notifications for specific apps, especially the nonessentials on your iPhone or Android. To do so on iPhone, go to Settings > Notifications and click on the apps you don’t want to ping you. Toggle the notifications off individually. Same thing on Android. Click Settings > Notifications > App settings. In the dropdown menu, click All apps. Tap your desired app and toggle off to stop that incessant pinging. Finally, peace.—SS

The entrepreneurial path is not always linear. That spark—the first inklings of what will become a business—can be accidental, serendipitous, intentional, or years in the making. Whether it’s pulling diamonds out of thin air or shining a light on hidden history, the 20 founders on Sidekick’s list felt that spark and made it into a sustainable business. And it looked a little different for each one.

Your punch list for when you punch out.

Read: If you’ve ever worked a service job, chances are you’re an enthusiastic tipper. But with the increase in touch screen digital payment tablets, prompts for tips are showing up everywhere: the pick your own apple orchard? This Vox article about “tipflation” exposes who benefits from the trend…and who doesn’t.

Watch: Based on Jessica Knoll’s best-selling novel (which was inspired by her own experience with high school rape culture), Luckiest Girl Alive is streaming now on Netflix. Like the book, it’s a riveting mystery that unpacks complicated and emotional themes around gender and privilege.

Listen: A new limited podcast from Fast Company called Ambition Diaries: The Broken Promise of the American Dream, dispatches seven reporters over the course of several months to document conversations, at once intimate and universal, between mothers and daughters about the many ways the pandemic has altered our ideas about work.

Color goals: Give your performance an edge with HOKA’s new light-and-bright hues + cushioned soles that feel like a breath of fresh air on your feet. Check ’em out.*

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