To wrap up this week-long series on the Creative Freelancer Blog going from F/T to F/T freelancing, listen to this podcast/interview with CFC veteran, Heather Parlato, of Parlato Design Studio in Los Angeles. In this conversation, Heather reveals how she made the transition from a full-time job to full-time freelancing, plus:

      * Her qualifying process, red flags she’s looking for and how she says “no” when finding the right fit in potential clients
      * Shifting from the employee mindset
      * Flat rates vs. hourly rates
      * How to treat your clients, and how much authority to give them
      * Plus, she answers the question, “How will I know when it’s the right time to switch to full-time freelancing?”

Here’s the beginning of her story: “The lay-off was announced at the end of august 2007, and my group was given notice on that day for an end date of November 9, 2007. So I had time with my salary to make plans for about 10 weeks before taking leave. Interestingly, I had finally confirmed longtime plans for going freelance about 2 months before, but I had planned to stay at work for 2 years to save up a good cushion of savings. once I got the layoff announcement, I did all my book-buying, research-doing, identity-prepping, etc., within that 3 months, going from a very plain-faced side business to a full-time self-employment. “It was a short amount of time to get things going, which led to revisiting my identity and branding a year later, but the combination of always wanting to eventually be in this position, and having a layoff with severance [eliminating my need to save for 2 years] was the ski-jump i needed.” If you’re thinking of launching your business at the Creative Freelancer Conference this year, be sure to register by the early bird deadline, April 1.