I left my corporate 9-5 job in 2014. I was working for a boutique marketing agency while building my mommy blog on the side, and realized after my second child was stillborn that I just couldn’t do the grind anymore. I wanted more work-life flexibility, I wanted more control over my schedule, and I wanted to really feel like I was making an impact for my clients.

At the time, my husband was growing a commercial landscaping and snow removal company, and I knew that I needed to replace my income in order to leave my full-time role, so I started taking on freelance writing jobs (with my blog and guest blogs as my initial pitch for capabilities) and was able to replace my income in less than 6 months. While working for yourself can be more risky than working for a larger company, I found it to be a great fit – and knowing what I know now, i wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Here are the top 3 reasons why I’ve found this to be the right fit for my family;

1. Flexibility. I often joke that I never knew what flexibility was until I became a mom. And honestly, just running our personal life with three kids, two dogs, and a house to take care of can feel like a full time job in and of itself. Having the flexibility to work when it works for me (which often means working in the early morning hours before my kids are even awake) is crucial to my ability to do all the things. While lots of companies today offer some flexibility, I didn’t find what I really needed until I created my own business.
2. Daycare. Not only did I not want my kids in full time daycare, the cost of childcare is really expensive. When I worked in the agency world, we had just one child and 4 day a week childcare ate up 1/3 of my paycheck. Two kids in daycare? Forget it. I knew I needed to make a change way back when, and it’s served us well. We’ve been able to scale the childcare we need a we need it, and now that we both work from home we’re going mostly childcare free for the summer. That’s about $3,000 per month saved this summer alone!
3. Money. I was able to really market my best skills when I started freelancing. In the beginning when my goals was to just replace my income, 20 hours of freelance writing work replaced my agency income. As I grew my skills and expanded what I did, I was able to earn much more than that.

Today, the reasons why I love working for myself (and working from home!) definitely outweigh any push to go back to a corporate role. If you’re looking for a great way to get the flexibility and freedom you need, that could come from self-employment or freelancing, but it could also come from a great work-from-home contract role that many big companies are offering these days. You just have to get out there and look for the right opportunity for you!

And remember, the right opportunity today doesn’t have to be the right opportunity in a year, or five years, or ten years down the road. Don’t be afraid to change your trajectory as you need to. You’ve got this!