Why Freelancing Is Surprisingly Difficult And How To Deal With It

Freelancing is easier and more lucrative than it ever has been. But it remains a difficult and stressful way to make a living. In this ten-minute workout, we share why freelancing is surprisingly difficult and the best tips for dealing with all these difficulties.

How To Network With Other Upwork Freelancers – YouTube

Takeaways
Freelancing can present unexpected difficulties.
Isolation and self-discipline are common challenges for freelancers.
Building a support network can help navigate the difficulties of freelancing.
Effective time management is crucial for freelancers.
Continuous skill development is essential to overcome freelancing challenges.
Setting realistic expectations is important in dealing with the difficulties of freelancing.
Developing resilience and adaptability is key to thriving as a freelancer.
Self-care and work-life balance are vital for freelancer well-being.
Seeking resources and support from online communities and professional networks can be beneficial.
Freelancers should learn to manage their finances and create stable income streams.

Table of Contents

Why Freelancing Is Surprisingly Difficult

Freelancing isn’t always sunshine, rainbows, and endless work-from-home days. Before you quit your job and strike out on your own, be prepared to deal with these surprisingly difficult parts of freelancing:

If you’re juggling a full-time job while freelancing, you’ll be amazed by the benefits it can bring. Check out our article on 6 Reasons to Be a Freelancer in Addition to Having a Full-Time Job to discover why freelancing can be a game-changer.

Your Income Fluctuates

This is a double-edged sword. While it’s nice knowing that you have the freedom to make your own schedule, it also means that your income fluctuates. You could potentially go from earning $300 a month one month, to $3,000 two months later and then back down to $200 again the next month.

While you can use this as motivation and be grateful for some good months, it’s important not to overspend when times are good. That way when they’re bad again (and they will come), you won’t be crushed by debt or bills hanging over your head and making life miserable.

You need a balanced budget to live comfortably and stay afloat during lean months so that if things do get tough financially, at least you’ll still be able to pay all of your bills on time while continuing with freelance work until times improve again.”

You’re Responsible For 100% Of Your Taxes

If you work for an employer, there are certain benefits that he or she provides to help you pay taxes on your income.

For example, if you live in California and make $100,000 per year as a software engineer at Google, Google will withhold some of that money and send it directly to the government on your behalf. You don’t have to do anything but go home after work every day and fill out a W-4 form once per year; Google does everything else (or at least most of it).

On the other hand, when you freelance full-time as a software developer in San Francisco and especially when starting you have much more responsibility than that. Instead of having someone else take care of most of your tax filings (which they would if they were paying into Social Security), now it’s all up to you.

You Have To Be A Master Salesperson

That’s right you have to be able to sell your services, your skills and ideas, your personality, and even your experience. I know that sounds like a lot of work for someone who should just do their best work and keep quiet about it all (which is what I thought).

But when you’re freelancing full-time, especially if you’re trying to make this a career instead of a side hustle or part-time gig, it’s all part of the job description.

The most obvious place this happens is in providing samples or examples of what other people call “overdelivering.” When someone hires me as their social media manager, they expect me to post three times per day on Facebook and Twitter (and Instagram sometimes).

They also expect those posts will include relevant hashtags and links back to their website where they can find more information about them as well as contact details so they can reach out directly with any questions or comments about my work none of which I’m going out there on social media myself; that would defeat the purpose!

So what does that mean? It means I need good photos from previous projects so my potential clients know exactly what kind of quality service they’ll get from me.

And guess what: We don’t always take good photos at our first shoot or sometimes ever! So how do we fix that issue? By working with our clients beforehand until we find something great enough for them before sending over anything else

Being a fully fulfilled and well-paid freelancer is not an impossible dream. Our guide on It’s Not Impossible to Be a Fully Fulfilled, Well-Paid Freelancer reveals strategies and insights to help you achieve success and satisfaction in your freelancing career.

You Have To Do Your Billing

As a freelancer, you are your own boss. You get to decide who to work with and how much. You also have to do all the bookkeeping and accounting yourself. You need to keep track of your time and expenses so that when it comes time for billing, you can be as accurate as possible.

