Benjamin Eckstein

I decided to go freelance in the fall of 2006, and took the leap in January of 2007.  It was certainly not an easy decision and one that took months to plan.  I had a staff job at a production company in Concord, MA as the lead cameraman and editor.  I had been there for five years; I was actually the first employee they ever hired! Working there give me some great experience. I learned a ton during my time there, watching the company grow from three employees to about a dozen when I left.  But five years seemed to be about the right amount of time for my first job after college, and I was pretty certain I had the skill-set to go at it on my own, instead of looking for another staff job (which were pretty hard to come by at that point, anyway).

So the first day of 2007 came, and I was on my own. It was pretty scary.  I had made the leap with a few months of work already lined up (which I think is the ONLY way to do it), both from some freelance clients I already had, and from being hired for contract work by my recent employer.   But the first quarter (in general, I have found) can be pretty slow, as companies and individuals are figuring out their budgets for the year, so it was, at times, quite daunting.  But as the spring rolled around, I started to fill up my schedule; I was getting new client and reconnecting with some old ones.  Certainly there are spurts of slower times (which is great time to rest and work on personal projects), but I have found at least the past eighteen months to be filled close to capacity. Read more…