There’s much to love about being a freelancer; you get to set your own schedule, choose the projects that you want to work on, and generally live a free life. However, it would be wrong to suggest that it’s all positive, because it’s not — like any job, there are downsides as well as upsides. And though it may not always feel like it, the downsides are arguably more troubling than the disadvantages of regular employment. Below, we take a look at eight common issues that freelancers face, as well as offer some advice on how you can overcome them.
Procrastination
If you’ve ever worked in a regular old job, then you’ll know that feeling of getting down to work as soon as you’ve entered the office, even if you’re not feeling it. When someone else is paying you, you don’t really have the option of sitting around at the office, watching YouTube videos. No-one really likes having a boss, but you have to admit that they do at least ensure you’re productive with your time. When you’re working for yourself, there’s no-one looking over your shoulder making sure that you’re getting things done. As such, it’s important that you’re taking steps to minimize your procrastination — simply being aware of it and your procrastination triggers is a starting point.
Career Development
People usually decide to go to freelance after building up some experience in-house, but not always — sometimes, people launch straight into their freelance career. They may have had a regular job to pay the bills, but it wasn’t related to what they do as a freelancer. It’s just that they were able to build up enough clients to quick their other job. While this is still a success story, there is a downside: it doesn’t leave all that room for career development. It’s much easier to do that when you’re surrounded by other people in the industry. As such, it’s recommended that you’re taking steps to connect with others, be it through attending Meetups, events, trade shows, or anything else that’s applicable.
Working Spaces
You shouldn’t underestimate the power and value of a dedicated working space. Sure, it’s understandable that you’d grow to dislike the commute to the office, or even the overall vibe of the office space, but there are upsides: they get you into the working frame of mind. If you’re just working from wherever, then you’re unlikely to be as productive as you could be. As such, it’s recommended that you carve out an office. It could be that you set up a home office (if so, do your best to separate home and work life) or join a coworking space. These latter spaces are highly effective at boosting productivity — you get all the advantages of the office without the downsides (chiefly: colleagues talking about problems you don’t care about).
Staying Legal
The main advantage of being a regular employee is that most of the paperwork and legal matters related to your employment are taken care of. All you need to do, generally, is turn up, do your work, and then go home. This isn’t the case when you’re a freelancer — you’re the one who is in charge of everything. This means staying on top of your taxes, registering yourself as a freelancer if required, and ensuring that you’re operating within the frame of the law. It can all be a little overwhelming, but there is help available, such as using a quarterly tax payment calculator to figure out how much tax you need to pay. It’s important that you’re handling these issues as early as possible, otherwise you might face legal problems further on down the line.
Unreliable Payments
It’s all good and well finding paid work, but it won’t be worth all that much if you’re not getting paid, either entirely or just on time. This, unfortunately, is one of the major downsides of freelancing. Every freelancer can tell a story about how they were ultimately not paid for their work. And waiting for a client to get out their credit card and pay you can test the patience, too. There are things you can do to help transform your work into money. To begin, do your research when working with a new client, and set out the terms of payment early on. Try as you might, there’ll always be times when you’re waiting for an invoice to be paid — so it’s a good idea to look at building something of a safety cushion of cash to get you through the waiting periods.
Managing Your Workload
When you work in a traditional position, you’re able to just focus on whatever piece of work is put in front of you. There are people around you gently nudging you to prioritize one piece of work over another; you’re a cog in the machine that’s slowly moving in the right direction. When you’re a freelancer, you’re not a cog — you’re the machine. As such, you need to stay on top of your workload, and ensure that everything is getting down when it should. You need to develop organizational skills if you don’t possess them already, essentially.
Awkward Clients
You answer to your boss when you’re an employee. You might not like him or her, but at least you know them: it’s ‘better the devil you know.’ When you’re a freelancer, you’ll have multiple different clients who, OK, they’re not the same as a boss, but they still have power. And some of them are going to suck, big time. While you can’t control another person’s actions and demands, you can establish your own boundaries regarding what’s acceptable and what isn’t. If a client is becoming too much hassle, then drop them.
Lack of Job Security
Finally, the big one: the lack of job security. This is just a chance that you need to take! Though you can make things easier on yourself by building up a reserve of cash to get you through the lean moments, and investing in your retirement fund, too.
