Should I quit making my boss so much money and be a freelance web developer?

I’m a web designer/developer for a small marketing firm run by a husband and wife. I’ve been here for almost 2 and a half years and the stress is starting to show in my work due to the large workload, my quality is suffering and I keep making little mistakes. I work an average of 9-10 hours per day (on salary, so I am forced to work longer hours with no overtime pay).

My boss and I are constantly arguing over what to send the client because they have very specific demands, which aren’t always for the best of marketing for them (ie. their ideas suck, and I have to do it regardless so they don’t complain, but then the campaign doesn’t return a lot of interested buyers so the clients b*tch at us for not doing a good job).

I make $28k per year, I create e-commerce sites, email newsletters, SEO updates, general web updates, print ads, and anything else we need to market the client electronically or in print. Statistically speaking, I should/could be making between $38k-55k for my experience and education.

I know that I bring in at least $18,000 per month for my boss (who owns a $300,000 house). If I went freelance, it would be hard finding the clients but the potential for making more money is greater. It’s ironic, because he actually had quit his old job to start an independent business for the same reason.

Should I just suck it up and keep this job, or should I give up that security blanket and try something while I’m young? (I’m 25 years old). He claims that if I stick with it, he’ll eventually give me the business when he retires… but I don’t think I want it. I can’t handle so many clients at once like he does… If I were freelance, if I could bring on 1-2 clients at $1500-3000 per month, I’d have a third of the headache for just as much money. Right now I’m juggling about 4-5 clients, as well as training a new girl they just hired.

Other factors to include:
- Having an office job for over two years, I’ve gained about 40 pounds. If I quit, I would have more time to focus on my health rather than working long hours and not having time to spend improving myself.
- I have a girlfriend 2.5 hours away that would just love it if I’d quit my job and find something closer to her.
- I currently live with my parents. I’m paying $100 a month to help dad out, so I’m saving about $500 a month in rent by staying with them… which I would give up if I quit and moved away.

I understand your predicament. However there are some important factors which you shuld consider before making any decision. First of all, the USA and Uk and most other major countries are in a recession. Jobs are at an all time low, people who have given 20+ years service to companies are being handed redundancy packages as employers canot meet the payroll costs. Graduates are struggling to find work, employers have frozen recruitment programmes aimed at graduates as they can’t afford training costs and find it cheaper to hire experienced staff at a lower cost to the company. I think that at the moment, you should look for another job. You have excellent credntials and good work experience. Perhaps you could ask your clients for testemonials upon completion of their projects, build up a portfolio of client comments to take to a potential job interview. As you’re only 25, there is alot of time ahead for you to work for yourself, but the opportunity to meet clients and work on different projects at no risk to yourself is only available through your current job.

Once you start receiving client feedback, that’s when you’ll have an idea of whether to stick it on your own or not. It is true that you have to take a risk to reap a reward, but make sure you can afford to take the risk. I find whenever planning achange, always account for failure, so if you do go freelance and it doesn’t work out, make sure you have something to fall back on. What you should start doing is to make an action plan for the next 5 years, your ultimate goal at 30 should be to be self employed. Everything you do between now and then must be geared toward you achieving that goal.