Thinking about going fractional, but you’re not quite ready to get yourself out of your full-time job? Same. That’s exactly where I was before I made the leap.
This video is about the messy middle: that season where you’re working your day job AND building your freelance client base on the side. It’s exhausting, it’s awkward, and nobody talks about how guilty you’ll feel.
I’m covering 11 things you need to know before and during this transition—from checking your employment contract for landmines, to defining the actual number that lets you quit, to not burning bridges on your way out (because plot twist: your old boss might become a client).
If you’re in double-duty mode right now or thinking about it, this one’s for you.
I’m willing to bet my entire next client invoice that someone you know needs to see this.
00:00 Transitioning from Full-Time to Fractional Work: 11 Steps to Leap
01:37 1. Check your employment contract
02:57 2. Bring your A-game to your “day job.”
03:45 3. Plan your time for all the work
05:01 4. Recognize the (very normal) guilt.
06:20 5. Context-switching will drain you.
07:25 6. Golden handcuffs are sneaky and tempting
08:29 7. Define your “leap” number
09:47 8. Build systems, not just clients
10:43 9. Get the memo to your inner circle
12:18 10. When you leave, leave well
14:00 11. This is a bridge, not a lifestyle
[00:00:00] Transitioning from Full-Time to Fractional Work: 11 Steps to Leap
[00:00:00] Do not ever think that at a company, some random company that could or could not lay you off at any given drop of the hat, deserves more of that, more respect for that than you do in your own personal life. They’re looking out for them. You’re looking out for you.
[00:00:23] In this video, we’re going to address the realities of double duty, transitioning from full-time employment to fractional. What I’m describing is when you have a full-time permanent position, and you know you want to transition to fractional, but guess what? If you do not have the financial runway to be able to just quit your job and go start trying to be fractional without anything in place yet, if you have that financial runway, you might feel like you don’t need this video.
[00:00:57] The reality is most people are working a full-time job, know they wanna go to fractional, or maybe it’s just kind of going that way. It’s going in that direction. So you’re doing a side hustle, at least one, with the hope or with the ultimate result that eventually the side hustle will replace the full-time job from a compensation standpoint and a workload standpoint. So this video is about that, how to handle that transition. And, once again, Spinal Tap is going to rear its beautiful head by saying I’ve got 11 points to go over. So let’s get started.
[00:01:37] 1. Check your employment contract
[00:01:37] First things first. If you’re a full-time employee, your employment contract, if you have one, might have some strong opinions about if you can even do a side hustle. Before you take on a side client, do read the fine print of your employment contract, if you have one. There may be some non-competes in there. There may be some clauses about moonlighting, taking on additional work, or IP ownership.
[00:02:02] And you definitely wanna make sure you’re not using anything from your full-time job in order to accomplish a side hustle. Those landmines exist, and please do not assume you can just plead ignorance later. Companies, they got more clout than you and probably a legal team. And so they will go after you if they feel like you in any way burned them.
[00:02:24] I’m gonna refer to my wonderful friend Tanya Ballard Brown, who refers to this as the separation of church and state. So if you are doing a side hustle, you should not be using your full-time employer’s equipment to do it or their proprietary information to do it. There should be no crossover between your full-time employer and your side hustle. That goes right back down to that contract.
[00:02:47] Be above reproach so that when you do decide to make the leap, you aren’t burning some bridges and possibly setting yourself up for some legal action.
[00:02:57] 2. Bring your A-game to your “day job.”
[00:02:57] Two, your day job still deserves your A game, or at least your B-plus game. And I’m gonna leave this up to your judgment because we all have had different full-time jobs, different people we work for in those. And how they treat us very much drives how we treat them. I will say coasting will invite scrutiny, and if you do start checking out, your colleagues will notice.
[00:03:21] Your employer will notice, your superiors will notice. And listen, I’ve made the point on other videos, you are gonna need that network in the future. So you need to be very careful about how you conduct yourself, still at the permanent full-time employment position, as you’re trying to build that side hustle. They’ll become clients, references, or referrals. Protect those bridges, especially if you’re still standing on it. Number three, time has to come from somewhere.
[00:03:48] 3. Plan your time for all the work
[00:03:48] This, honestly, this was the toughest part for me, and it’s probably gonna be tough for you. If you’re working a 40-hour-a-week full-time, permanent position, and you have a side hustle, you’ve got to be able to do that work somewhere at some point in your day. This gets particularly difficult if you have dependents or other dependencies in your life that require your time. Children are a big one, and I ran into that. I’ve made the point. I’m in my third foray into having a business, but my kids are both driving. And one of them graduated and is already in college.
[00:04:25] So that absolutely makes a big difference for me to have been able to focus on building some side clientele while I was full-time employed. But you need to think about that. Will you get up early in the morning? Will you use your lunch hours and make sure, again, you make those hard and fast, black and white decisions transitioning between the two? Will this be evenings or weekends or both? You have to know how much you’re gonna sacrifice and for how long. Be honest with yourself with what’s sustainable.
[00:04:54] This is probably the most, I would say, the most difficult part about transitioning from a permanent position into being fractional. Four.
