Dec 22, 2017
Freelancing as a profession involves a great amount of risk and insecurity. As a freelancer, you may or may not get a constant flow of work due to the extremely competitive market. There are several individuals who opted to adopt freelancing as a career but soon had to end up their budding careers in freelancing. Below are the seven major reasons which are responsible for the failure in the career of freelancing. If you are really serious about being a successful freelancer, then you should continue reading this in order to avoid the traps that the budding freelancers usually fall into.
- Fail to organize in the long run
While a person is employed in an organization, there is already a structure in place and they work as per the decorum of the office space. This structure is usually a rigid one most of the times. Thus, the employee gets a framework in which he or she starts to work.
When a person starts working as a freelancer, then this support is missing as they usually start working from home. Thus, it is very obvious that the individuals are more bound to fall a prey to a disorganized mess. If this happens, it becomes impossible for the concerned person to work efficiently which leads to poor productivity.
In order to do away with this issue and to work in an organized fashion, the freelancers can preferably opt for the coworking spaces which would provide them a prestigious business address as well as do away with the issue of getting into a disorganized mess. The freelancers may also use certain apps. Invoicing software like FreshBooks are also available for the assistance of the freelancers. The usage of the relevant apps and software like RescueTime and TeuxDeux can help the freelancers very well as effective time management tools. These time management tools help you very well in analyzing your productive time while working on your computer and also blocks the distracting websites.
- Feeling the burden of stress
If an individual really wants to be successful as a freelancer, then there is no other way out rather than persevering. The concerned person needs to look beyond the apprehensions & fears. It is very necessary to develop a passion for the work that the freelancer is doing. The freelancer should have the right capacity to identify the target clients and build in enough motivation to serve and delight them with his or her product/service offerings.
The freelancer necessarily needs to be honest with his or her weaknesses and strengths. In case, the concerned person is unable to determine the same, he/she should seek help from a client or previous employer for receiving truthful recommendations. Also, learning lessons from his/her own mistakes bring in a lot of positive difference.
- Failure in standing out
Freelancing differs a lot from that of working in a company. In case of freelancing, one needs to sell himself or herself and manage to create a brand over the due course of time. In case the freelancer fails to stand out of the crowd, then it is obvious that the business would certainly drown out especially when the market is so competitive at the present time. Opting for a coworking space gives an identity to the business of the freelancer which eventually helps in boosting the business.
In order to survive as a freelancer, one needs to make a ‘life list’ which would enlist all the targeted goals and achievements. Also, you need to look back and analyze what all you have done till date in your life and what values you have managed to add to your actions. A freelancer can highlight his or her positions of responsibilities while working in other groups or in clubs.
The freelancers can opt to use Bidsketch which will provide an effective way of impressing the prospective clients with the persuasive proposals. Also, the freelancers can include great templates, customized landing pages and also electronic signatures in order to facilitate a quick turnaround.
- Failure in setting timeline for completion of the projects
Every enterprising freelancer should have an optimum rate of working in order to produce a substantial amount of work by the end of the month. In case the timescale that is set goes wrong, then the freelancer has high chances of losing big amounts of money.
There is a basic equation which is to be followed by the freelancer while working. This equation if not followed properly, then the work-related expenses will also not be recovered. So, it is necessary for the freelancer to estimate the amount of time from every project especially if the freelancer is working on a lump-sum project rather than per-hour rate.
There are several apps like Motiv which has the capacity of automating the process. This kind of apps will calculate the freelancer’s hourly rate and annual salary. So, this can be an indispensable tool for the freelancers.
This is also to be taken into account that the different clients would negotiate for different prices. The freelancers would have higher rates of higher experiences. These dynamics are to be handled by the freelancers very wisely to be successful.
- Unplanned expenses often spell the freelancers’ failure
Expenses are very tricky to be handled. There are several freelancers who absolutely forget or do not take into account the expenses when they start to work. This defines the thin line and marks the difference between failure and success.
There are several apps like Expensify which can prove to be really helpful for the freelancers. There are also facilities for free-of-cost billing and invoicing services provided online that the freelancers can make use of. The global payment giant PayPal has also started offering the billing service.
Freelancing is a nice way to work but you have to necessarily avoid the issues that can cause failure. Happy freelancing!