This involves keeping good records of everything from mileage costs for your car or public transit pass (and if you use Uber/Lyft/Taxi/etc., which is often more convenient but less eco-friendly) to the cost of office supplies and equipment maintenance (printer ink refills are surprisingly expensive).

Technically speaking: Do not forget about taxes either! Unless you live in New Hampshire or Tennessee where there is no income tax at all or Florida where there’s no estate tax you should be paying state taxes on top of federal taxes (and possibly city/county taxes).

Bookkeepers charge anywhere between $50-$200 per hour depending on their level of experience; if they know what they’re doing they can save enough money each year through their deductions that it pays for itself within just one year.

There’s No Such Thing As Vacation Time

The work-from-home lifestyle is appealing for many reasons, not least of which is that it allows you to set your hours and control the amount of time you spend working. But the freedom comes with drawbacks as well, including the fact that it can be difficult to take a break from your desk when you have no designated time off from clients.

“If you’re self-employed and working on client projects on an ongoing basis, there really isn’t such thing as vacation time unless you deliberately plan for it in advance by setting aside blocks of days or weeks where any work gets deferred until after those blocks are over,”

says Jim Whitely, founder and CEO of LiveBinders (which helps companies organize their documents). If freelancing sounds like something you might be interested in doing or if you already do freelance work be sure to consider how much downtime would be required before committing completely.

There’s No Such Thing As Sick Time

When you work for yourself, there’s no such thing as sick time. Freelancers can’t call in sick or take vacation days. They have to be available 24/7, which means that if a client needs something done immediately, they have no choice but to do it. This can lead to burnout and stress.

If your job requires remote work (and most of them do), then your clients expect you to be available whenever they need you even when it isn’t necessarily convenient for you personally or professionally. You may not be able to take a day off without inconveniencing someone else who depends on your expertise at all hours of the day or night!

There’s No Paid Parental Leave

You’re responsible for your health insurance, retirement savings, and paid time off. You also have to pay taxes on your income as a freelancer rather than having the company do it for you. This is a big deal because it means much more cash in hand at one time something that can be both good and bad.

Freelancing comes with its own set of challenges, but it’s important to recognize that it’s not hard for the reasons you might think. Explore our article on Freelancing Is Hard, but Not for These Reasons to gain a balanced perspective and uncover effective ways to overcome obstacles.

It Can Be Lonely, Too

There are many reasons why freelancing can be difficult and frustrating. You might have to find your clients, which means you will have to do your marketing. You might not always get paid on time, or at all. You might feel lonely, even if you’re surrounded by people.

Working in a team is an important part of life in the professional world; we need other people to bounce ideas off of, share burdens with and celebrate successes with. When you work alone as a freelancer (or “solopreneur”), it can be hard not having that support network around when things start going wrong and they will go wrong at some point!

It Takes A Long Time To Earn The Same Kind Of Income You Could Earn In A Traditional Full-Time Job

The first year is the hardest. When you’re starting as a freelancer, you have to do all of your marketing and sales. And the more people you work for, the more work you have to do marketing and selling yourself it never ends!

You are your boss, so there’s no such thing as vacation time or sick time. You also can’t expect much in the way of benefits like health insurance or 401K matching either of those things sounds appealing to you (and they should), but being self-employed probably isn’t right for you at this point in your career or ever!

It takes time to build up a client base when starting as a freelancer especially if they’re not in your field or industry already. That means there’s no such thing as “landing” one job right away; instead, it takes months before any income kicks in at all.

If this sounds like something that might be hard on the psyche (which is understandable), don’t worry: there are ways around these problems!

How To Deal With Surprisingly Difficult Of Freelancing

If you’re considering a career as a freelancer, there are a few key points that you should know beforehand.

Everyone’s situation is different, and freelance work comes with its own unique set of challenges. But for most people who are making the switch to freelancing, it usually ends up being one of the best decisions they’ve ever made.

In this part, we will go over some tips on how to deal with the surprisingly difficult aspects of freelancing

Develop A Routine

This is an important step, as it will help you avoid procrastination and keep your productivity levels high. A routine will also allow you to schedule everything from meeting clients and working on projects, to attending conferences and spending time with friends or family.

