6 Things You Have to Give Up to Freelance Successfully

Freelancing is a trend today, with everyone glorifying freelancers’ independent, posh lives and the money they make.

On the outside, freelancing is a dream come true. Freelancers seem to work only when they want, only with clients they choose, and still earn well.

As a freelancer in contact with many other freelancers, I can attest that that is true only for some.

I want to bring to your attention that not everyone who set out to become a freelancer succeeded. And those who made a name in the field worked hard to get where they’re now — but no one talks about that.

Here, I will discuss the dark side of freelancing, where you’ll have to sweat blood, give up hobbies, and put in extra effort.

Back in the day, when I was someone’s employee, I always complained about the strict, tiring 9–5 work hours to my husband. He would empathize with me, and we would head out for the evening.

Now that I’m a freelancer with flexible work hours, you might think I can decide how long I work in a day.

The truth is that I work from 10 to 10 now, including breaks for meals and short chats with family. I work 9 hours daily and wish to work longer to get more work done.

When you’re an employee, you need to worry only about completing your part of a project. Whereas now, my work involves many roles, leaving little time to finish and deliver the ‘actual work’. So, I ended up working more hours.

As I said above, a freelancer will have to take up many tasks as a part of their work, including communicating with clients.

I’m an introvert who is terrible at conveying even the simplest things to the person sitting across the table. So, one of the things I dread the most as a freelancer is interacting with clients; ironically, that’s a core part of my work now.

I must reply to emails, brief assignment plans, discuss submitted drafts, and engage in several other conversations with clients to sustain my livelihood. So if you’re like me, a socially awkward introvert, freelancing isn’t for you.

I can’t stress enough how vital finding clients and convincing them to give you a chance is in freelancing. Whether you’ll have any work will depend on your skill of scouting clients out, and that’s putting it lightly.

The downside of freelancing is that you’ll have to manage this hideous yet crucial task all yourself!

Though there are platforms like Fiverr and Upwork and techniques like cold emailing and advertising, finding clients is still hard, especially if you’ll have to do it all yourself. It doesn’t help that you’ll have to compete with agencies and other freelancers with tons of experience.

Some of us need help to stay in line and follow a schedule because, when no one is watching, we tend to get distracted easily and lose focus.

That’s how freelancing and self-control are related. A freelancer should have enough composure to resist social media notifications, playing pets, screaming kids, blasting music, and more. Besides these distractions, they’ll have to overcome laziness and procrastinate procrastinating.

They should be able to say NO to all distractions and get work done by the deadline like they’re their boss. However, this is easier said than done.

When I worked with a company, I could take two days off every month and still get paid. If I planned better, I could even accumulate those day off and go on a mini-vacation sometime in a year — while getting paid!

Amazing, right?

Though some freelancing services deliver passive income, many freelancers aren’t paid if they don’t work. This means a freelancer going on a vacation won’t earn unless they work.

That’s not all. It’ll create a break in their work. Regular clients could look for other freelancers when they’re on vacation, and this might disrupt their budding business.

One of the most significant drawbacks of freelancing is the fluctuating income. While some months are packed with back-to-back assignments, others are so bare that I could go on a vacation, and no one would care.

Such inconsistency in gigs directly affects my monthly income, and I can’t plan to make huge investments like buying a house or car in an installment. In fact, some months made me question my decision to freelance.

Despite these drawbacks, many freelancers are successful because of their hard work and determination. It goes without saying that you could be the next star freelancer if you want. So, don’t lose hope and fight for what you love doing!