I currently have a full-time web developer position at a small agency, working 9 until 5:30 - also spending 2 hours a day on a train commuting.
When I get home on the evenings, I am up until midnight doing work every weekday night, and I work for about 6 hours on a Saturday and 6 hours on a Sunday - completing all of my freelance work. My website ranks very well (page 1 usually) in search engine results for terms such as "freelance web developer", "freelance web designer", etc. So this is where most of my work comes from. Some also comes from referrals, but I do not advertising and do not use websites such as freelancer.com to win work either.
I have all required skills in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, MySQL, SEO, web security, managing servers and so on. Over the past 5 years, I have designed and developed everything from small business sites, to fully functional ecommerce websites, to social networks, to live bidding platforms, to company portals, and so much more - all on a bespoke basis. I also have design skills in Illustrator and Photoshop. I also develop long-term on a multi million pound ecommerce store as a freelance (have been doing so for 2 years).
I earn a lot more from my freelance work (over £4000 in March) than I do in my full time job (£17k salary). I have an accountant to help me with taxes, etc. So as you can imagine, I want to make the transition to go freelance on a full-time basis.
I have all of the tools (a good smartphone, a powerful PC with dual monitors, iPad, etc etc) as well as the business knowledge which I've gained working closely with the director of the agency.