[00:05:02] 4. Recognize the (very normal) guilt.
[00:05:02] The guilt is real and is completely valid and normal. You’re gonna feel like a double agent. You might feel slightly disloyal to everyone, including yourself. It’s not a character flaw; that is the emotional tax of transition. And I’m even gonna go a little bit further, and employers out there may hate me if they see this video. You need to take care of yourself.
[00:05:26] We’ve already had at least one point that talked about taking care of the employer and not misusing them and abusing them in this process. But you know what you need out of your work-life balance, out of your career enjoyment. Out of your fulfillment as a person. Do not ever think that at a company, some random company that could or could not lay you off at any given drop of the hat, deserves more of that, more respect for that than you do in your own personal life. They’re looking out for them. You’re looking out for you.
[00:06:01] And while you’re in a full-time position, you are in a mutually beneficial arrangement with them. Respect that arrangement, but not at the sacrifice of how you feel as a person. Okay, again, I might get hate mail from companies, but that’s the way it is ’cause this is a two-way street and they certainly are looking out for themselves.
[00:06:20] 5. Context-switching will drain you.
[00:06:20] Five. Context switching between the two focuses of employment will drain you. You’ll have to take off the hat of the full-time permanent position and put on the hat of the client, the side client. That can be a little bit difficult to do. You’ve got employee brain on one side and CEO of me brain on the other, and those are two different operating systems.
[00:6:46] Employee brain. You defer more to your superiors. You have colleagues you are, accountable to. Whereas a CEO brain, you’ve gotta invoice, you’ve gotta make sure you’re billing all the time. Make sure you’re not just working without billing, that you’re not overbilling a client. That you are keeping up with a time sheet.
[00:07:06] Toggling between them can be exhausting. So just know that you need to try to really work on having that discipline of mind to go between one and the other. And if that means you make some cues for yourself to say, I will get up, walk around the block, come back, and now I’m CEO, then I’ll do the same thing when it’s time to switch back to employee, figure out.
[00:07:25] 6. Golden handcuffs are sneaky and tempting
[00:07:25] Golden handcuffs are sneakier than you think. This is point number six, listen. Many people will never be fractional or might go fractional, and try it and say, Nope, I’m going back to permanent. There is something to be said for a steady paycheck, decent benefits, and familiar comfort.
[00:07:42] Those and those honestly, if you are gonna dabble in fractional, maybe haven’t really decided to make the jump, those are gonna keep you where you are and might keep you longer and longer in that situation where you’re like, I’m in constant transition, am I always gonna have a side hustle with a full-time job?
[00:08:00] It can make it really scary and say, yeah, but if I go fractional, I’m gonna leave that behind. Comfort is the enemy of making the leap. And no judgment, if you decide, I’m gonna pick comfort at the end of that, at the end of that discussion, that’s okay. You need to do again what is best for you. You may never make that leap, but this will actually be the next point that we talk about, will help you decide when to make that decision between comfort and leap.
[00:08:29] 7. Define your “leap” number
[00:08:29] So yeah. Number seven, define your leap number. I actually had a spreadsheet that I put together that really enumerated out, okay, here’s all the things I know I need – software, hardware, health insurance, different costs, operating costs as my own business. I’m like, here are all the things that I need, and here’s what clients can pay me.
[00:08:53] Then at the bottom of that, under the sum of those numbers, I had the number that I was making per month, included that they were paying for my health insurance and whatnot. What was the number that I was making for my full-time employment? Okay. When I stop seeing red, and I see green, and I know that I can make that leap that I’m gonna make equal to or more than I was making in my full-time job, that’s when I knew.
[00:09:14] Don’t do this in your brain unless you’re just a genius with math in your brain and have accuracy there. Use a spreadsheet. Really calculate that out and be diligent about it and be merciless about it because you need to make sure, can I make ends meet? What specific savings do you need? When can you quit? And if you’re vague about that, you could make a big error, quit the job, and suddenly you’re like, oh, crap, I didn’t account for everything, and now maybe I need to go ask for my job back. Nobody wants to have to do that.
[00:09:47] 8. Build systems, not just clients
[00:09:47] Eighth point: build systems, not just clients. I wind up doing this too. What this talks about is like as you are creating and working with clients, if you put something together, save that as a template for a future client. Make sure you set up processes where you’re like, I’m gonna follow this each and every time, or maybe I’ve got folder systems that I created for this client, I should replicate that as I continue to take on other clients.
[00:10:13] If you are creating a contract, an independent contributor agreement, make sure you use that again for future clients. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time, ’cause remember, your time is a hot commodity right now, and particularly more so when you make the leap, and you’re your own boss. Future you is gonna be so grateful that you didn’t start from scratch on day one of freedom, and then kept making yourself start from scratch with each new client.
[00:10:39] Build, build, save, save templates, templates, all the time. Number nine, who are you gonna tell?
[00:10:46] 9. Get the memo to your inner circle
[00:10:46] Your inner circle needs to get the memo from you that, alright, y’all, this is what I’m looking at doing. I referred earlier to how past colleagues could be future clients or referrals. Your partner, your family, close friends, and your kids, tell them that you’re going through this intense season.
