Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Kate Darby Illustrations by Kate Darby

Welcome back to the Moonlighting 101 series. If you’ve just joined us, check out Part One: Know Your Why and Part Two: Landing and Keeping Clients

Selecting the projects you work on is a key part of moonlighting successfully. Use your “why” as a measuring stick for choosing projects. Think about the things you can get out of doing that project (not just money). Could the project help build rapport with a potentially big client, maybe it’s a good opportunity to learn a new skill or add to your portfolio? Weigh this up against your life outside of work. Think about time you’d like to spend with family and friends, and time to look after yourself. Don’t take that for granted.

As a couple of experienced moonlighters point out, you have the power when it comes to choosing projects.

“The key to moonlighting is to remember your advantage is you don’t have to say yes. I wish I had taken advantage of that much more, and really gone after more “dream job” projects! And, said no to more than a few projects that were honestly duds.”
— Jen Cook

“There was a point where it didn’t matter to me what the project was, but looking back a lot of those projects I took on were not really exciting to me and honestly caused the most headaches. I recently decided to focus on a particular category of businesses I find interesting and put my focus on working with them.”
— Jason Frostholm

“The hardest part is distinguishing the unfruitful or poorly matched jobs upfront (good questions up front are very valuable here), since every prospective offer feels so shiny and new. Learning to say no politely, or referring someone else can be also be key when there is a poor fit. Being brave and asking what their projected budget is early is a pro move too.”
— David Martinez

Penny Wilson, social media manager and moonlighter points out it’s important these projects keep you fired up and passionate about your craft. “I’m often working with sole traders or small businesses to help them find their feet on social media, which can be a truly rewarding experience.”

This concludes chapter three of Moonlighting 101. I’ll be releasing the rest over the coming weeks. If you want to grab the whole PDF playbook for free right now, download it here:

About the author

Kate Darby is the the co-founder of Dovetail X, a platform for creatives to collaborate and assemble project teams on the fly. A designer herself, Kate has worked for global agencies, freelanced, moonlighted and everything in between.

Find out more about Dovetail X here: www.dovetailx.com

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Moonlighting 101: Part Three — Choosing the Right Projects was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Moonlighting 101: Part Three — Choosing the Right Projects

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