Full-Time or Part-Time Freelance: Which Path Should You Choose First?

If you work for a marketing agency, or in-house at a brand, chances are you’ve considered freelancing at one point or another.

Perhaps you’ve decided to think about what’s better for you: freelance vs. full-time, and learned a valuable skill at your day job in Paid Social or Email Marketing and dabbled with a client or two “on the side”. You might have even gone full time with your “side hustle” and turned it into a full income of its own!

If you’re undecided and want to make a decision, this article will help you weigh the pros and cons of each option.

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Understanding Your Bandwidth

Assuming you plan to freelance outside your 9-5, the first thing you want to do is measure how much bandwidth you can allocate to freelancing. This will help you understand how many brands you can help, and how much income you can realistically make on top of your 9-5 salary.

AFTER your typical work day is over and you’ve knocked out of the park everything you needed to do at your day job, how many more hours do you have left? Out of these extra hours, how many are you willing to sacrifice to work on your freelance clients, as opposed to sitting and watching Netflix?

Remember that your full-time employer is currently paying for your time, and the last thing you want to do is coasting on your day job. You should always do right by your employer for as long as you’re on their payroll. One day you might have employees of your own, and the last thing you’ll want is for people you pay to just coast, especially in a work-from-home world. 

A lot of us learned our skills while working at a 9-5, whether that be at an agency or a brand, so an even greater reason to do right by the people who helped you learn a lot of what you know today.

And even if all of that wasn’t true, your reputation is everything in this business, and you should always be getting the job done until the very last day of your contract, whether on your full time job or on your freelance accounts. 

Plus, if you absolutely despise your employer, then you should quit your job, sign up for our newsletter and learn how to freelance full-time!

Now that’s out of the way, let’s dive into pros and cons.

‍What is Part-Time Freelance?

Part-time freelance means keeping your 9-5 while building your freelance income on the side. This is where most freelancers should start, even if TikTok tells you otherwise.

You’re still employed. You still have predictable income. And you’re using nights, weekends, or flexible hours to test whether freelancing is something you enjoy and something you’re actually good at running as a business.

Part time freelance is more about learning how to sell, manage clients, and deliver results without burning bridges at work. Think of it as your training ground.

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Pros and Cons of Part-Time Freelancing

Freelancing outside your 9-5 comes down to doing it ethically while avoiding burnout. Naturally, there will be restrictions to how much time you can dedicate to it, but the extra income can be well worth it.

Pros:

• Low Risk: No major risk taking here. If you lose your freelance gig, your day job continues to pay your bills.
• Extra Income: On the flip side, that extra freelance income can quickly turn into a down payment on a house, an extra vacation every year, or a college debt write off.
• Testing the Waters: Freelancers are entrepreneurs. They market, sell and deliver, just like a real organization does. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, and some people realize that early on while working their first freelance gigs. This gives you an opportunity to hold on to your 9-5 career until you’re ready to take a leap of faith (or not).

Cons:

• Time Management: Freelancing while working a 9-5 can be challenging and stressful. On one side you should prioritize your day job, but on the other you don’t want your freelance clients to wait hours or days to hear back from you.‍
• Limited Earnings: There are only so many hours in the day, and only so many freelance clients you can take on while working a day job.

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What is a Full-Time Freelancer?

A full-time freelancer earns 100% (or close to it) of their income from freelance work. No employer. No guaranteed paycheck. No built-in safety net.

This is where freelancing stops being extra money and becomes your actual business. Your income depends on your ability to find clients, retain them, and deliver results consistently.

Full-time freelance is owning your outcomes. Some freelancers work 60-80 hours to stack cash. Others work 20-30 hours because freedom matters more than maximizing income. The point is: you decide. 

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Pros and Cons of Full-Time Freelancing

Now, for those of you taking the leap of faith and transitioning to freelancing full-time, the number of hours you dedicate to freelancing will depend on how much you want to make. Some freelancers I know work 80 hours a week to maximize their income and save while being young, and others work 20 hours a week because they value freedom and travel more than making an extra dollar. The beauty of freelancing full-time is that it’s up to you to decide what fits you best!

Pros:

• Freedom of Time and Location: There’s nothing like making your own schedule, or deciding where in the world you want to work from.
• Independence: You’re never truly your own boss because you now have clients to answer to, but it’s as close as it gets to pure independence.
• Unlimited Income Potential: The more you work, the more you earn.
• Tax-benefits: Unlike W2 employees, full-time freelancers get to maximize write offs and minimize taxes.

Cons:

• Income instability: Perhaps the biggest downside to being fully on your own. The instability of churn and securing your next client. There is no back-up pay here from a 9-5 job.‍
• Greater Responsibility: When you’re on your own, there’s no boss you can escalate issues to. You’re responsible for managing every aspect of your business. The good, the bad and the ugly.

"If you’re reading this and pondering with freelancing options, consider yourself extremely lucky for having a skillset that allows you to make extra cash, or even making a full-time career out of it. Most traditional careers don't."

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Full-Time vs Part-Time Freelance: Key Factors to Consider

Here’s what most people skip when making this decision: context.

Your choice shouldn’t be based on vibes or influencer screenshots. It should be based on:

• Your financial runway
• Your tolerance for uncertainty
• Your family and personal obligations
• Your ability to sell and retain clients consistently

Part-time freelance work favors stability and learning. Full-time freelance favor autonomy and growth. Neither is “better.” They’re just different tools for different seasons.

If you don’t yet have a repeatable way to land clients, going full-time is riskier than it needs to be. That’s why every solid freelancer guide will tell you the same thing: momentum beats urgency.

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Hybrid Approaches: Getting the Best of Both

Here’s the option no one talks about enough: hybrids.

Freelancing doesn’t have to be all or nothing. A hybrid approach might mean reducing your hours at your job, switching to contract work, or keeping one anchor client while you build the rest of your pipeline.

This is sequencing.

You get the stability of part-time freelance income while building toward full-time freelance freedom. You don’t get unnecessary financial stress. Limited time also forces better decisions. You say no to low-value work, tighten your systems, and learn how to sell without panic.

Hybrid paths give you proof before pressure. And when you do go all in, it feels less like a leap and more like the obvious next step.

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Conclusion

Ever since COVID and the work-from-home era began, plenty of skilled marketers took a leap of faith and moved into freelancing full-time. Many of them started by freelancing outside their 9-5 until they got the confidence, and the client pipeline to quit their job and do it full-time.

While there are pros and cons with either option, the decision to go full-time or part-time freelancing will largely depend on your level of risk, your family situation, and your taste for entrepreneurship.

On one hand, freelancing part-time comes with a safety net and valuable extra income, but can also get quite stressful if you decide to scale it.

On the other, freelancing full-time comes with unlimited earning potential, freedom of time and location, but no income safety and potential instability.

Regardless, if you’re reading this and pondering with either option, consider yourself extremely lucky for having a skillset that allows you to make extra cash, or even making a full-time career out of it. Most traditional careers don’t offer that flexibility!

The Modern Freelancer helps highly-skilled digital marketers navigate the waters of freelancing. If you want to keep an edge and stand out in the increasingly competitive freelance landscape, consider signing up to our weekly newsletter.