Due to the pandemic, working from home had opened up my eyes to a different way of living, the amount of time wasted commuting and how much I hated being in the office. When the last company I worked for told us we had to go back to the office in August 2021, after a 14-year career in the oil and gas industry, I decided now was the time to take a chance on myself and go self-employed.

I quit with 2 weeks’ notice, and no backup plan apart from being able to pick up the occasional shift driving for Amazon Flex.

I had many side businesses in the past and knew how to hustle, so now was time to put it to work. Starting off with opening up my own escape room. By the 1st of October, I found a venue above a video game café where I opened up my first room. The room is open 2 nights a week (as it’s used for other events the rest of the time) but I knew a varied work life was going to be perfect for my ADHD brain.

I signed up to Freelancer websites like Upwork and Fiverr where I quickly started picking up clients.

Now 7 months in I have many forms of income:

•Virtual assistant

•Social Media Manager

•Escape Room

•Copy Editing

•Content Writing

•Murder Mystery Event Host

•Running an Etsy Shop

•Researcher

•Teaching craft classes

•Resume Writing

I’m sure I’ll continue to add to the list.

Going self-employed was risky. Living alone and not much savings left in the bank I had to make this work quickly. Now seven months in I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my working life. I’m not quite at my old full-time wage yet, but I’m not far off it and this is just the start of my self-employed journey.

I document everything over on my TikTik account @30slifecrisis where I’ve gained over 13600 followers since I started being self-employed in August 2021. I share all of my hints and tips with others to let them know that being a full-time freelancer is possible. It’s something I’ve wanted to do all of my life after being miserable in my old career but never had the guts to do. It took the pandemic and the change of priorities to make this happen for me, and I want to help others have that opportunity too.

More info: lauraripley.com

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