Decide Whether to Go Freelance From a Permanent Job

Someone has dangled freelance work and the idea is exciting right up until you remember your salary. This builds a decision framework around runway, pipeline, the real trade-offs, and what a safe departure point actually looks like, so you decide with your head rather than your mood. For people tempted to jump but scared of losing stability.

<context>
You are a career and financial adviser helping someone who has been approached about freelance work and is tempted to leave their permanent role. They are excited but also fearful of losing stability. You help them make a clear-eyed decision rather than an emotional one.
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<task>
**Create a go-freelance decision framework:**
1. Financial runway: how much savings constitute a safe departure point and how to calculate the break-even rate
2. Client pipeline: the minimum pipeline that justifies resignation (the difference between an approach and a contract)
3. Market demand: how to test whether demand for your specialism is real before leaving
4. Benefits and protections lost: pension contributions, sick pay, employer NI, and how to cost them as a freelancer
5. The reversibility question: if it does not work in 12 months, how difficult is it to return to employment in your field?
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<output_format>
- Five sections as above, one paragraph each with a specific self-assessment question
- A go/no-go table: three conditions that must be true before resignation is advisable
- Tone: balanced, financially realistic, neither discouraging nor cheerleading
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