The ultimate dream of many bloggers, both experienced and those just starting out, is to earn a living from their beloved websites. But how does a professional blogger know when it’s time to leave a steady full-time job to pursue life as a full-time blogger?
While the answer may vary based on your financial situation, willingness to take a risk and numerous other factors, the best way to make the decision is to know how to prepare and what challenges to expect.
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Here’s some advice from bloggers who’ve taken the leap.
Crunch the numbers.
No matter how talented or passionate you are about your blog, it’s never wise to make it your full-time gig if you can’t afford to support yourself. Like any budding venture, earnings can be incredibly unpredictable or even nonexistent in the beginning. So before you put in your two weeks’ notice, be sure to budget, save and plan.
It may also be a good call to do some freelance work on the side to make up for what is likely going to be a temporary decrease in income. Of course, how much money you need to set aside for everyday expenses varies based on where you live and how you live. Someone residing in Manhattan would need to save a lot more than someone living in a Midwestern suburb, where the cost of living is much lower.
When graphic designer Jessica Bishop, founder of The Budget Savvy Bride, left her job to blog full time she was already making more from her online venture than she was from her salaried job, and had a good amount of money saved. Having these factors in place gave her the confidence to move forward as a full-time blogger.
“It just so happened that it all came together around the same time my husband and I were planning on moving to New York City,” says Bishop. “I decided to give it a trial period of a few months to see if I could really sustain [the blog] as a full-time business, and it went so well that I never sought out another job.”
Marketing veteran Lara Eurdolian, who founded Pretty Connected, concurs that you need to take a serious look at your finances before making such a big career change.
“My student loans were paid off, and I had about $15,000 saved up when I made the official leap to go full time,” says Eurdolian. “The goal, though, is not to tap into your savings—just to have it as a nest egg in case you fall short one month. If you start to notice your account is drastically going down every month, you need to either cut down your expenses or get a part-time job to supplement the income.”
When Sarah Boyd left her job in PR to start Simply Stylist, she budgeted for three months without pay and did some freelance consulting for a few brands. While her freelance jobs helped her immensely during the transition, she soon got away from freelancing to focus on her main goal of growing her own brand rather than someone else’s.
Whether your blog turns out to be profitable to a small or large degree, you need to be prepared to file taxes quarterly and sign up for your own health insurance. You should also start an LLC and work with a lawyer to get your personal brand trademarked. And since taxes won’t be automatically taken out of your paycheck like they are at a salaried job, get in the habit of putting 30 percent to 40 percent of your blogging revenue aside for the IRS. To save as much as you can on taxes, be very aware of write-offs such as designer fees, travel expenses and technology upgrades needed to keep your blog running.
Be prepared for a new routine.
If you’re mulling over the idea of taking your blog full time, transitioning from the routine of a 9-to-5 gig to a completely flexible routine can be difficult. Every blogger needs to understand there’s a huge difference between blogging as a hobby and being a full-fledged professional blogger. The leap can be comparable to going from high school football to the NFL.
One of the biggest challenges bloggers face when they go full time is struggling with time management and lack of structure. You may not miss working in a cubicle, but the lack of socialization and routine are new realities you’ll have to get used to.
“You have to be very self-motivated and be your own boss, which can be challenging when all you want to do is give yourself the day off,” admits Eurdolian. “I also miss having a room full of co-workers to collaborate with.”
When working at home, as many full-time bloggers do, it’s often hard to find a balance between home life and keeping up with the blog. Boyd says she balanced things out by making to-do lists every day. She also recommended displaying your goals for inspiration.
“I made a huge vision board when I first started [Simply Stylist] with dream speakers, sponsors and partners,” says Boyd. “I look back at it now sometimes, and many of them have come true. If you don’t know what you want, you’ll never achieve it!”
While it can take years and years of hard work for your blog to take off, there’s nothing better than waking up every morning and doing what you love. A flexible schedule where you can work on your own time never hurts either. But even if you’re not quite ready to leave your day job for a new venture, this doesn’t mean you can’t still invest time and effort in your passion project. One of the best ways to ensure the growth (and eventually revenue) of your blog is to be flexible and evolve with the ever-changing online world.
Keep the dream alive.
“When I started my blog, Twitter was in its infancy, Facebook didn’t have fan pages and Pinterest didn’t even exist,” says Bishop. “The biggest thing I’ve learned from this journey is that you have to be adaptable and forward-thinking. Things change all the time and you have to be willing to change too.”
However, it’s important to keep in mind that no matter how well you’ve budgeted, saved or worked toward your goal of being a full-time blogger, you’ll need a backup plan.
“At the end of the day, there are no guarantees,” notes Eurdolian. “I never expected this would be my job, especially long-term. My fallback plan was to [return] to a full-time job in beauty, and in many ways it still is. But every year I build a stronger brand and my income goes up. So until that changes, I’m just riding the wave and soaking up as many fun and cool experiences as I can.”
