Three years ago today I sat down at my computer to start my freelance career. I didn’t have any clients yet, but I had some leads that seemed pretty good and I was quietly confident that things would go well. I was my own boss and I was free to do what I wanted to do. I now call this day Freedom Day.

Things were a bit slow to take off. The leads, that had seemed good, turned out not to be. I’ve become a lot better over time at judging possible leads, but you still can’t always tell if one will actually lead to a project.

I had a very enjoyable first month doing my own projects while searching …

Some very nice people have called me brave for handing in my notice and deciding to become freelance. They're wrong though. I've just not let myself think about it too much. If I had, then I would have talked myself out of it. They also seem convinced that I will be really successful and have no problems. I'm hoping they're right about that, the confident part of me thinks they are.

I've worked in government communications for five years in the web team of The Department for Work and Pensions. I sort of got the job by accident, while I wasn't really looking for a job. After the software …