End of August this year I decided to quit my full-time job to go freelance. I wasn’t enjoying myself and my mental health was deteriorating due to the work environment. It was a scary experience but I had 10k in my savings account and was still living at home and I would never be able to do anything this risky in the future.

I have been working in retail since I was about 17 and I had finally managed to get myself a Marketing position in an office at the beginning of 2019. I was over the moon and definitely happy to leave the world of apologising for things that weren’t your fault and pretending you didn’t mind being shouted at by Karen because you couldn’t give her a discount.

Unfortunately, office jobs aren’t for me. I have a very low tolerance to boredom and found sitting at a desk 8 hours a day uneventful. I’d think about going on my lunch break and then realise it was only 10 in the morning.

A lot of what I did was create content for the social media platforms and at first, I had to send my posts to the team and director for approval. In the beginning, all the work I was doing was excellent and they decided after about 3 months I was allowed to post content without having to send it for approval.

Then about 6 months in, having not changed anything about what I was doing, my work suddenly wasn’t good enough. I was being told my work was bad but couldn’t be told why and the way I was being treated by the director was pushing my limits mentally. I didn’t mind being told my work wasn’t good enough what I didn’t like was the lack of constructive criticism. I started to get super anxious every time I had to send the director a piece of my work and so I quit after 7 months.

I enjoyed my job I just didn’t enjoy the way I was being treated near the end of my time with the company. Which I was why I decided to go freelance. It meant I could continue to do the work I enjoyed and what I was good at but without the boring office or the annoying boss.

You see all these articles that say “I quit my day job and now earn 10k a month” and I’ll be honest with you.

That’s a load of bullshit.

Obviously, at some point in the future, I will earn a decent amount per month but for now, it is a lot of work. I’m having to charge clients less than I would like due to the fact I need to build my reputation up.

The great thing about being a Freelance Social Media Manager is I get to have the chance to work with all kinds of industries. For example, I have 4 clients at the moment and none of them are in the same industry. One is a music teacher compared to another who works in recruitment. It’s exciting and means I get to learn a lot of different subjects.

Whilst I’m happy to travel, a lot of what I do at the moment is also from home. This means I save money on train tickets and lunch I’d buy when I’m out and I get to lounge around in my joggers and hoodies and no one can stop me!

A lot of us get up every morning and travel to a job that we don’t enjoy just because we are scared. And I know not everyone will be lucky enough to be in the same position as I was. But if you are thinking of leaving your job and know you can financially take the risk, what’s stopping you?

Gracie Victoria x