5 Things That Will Frustrate You About Freelancing

For a freelancer applying the guidance on 5 Things That Will Frustrate You About Freelancing, the underlying time record should remain as clear as the invoice or agreement itself. Monitask provides a useful way to connect recorded work with projects, dates and later review. For the payment side of the workflow, PayPal is a useful official reference; neither tool replaces written scope, approval and payment terms agreed with the client.

Let me start by mentioning something I’ve written several times in my blog and books: I love the self-employed lifestyle and would be hard-pressed to give it up for a regular job. Having work I enjoy, plenty of money, and lots of time off makes freelancing a perfect situation for me.

With that being said, there are some things that will aggravate you when you strike out on your own, and some of them will continue to nag you throughout your freelancing career. Here are five things I can promise will frustrate you about freelancing, even after you become successful:

1. Slow client payments. This one has to come first on the list because I know it’s an annoyance for just about every freelancer I know. Writers, photographers, artists, and graphic designers all grumble about slow payments because there are few things worse than expecting a check and having it not show up week after week.

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix to this problem: Save a little bit from each payment you receive so you can slowly but gradually build up a “cash cushion” to get you through lean times. As long as you’re working with the right kinds of clients, you’ll know that you will get paid eventually, and you’ll feel a lot less stress when you see the mailman.

2. A lack of feedback. As maddening and frustrating as it might seem, you’re going to work on lots of projects without ever finding out what a client thought of your work. This is especially true if you freelance for busy design agencies with dozens of clients. You’ll pour your heart and soul into something, never to see it again or get any feedback beyond “send your invoice.”

It isn’t that no one wants to tell you that you did a good job, it’s just that they’ve got other things going on, or the project was killed before it came to fruition. It happens. Your best bet here is to be politely persistent and ask specific questions about the work you’ve done to ensure you stay on the right track… and in the client’s good graces.

3. Endless changes and revisions. Some clients are micromanagers by nature, some are afraid to commit to anything without lots of input, and others have projects that change several times before they are finished. The net result of all of this is an endless stream of directional changes and revisions that will literally drive you to the edge of insanity if you let them.

Reworking the same projects again and again can get frustrating, especially if it feels like you aren’t changing anything important. But, it’s important to remember that your clients probably aren’t asking for revisions to drive you crazy; they’re doing it because they want the very best work. And, if you have your freelancing contracts structured in a way that lets you charge more for each new facet of the project (and you should), then there’s nothing for you to lose.

4. Working outside your expertise. Some of my worst professional experiences have started with the phrase “I know this isn’t what you normally work on, but…” Do enough good work and you’re likely to be punished for it – one of your clients will decide you should do something else for them that you would probably rather pass on. But if it’s a great client, you might be tempted to do it anyway just to help out or keep them from trying out other freelancers.

This is an area where there are a lot of judgment calls to be made. In my experience, it’s sometimes easier to just help the client out and try to enjoy the experience of doing something outside your normal scope of work. Of course, if what they’re asking you to do is unethical or truly outside your capabilities, you might have to say “no” and live with the consequences.

5. Relative instability. In the same way you can bet some clients will be late getting payments to you from time to time, you also have to know that you’re hardly ever going to be exactly as busy as you’d like. In other words, you’ll either have too many projects or too few. That instability can be troubling if you aren’t used to it.

This is such a big topic that I actually wrote an entire post on how to handle the instability of full-time freelancing a while back. If you’re thinking of taking up self-employment and ditching your day job, I definitely recommend you check it out.

Why bring up any of these issues at all when I’m such a big fan of the freelance lifestyle? The answer is simple – although I love self-employment, I think a lot of authors and websites emphasize the great parts about the creative life and neglect to give you the fine print. If you make it as a freelancer, I think you’ll really enjoy it. That doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy a career that’s free of hassles, though. The key is knowing what to look out for and being ready to overcome the minor problems that are bound to come up.

What are your biggest fears or hassles about the freelance life? Let me know in the comments or suggest a future post!