7 Challenges of International Freelancing & How to Overcome Them
Posted May 7, 2010 in How-To, Managing Clients
Where do your clients live?
With the prevalence of social media, it’s easy to connect with businesses all over the world. If you haven’t already dealt with an international client (a client outside of your own country), it is likely that you will eventually. This is especially true if you have a significant online presence.
However, there are a few challenges that every freelancer should consider before they accept an international project. In this post, we’ll list seven of those challenges and provide some advice on how you can overcome them.
Tips for Dealing with International Clients
If you deal with international clients, you are likely to face the following challenges:
- Time zone differences–Working with a client in another time zone can be a huge challenge. Your client may be awake when you normally sleep, and vice versa. Time zone differences can also affect deadlines. For example if you agree to turn a project in at 4:00 p.m. on Friday that may actually be a different time for your client than it is for you. When crafting client agreements, remember to specify the time zone. (I always specify that I work in central daylight time, but Australia also has a central daylight time zone so it is also important for me to mention that I am in North America.) If there is any doubt, it is also helpful to say something like, “4:00 p.m. on Friday your time, I believe that would be 8:00 a.m. for me where I am.”
- Currency differences–Different countries also use different currencies. Don’t assume that a client will pay you in your own currency. Rather, spell out the currency type that you prefer in your proposal to remove any doubt. Fortunately, many online payment services such as PayPal already have built-in currency converters.
- Language differences–It’s also important to remember that your client may be communicating with you in a language that is not their native tongue. Even within the same language there can be variations and dialects. For example, I recently had to ask a client whether they preferred that their copy be written in American English or British English. If something your client says sounds odd to you, it may be due to a language difference. Ask for a clarification so that you are sure what the client means.
- Legal differences–While I believe it’s always a good business practice to have a written agreement with your client and I feel that a contract can meet that need, a contract with an international client may not have the same legal status in their country as a contract you make with a client in your own country. There may also be country-specific business practices that you are not aware of. A little research about your potential client and the country where their business is located can be very helpful.
- Cultural issues–When dealing with international clients you should take into consideration cultural differences that may exist. For example, some cultures are very direct and to the point in their communications. Others are more circumspect. Some cultures love to negotiate and bargain, others… well, you get the point. If you’re not sure about culture differences, do a little research. Cindy King’s blog is a great resource for international freelancers.
- No face-to-face meetings–If your client is located outside of the country where your business is located (or even hundreds of miles away in the same country), then it’s likely that you will not get a chance to meet them face-to-face. Fortunately, with today’s technology you don’t need to be located in the same town as your clients. You can use applications like Skype, GoToMeeting, and DimDim to schedule conferences and share information.
- Tax law challenges–The tax laws in all countries are not the same. For example, if you are a U.S. based freelancer and you do over $600 worth of work for U.S. based company, by law that U.S. based company is supposed to send you a 1099 form for your income tax return. Foreign clients, on the other hand, usually do not send out 1099 forms. However, if you are in the U.S. you still need to remember to track any income from foreign clients and include it on your tax return.
Of course, there are other challenges that you may face as well. Depending on the part of the world and your own background, you will need to evaluate each difference you encounter and determine how it will affect the project and your business.
Clients All Over the World
My years of freelancing have given me the opportunity to meet clients and prospects from all over the world. I’ve done projects for clients in Canada, Europe, and even the Philippines. Since my website and blogs posts can be viewed from nearly anywhere that there is an Internet connection, I don’t expect the globalization of my business to slow down any time soon.
Share Your Thoughts and Tips
Are you an international freelancer? Have you faced any particular challenges or tips?
Share your stories and ideas in the comments.
Image by rubberpaw
Related posts:
- 18 Travel Tips for International Freelancers
- What Are Your Biggest Challenges In Your Freelance Career?
- 9 Tips to Overcome a Writers Block
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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52 Comments
poch
May 7th, 2010 at 9:24 amSome submission sites, especially in Europe, don’t accept freelancers from the Philippines. At first I just accepted that. Just recently, after more than a year, I encountered one again. I was irritated and thought it was racism so I expressed my thoughts to the said site which is very popular. Their explanation (I forgot) was acceptable so I apologized. They also told me that they would contact me if ever if I would still be available in the future and I agreed.
Radu Prisacaru
May 7th, 2010 at 9:30 amI feel I should say, I absolutely love your website. Could tell me how I can subscribe with it. I invite you to see my post, I hope you will find interesting too.
Sue Horner
May 7th, 2010 at 10:09 amGood points! I have to say the one about time zones also applies if you’re dealing with people in your own country. I’m on the east coast and often deal with people on the west coast, so make sure to spell out which time zone I’m talking about when setting up a telephone interview.
