I've been a freelancer/contractor/solopreneur since 1974.

My advice...

Do freelance.

Don't work for one company. In other words, have many clients.

Be sure to arrange your hourly/ad-hoc work so it drives to some form of continuity.

Work hard, till you have your first $10K/month of continuity in place, then take stock of how to grow your business to the next level.

I work for a company of 50+ employees and recently made the move to use remote, freelancers to comprise my marketing team. It's been a great experiment that I'll be sticking with.

I saw this method as an opportunity to pay less then a full time employee and get highly skilled freelancers who would bring more experience to our company.

I've separated out marketing functions such as paid search, graphic design, social media, content creation, etc. and found some great contractors to fill the need.

I've found the keys to success here are very detailed job descriptions, a good interview strategy, cloud-based tools for collaboration, and consistent communication and work direction.

Should I ever move to a larger company I would definitely bring this system along with me.

Happy to chat about the system and strategies I use to make this successful.

Hired plenty with my last company, and on 6 continents. The division was about 35 people but part of a group that was closer to 300, but still worked autonomously within the group. Takes more structure, but you get to take advantage of local markets and local opportunities.