[00:11:06] You might have to say no to some excursions, to activities, to commitments because you’re like, listen, I’m trying to build this. Please understand and support me by just not judging me and having that grace. It’s gonna be temporary. And, this will be the next point we talk about, that this should be a temporary situation. But if people don’t understand, if you don’t communicate with them why you’re so busy, particularly your partner, your immediate family, they’re gonna be like, what the hell?
[00:11:38] Is this worth it? You need to get them on board. And if you can’t get them on board, that’s really gonna impact your decision if you can even do this. Okay. Again, I referred earlier, my kids are older. They have their own social things they’re doing. It was okay for them to be like, I’m off doing that, mom, you’re working on this. And my husband was okay with it too, because he knew there was gonna be a long game here, and we had to make sure we coordinated that together because he’s a huge part of my life. And, you’re gonna have that person or those people in your life, too, that can make or break this time for you, and you want them in your corner. Also, have alluded to that in other videos about going fractional. 10th point when you do leave, leave well.
[00:12:23] 10. When you leave, leave well
[00:12:23] I was so tempted. I will just be honest. I was so tempted when I left my last full-time job to burn shit down. I wanted to so badly, particularly when I was letting my superior know that I was leaving, ’cause man, if there was ever a boss that I just wanted to just squish that in and just poke at it and be like, eh, how’s that feel? It was with that boss, one of the most toxic people I’ve ever worked with, and I am not alone in knowing that. But I gave generous notice.
[00:12:58] I was like, here’s what I will give you, so you have as long as you can, because I knew it wasn’t just her I was leaving. I really enjoyed the people I was leaving, and I didn’t wanna leave badly. You don’t wanna go and just burn shit down, unless there’s just really good reason to. But people talk to people, and if you leave people disgruntled, then you’re like, wow, you really shafted us on your way out. They’re not gonna refer you to anybody. So leave a generous notice if you can. Hand things off cleanly and fully.
[00:13:26] Don’t just leave people in the dark about stuff you’re leaving behind. Do not scorch the earth unless again, you just literally have nothing to lose, which is very unlikely. My old boss, I’m never gonna work with her again. I don’t even know. I might’ve blocked her already, and I take great joy when I see that, oh, she’s left that her position and is not gonna ruin any more lives or drive more people to therapy. Never gonna use her as a client, ever. But there are other people that I’m like, eh, even if I didn’t get along, they might say my name in the room that can bring me a new invoice. You just never know.
[00:14:00] 11. This is a bridge, not a lifestyle
[00:14:00] Finally, we’ll wrap up with this point number 11. This is a bridge, the transition between the double duty of doing full-time employment as well as getting into fractional. It is, it’s a bridge. Don’t make this a lifestyle. Now, maybe you want that. There are gonna be people out there are like, Nope, I’m good with being full-time and I will always have at least one side hustle. And I just love work, and I never wanna have time to myself.
[00:14:26] I personally, I would never want that stress, but again, I’m not everybody. There are gonna be people who are like, love it. I recommend that you make this a bridge and not a lifestyle; that you have a stop date or at least a goal date when you know, you might be like, okay, I’m gonna try this for this long, and if I cannot scale up the fractional to where it takes over and can replace the permanent, then maybe I need to reassess if this is worth it.
[00:14:51] Like I said, points one through 10 all emphasize this is a stressful time. You’re gonna lose sleep, you’re gonna get less sleep, you’re gonna need more caffeine if you’re able to do that. You’re gonna have to balance stuff emotionally. It’s gonna be taxing physically. It’s gonna be taxing because when you are your own boss, you have to pay taxes. But, to consider all of those things and really do try to set a deadline so you don’t burn out.
[00:15:15] Again, take care of you, prioritize yourself, and take care of the people who are paying invoices and or paychecks because they can help you move along to this decision and making a final determination when you’re ready to jump. All right with that. Good luck as you continue and assess all of those things. Happy to take your questions. Please leave it in the comments. And we can bring these up in future videos, or we can chat about it. But yeah, I felt like this was warranted because it’s a lot.
[00:15:47] Again, third time trying business, which means this is the third time I went through a transition like this. It’s exhausting. I cannot lie to you about that, and I want you to be fully eyes wide open as you go toward this decision. So let me know what you think, and let me know if you do when you’re ready to make the leap to go fractional. Would love to hear what your date is.
[00:16:09] You’re still here. It’s over, but you should hit like on this video before you head out and subscribe if you wanna get more videos that’ll help you realize how much Moore there is to marketing.
[00:16:19] See what I did there?
But wait! (Yep, there’s more for subscribers.)
Exclusive content is available with Rachel’s livestream videos: Boss Level Mondays and Hot Mic Fridays. Start your week off with irreverence and real talk as you face down the work week of a marketer with Rachel at your side. Then, on Fridays, head to Hot Mic Fridays for unfiltered takes from the week, as well as podcasting and video tips you can always use. Subscribe here on Substack to access and join Rachel live!