Fully Booked VA Blog

I’m Officially a Full-time Freelancer!

Get out the champagne, this is a week of celebrations!

Tuesday I celebrated my last day of work at my day job, of course I’ve been celebrating Jesus’ birth and now I’m celebrating the official launch of my freelance (writing, editing, coaching, VA) business!

How It All Began

It all started not that long ago, in April of 2014. That’s when I first started looking into writing for the web or freelance writing anyway. It’s been a bit longer than that though, that I’ve been hustling towards building a better (and now different) career.

Almost one year ago, I read the book Start by none other than the wonderful Mr. Jon Acuff and started to brainstorm ways to be happier in my current career. I was no longer feeling challenged, which in my case leads to a bit of boredom and dissatisfaction.

I’m not one to stay in a state like that for long, so I joined my fellow hustlers on a quest for change. I pursued taking my current career in personal finance up a notch, but after a bit of trial and error decided that wasn’t the solution. I’ve been blessed to have worked as a part of a wonderful practice, with some amazing clients. I’ve just continued to be called back to writing – time and time again!

Making Changes

If you’ve read my work long enough, you might already know this story, but not long after that I started scouring the web for the solution – you know because the internet has all of the right answers! As fate would have it I wandered across Leaving Work Behind and found that non-fiction writing for the web was a viable career option. Thanks, Tom!

A course later, a mentor and a Huffington Post contributorship secured and I was ready to find my first paying client. Turns out Tom came through in that department too and gave me a shot ghostwriting. The process was an amazing learning experience for me and he was very kind in teaching me the ropes (and how to write for the web), as I was writing for him. A bit of an informal mentorship if you will. And that in a nutshell is how this whole freelance writing career was born!

The Next Chapter

Throughout the rest of 2014, I’ve been hustling to build my freelance business in any way that I can. I’ve taken on a virtual assistant client, upped my writing clientele and written a course about my experience thus far. It’s been a year of triumphs and struggles, but mostly triumphs!

Now I’ve written out my 2015 goals (to be published next week) and am excited to be doing this full-time. It’s no longer my side hustle – it’s now my main job. It’s probably going to feel like I’m just on vacation for awhile (as opposed to being “retired” from my day job) and this is the first time I won’t have to set an alarm since I was like 13! To be fair, my two toddlers are enough of an alarm, but I won’t have to sneak out of bed before 5 o’clock in the morning to write before I go into the office.

I’m excited to take my freelance business to the next level and see where it takes me. I’m hoping across the country in that RV, family in tow! This is one of the biggest changes I’ve made in some time. It’s more thrilling than scary at this point, which seems like a good sign!

When’s the last time you’ve made a big career change?

Photo Credit: Βethan via Compfight cc

Gina Horkey

Gina Horkey

FOUNDER & CO-OWNER

Gina Horkey is a married, millennial mama from Minnesota. Additionally, she’s the founder of Horkey HandBook and loves helping others find or become a kickass virtual assistant. Gina’s background includes making a living as a professional writer, an online business marketing consultant and a decade of experience in the financial services industry.

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