Freelancing is not an easy industry. While there are some advantages on freelancing compared with a regular job, there are some pitfalls that test any freelancer resistance and strength.
Here are some of the most common freelance pitfalls:
1 – Unemployment or lack of projects
Freelancers don’t have long term contracts so they rely on many new projects or custom orders to be able to live and pay their bills. Sometimes it’s possible that a freelancer is completing an important project and he doesn’t know if he’ll get another opportunity soon.
That adds some pressure and stress for most freelancers, and that’s why they usually try to diversify their skills and work on multiple platforms, but the problem is still there.
Even when a freelancer is a well-known seller on a specific network, he might experience a decrease in the orders he gets or an increase in the competition which will damage his pricing and margins, and might end up in unemployment.
2 – Find free time
This one might seem strange especially after the 1st pitfall. But in freelancing, you can have more orders than you can handle, and once you notice it, there are no orders coming in. So, on periods when a freelancer is successful, he might be getting so many orders that he has to work 7 days a week and late at night.
Then out of nowhere, the new orders might stop. It’s hard for a freelancer to plan a weekend off or some holidays because if he stops his services when he’s getting so many orders, there’s a risk that when he comes out he doesn’t have any new orders… Freelancing is an extreme industry where freelancers can have more orders than they can handle, and then go to the exact opposite and not finding any new customers or projects.
3 – Risks and Scams
The risks and potential for scams are always there. Freelancers usually work for a worldwide audience so they are not that protected when someone scams them. If you work for someone on the other side of the world, he might scam you and there’s not much you can do about it. It’s one of the risks of this business, but reality is that sometimes that can be the freelancer rent money on the line.
Valuable projects are particularly risky since the freelancer has to commit too much time for the tasks and projects so if he gets scammed, he might not make it.
But even small freelancing projects are not immune to scams and dishonest people.
These are 3 of the most common freelancing pitfalls. Of course, it’s not all bad in freelancing, and freelancers can spend some time with their family or live anywhere in the world and still make a living.
But if you’re starting a career as a freelancer you need to keep these pitfalls in mind and try to reduce these risks as much as you possibly can.