In order to develop a routine, think about what your ideal day looks like. What are the activities that would make it successful? Once you have an idea of what would work best for you, arrange these activities in a sequence that feels right.

You can then plan out your week accordingly by dividing up tasks according to how long they take (e.g., if a one-hour-long activity takes more than two hours total). Here are some examples of daily routines:

Wake up at 7 am every morning and go running before work starts at 8 am
Eat breakfast while reading emails
Work until 5 pm before taking the train home
Eat dinner with family after getting home from work
Go for a swim at 10 pm every night before bedtime

Find Work/Life Balance

As a freelancer, you’ll be working from home and on your schedule. You can work whenever you want to.

That sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, it also means that if one day you’re feeling tired or unmotivated to get things done, then it’s easy for that feeling to turn into a habit. It only takes one day of being lazy before it’s become part of your routine!

Luckily, finding work/life balance isn’t as difficult as it seems at first glance. You just need to make sure that all aspects of life are getting their fair share of attention:

Work: This includes time spent doing actual productive work (writing articles or blogging) and also making sure everything is organized so future projects go smoothly when there aren’t enough hours in the day for everything else too.

Socializing with Friends/Family: Don’t forget about this important aspect too it’s easy for people who don’t see each other regularly online these days
And even though social media makes connecting easier than ever before (even across oceans), face-to-face interaction is still worth investing in because nothing beats laughing together over dinner or watching Netflix together late at night when everyone else has gone home already.

The freelancing landscape is reshaping the way workers behave, leading to some unexpected changes. Dive into our article on Freelancing Is Causing Workers to Change in Really Weird Ways to explore the fascinating impact of freelancing on individuals and the work environment.

Create Boundaries

Your boundaries are the invisible lines that you draw around yourself as a person and how you want to be treated by others. They help define who you are, how far people can get with you, and what level of involvement is appropriate for different things in your life.

It’s important to set boundaries for yourself for several reasons:

It helps you feel more secure and confident in who you are and what habits work best for your personality type.

Having clear boundaries can prevent misunderstandings with friends, family members, clients, or coworkers because everyone will know exactly where they stand with each other regularly even if there are times when something changes unexpectedly (e.g., one partner’s job gets relocated).

Setting clear boundaries also prevents misunderstandings about expectations when interacting with strangers online (spammers/scammers) so that they don’t take advantage of our goodwill or naivety which could lead down some dark paths like identity theft!

Boost Your Confidence

Confidence is the key to success. Confidence comes from experience and practice. Confidence is a skill you can learn.

Confidence is about being able to take risks, like applying for jobs that are out of your comfort zone or talking to new people at meetups.

Confidence is also about being able to handle failure, and it’s important not to let it get the best of you if things don’t go according to plan because they won’t always! Sometimes things will fail spectacularly…and that’s okay!

Failure doesn’t mean anything other than what it means: something didn’t work out as planned nothing more than that needs analyzing here… Instead focus on learning from those experiences so they don’t happen again in the future (or if they do then hopefully this time around will end differently).

Finally, confidence comes with success too; nothing beats making money doing something creative with your time! So once again feel free not only to celebrate this but also to pat yourself on back because even though freelancing isn’t easy there’s no reason why anyone should ever feel discouraged from pursuing their passion because “it looks easy but isn’t.”

Manage Your Finances

You should keep a budget. This is the most important thing you can do in your business, and it’s also the most overlooked. You need to know exactly how much money comes in and goes out of your business each month, every year. If you have no idea what your expenses are every month, then this is probably not the right career path for you!

Is there one thing I learned from my first year of freelancing full-time? It’s that taxes suck! Don’t wait until tax season hits to find out how much money you owe Uncle Sam; set aside some funds now so that come April 15th, at least some of it has already been paid upfront.

This will help ensure that even if something unexpected happens during the year (like getting sick), or if any other financial surprises pop up down the road due to unforeseen circumstances like car repairs or home repairs (yep those happen too!), then at least some of those expenses won’t come as a surprise when April rolls around again next year!

