The Freelance Parent: weekly joy in your inbox
Cat Hufton is a freelance writer and journalist. She is also the creator of weekly newsletter The Freelance Parent. Each edition is full of advice, anecdotes and support to help you thrive professionally and personally after pro-creating.
When did you go freelance/ self-employed and why? What did you do before?
I went freelance four years ago. I was previously a managing copy editor at a luxury e-commerce fashion business. I loved the job for the first two years, but my career started to go in the wrong direction (it was becoming more managerial than creative) and I wasn’t enjoying being part of a corporate environment anymore. I wanted to explore more editorial and journalism writing and definitely needed more flexibility in my life as I wanted to start a family.
Can you tell me about your business? what are you most proud of?
I am a writer and journalist and do a mixture of copywriting work for brands and journalistic features for online and print magazines. I also have a weekly newsletter called The Freelance Parent that features advice, anecdotes and expert insight.
Before I went freelance my writing had only been published on a few online platforms and my career had been largely centred around copywriting and editing. Going freelance allowed me to completely change the direction of my career and in a sense reinvent myself. Now I’ve had features published everywhere from the Telegraph, to Oh Comely, The Simple Things, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire. I’m really proud of that.
Did becoming a parent make you more courageous and willing to make a change?
I think my courage came way before I had my son. It took a lot of it to move from Sheffield to London nearly 12 years ago. I was so scared sometimes I would cry before getting on the tube and the temptation to give it all up and go home was very real. It really feels like another life but something in me made me keep going and my confidence has grown immeasurably since then. It also took a lot of courage to go freelance in the first place four years ago but I’m so glad I did. As we struggled to conceive, I was freelance for two years before I had a baby, so I had time to really get my business going, make mistakes and earn a good reputation.
What do you love the most about becoming a freelance parent?
I love that I don’t dread Mondays and actually look forward to them as it’s swimming day for my son. I also love being able to work with lots of different people and you never know what opportunity is around the corner. Yes, freelancing can be unpredictable, but you don’t get that same excitement in a permanent role. Most importantly, I also earn significantly more and am 200% less stressed.
What have been your biggest challenges?
I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed, and after my maternity leave, I genuinely expected to earn as much and achieve as much as I did before I had a child – with only two days a week of childcare. In hindsight, I don’t know what I was expecting but I learned pretty quickly that it wouldn’t be possible, and I needed to set my priorities better. My son now goes to nursery three days a week and we’ve found a happy medium where I feel I have enough time to work and also have enough time with him.
What advice would you give to fellow parents who want to start their own business or set up as a freelancer?
Give yourself six months to prepare if you can. This way you can start to take on freelance clients on the side of your full-time job and use that extra money to create some savings. Having savings completely changes the freelance experience for the better and will stop you from panicking early on while you build up a regular pool of work. It’s also important to not just go after the ‘dream’ clients at the beginning; bread-and-butter work is just as important and will keep the money coming in and ultimately, your business afloat.
If you want to get in touch with Cat:
Website: cathufton.com
Newsletter: https://cathufton.substack.com/
Twitter: @cathufton