Recent IT grad: should I keep chasing a traditional IT/dev job, or lean into freelance web design?

I graduated from a community college IT programming program a few months ago (Canada). Since then I've been splitting my time between two paths and I'm not sure which one deserves more of my focus.

Path one is the traditional route: applying for entry-level web dev or IT support jobs. This has been slow, barely any responses, and I don't have much traditional employment history to point to yet.

Path two is freelance web design and local SEO work for small businesses. I've actually had decent results here, finished projects, happy clients, even a bit of outside press for a side project, but growing it into something steady and reliable has been tough.

For anyone who's been at this fork in the road, how did you decide whether to keep pushing for a stable job versus doubling down on freelancing/building your own client base? Curious what factors actually mattered in hindsight, and whether one path made the other easier down the line.