Save money where possible: save up enough money so that when things get tight financially later in life down the road (we all know they will), then at least it isn’t because someone didn’t plan well enough beforehand.”

Learn How To Say “No”

This is a biggie.

I’ve had many clients who were not good fits for me, but I have been too scared to say no because they were paying me well. It turns out that these clients will often appreciate you more when you do decline their work, as long as it’s done in a professional way. They’ll respect your honesty and integrity, and know that if there was something better out there—a client who understands the value of your work—that you’d choose that over them.

Good communication is key here: let your client know what the issue is (without being overly critical) and encourage them to seek out other freelancers who may be able to add value rather than feeling like they’re taking advantage of someone who isn’t up for the challenge at hand.

Build A Support Network

I know it seems counterintuitive to build more work into your life, but having a support system will help you feel less alone and overwhelmed, which makes you better able to enjoy the process of freelancing.

Support networks are not like an episode of Friends where everyone sits around chatting about their problems over coffee. They’re more like actual communities: people who share common interests and goals that may or may not intersect with yours (or even know each other).

It’s up to you how deeply involved in these communities you want to be, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my own experiences building them and being part of others’ it’s that they don’t function well when only some members participate while others do nothing at all or just show up sporadically whenever they feel like it.

You should always give back as much as possible if only because it will make attending those events more worthwhile for everyone involved (especially yourself).

While freelancing has its advantages, it’s not the right fit for everyone, and there are certain disadvantages to consider. Check out our article on Freelancing Isn’t for Everyone, as There Are Disadvantages to It to gain a realistic understanding of the challenges and make an informed decision.

Be Honest And Transparent With Clients

While it is important to be honest with clients, it is also important to be transparent. If you are not a very experienced developer and are not comfortable performing certain tasks, let your client know. This way they can decide if they want someone who will complete the task or whether it’s worth their time and money to hire someone else.

You should also be open about the costs of your services as well as the time frame in which you can deliver work based on what you have agreed upon with them during the initial meeting.

This will help both parties determine potential problems before they arise later down the road when deadlines need to be met or funds need replenishment.

Because budgeted funds were spent too quickly than originally planned for unforeseen circumstances such as emergencies or other unexpected expenses like vacations that came up unexpectedly requiring more money which means less available cash flow for paying bills.

Keep Learning And Growing

You’re going to make mistakes, but that’s okay. The only way you’ll learn is by making mistakes and figuring out how to move forward. Make sure you’re constantly learning and growing, because if you don’t, then all the other tips in this article won’t matter.

To keep yourself learning and growing:

Read books and blogs about freelancing (and anything else that interests you). There are a lot of great resources out there for people who want to freelance, so take advantage of them!

Take courses on topics related to freelancing (or anything else). Courses are great because they force you into a structured environment where everything is laid out for you so that it ends up being more efficient than reading on your own.

What’s even better? Most online courses offer certificates upon completion which can help show potential clients that yes indeed I’m good at what I do!

Attend meetups related specifically or tangentially mentioned above topics (just go where the action is). Meetup groups can be very helpful when trying to make connections with others who share similar interests.

As well as provide opportunities for networking events where like-minded people gather together under one roof with common goals in mind – things like job listings, advice sessions/ Q&As, etc…

Take Breaks And Have Fun

You will be working hard, but it’s important to take regular breaks. This is because the more you work without breaks, the more likely you are to burn out and lose interest in your work. You can avoid this by taking regular breaks and finding ways to relax and unwind.

Try to schedule some time off each week where all you do is enjoy yourself. Go out with friends or family; watch some TV; play games; listen to music; cook a nice meal at home… whatever takes your fancy.

Just make sure that it’s something that allows you to relax and unwind so that when it comes back around again, you’ll be refreshed and ready for another session of hard work!

Final Thoughts

Freelancing offers many amazing opportunities to live a life on your terms. However, it also comes with some serious barriers that can be difficult if you’re unprepared for them. By knowing how to deal with these common challenges, you’ll be in a much better position to enjoy all the benefits of this lifestyle.

We hope that our tips will help you get started on the right foot! If there’s anything else we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know. We wish you all the best in your journey as a freelancer!