Najam Siddiqi
May 7th, 2010 at 10:34 amgreat work. you are right these challenges has been faced by international freelancers
Chris Mower
May 7th, 2010 at 10:39 amAlthough I’ve never had an overseas client, I’ve worked one-on-one teaching writing to foreigners especially from Korea and India. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s good to have both parties repeat what they understand the project to be and who is responsible for what. Even though both of you may speak English, culture differences can influence what one person understands vs. the other.
Matt Pritchett
May 7th, 2010 at 11:21 amExcellent post!
I would say that this could fall under cultural or language boundaries, but it is terribly difficult at times to get into the head of an international client to understand and communicate what they want from a project. American design is not European design!
Rachel
May 7th, 2010 at 11:41 amExcellent post …really great work…
Dr. Freelance
May 7th, 2010 at 11:48 amTo add another international facet to your post for those considering freelancing while living outside the U.S., I was an expatriate in Canada last year but continued servicing all of my U.S. clients.
Originally, our international tax adviser said I was going to have to pay Canadian taxes on all of my worldwide income, but luckily it turned out that by virtue of being a U.S. LLC without a permanent Canadian office, I was exempted. A good thing, too, because my projected tax bill was WAY higher. And yet another reason to be an LLC or other type of incorporated business!
Laura Spencer
May 7th, 2010 at 12:27 pmWow!
Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences on this subject.
Laura Spencer
May 7th, 2010 at 12:28 pmDr. Freelance — I’m glad that things worked out for you.
Johnny
May 7th, 2010 at 1:24 pmI have clients in Australia that are some of my favorites because they are so nice. With them being 12 hours ahead in time from me, though, communication gets to be a REAL chore. Maybe I have to move there ;)
jodi Kaplan
May 7th, 2010 at 1:45 pmI have done several projects with international clients, and it’s worked out really well. I work while they have dinner or sleep, and vice versa.
You do have to be careful though. Long ago, a colleague set up a meeting between the company president in New York and his counterpart in Hong Kong. There was a 12 hour time difference, and the colleague got the times mixed up. So, the president was up at the crack of dawn, when the meeting was at dinner time.
fwolf
May 7th, 2010 at 4:45 pmThis actually helped me a lot to understand WTF “1099 of course” does mean ;)
Saw it just a few days ago in a job description (at AuthenticJobs).
And yes, I am NOT from the US of A.
cu, w0lf.
Ignacio
May 7th, 2010 at 8:53 pmGreat post!
Talking about time zone differences, I’ve been using a nice tool called The World Clock Meeting Planner (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html).
I usually have to deal with customers from Europe and the US, so I find this tool very handy.
Sharon Hurley Hall
May 7th, 2010 at 9:38 pmI tend to tell clients which time zone I am in and it’s one of the questions on my client questionnaire. I also ask about which variety of English they want. Of course, If they want something unusual, it adds another layer of research as informal language can differ quite a lot between different English speaking nations. Great post, Laura – I had a real ‘this is my life’ moment when reading it.
Stephanie
May 7th, 2010 at 10:41 pmWorking as a freelance writer in the Philippines, 100% of my clients are all from abroad so I’m very familiar with the challenges mentioned above. Aside from communication and time zone difference, one of the biggest challenges I have to face every time I apply for a job is the client assuming that just because the work here is normally charged cheaper, they expect me to bid at a very low rate for my services. I know that I am worth more than that so around 70% of the jobs were given to others because my “bid was too high”.
Just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Laura Spencer
May 7th, 2010 at 11:14 pmThanks to everyone who shared their experiences and tips.
I’m sure that deciding whether or not to work with someone in a different country is a decision that many of us will eventually face.
Jonathan B
May 8th, 2010 at 12:58 amI think Language is the most dificult thing to overcome:
You have to adjust to the Slang.
You may not get the full picture.
Stacey Abler
May 8th, 2010 at 9:33 amI recently completed my first project for an international client and it went much more smoothly than I expected. I was definitely nervous at first at the possibility of language and cultural differences but all went well. Thanks for the tips. This will be very helpful in moving forward with other international clients in the future.
Dave Sherohman
May 8th, 2010 at 10:32 amDr. Freelance’s story can go either way, depending on the countries involved. I am currently living as an (American) expat in Sweden and have just finished dismantling my US S-corp that I had been working through while in the US because Swedish law does not allow foreign corporations/LLCs to operate in Sweden without opening a national branch office, which would have been both complex and expensive to set up. For a solo operation, working as a sole trader without the legal structure of a corp/LLC is the only realistic option here, regardless of your citizenship.
Dr. Freelance
May 8th, 2010 at 2:04 pmDave, that is a very interesting addendum, thank you! The lack of information about this complex topic is amazing, honestly. I won’t name the tax advisor, but they were hugely unhelpful, and I found out most of the details of my situation using old fashioned detective work. (Thank goodness for the net.)
There is a good possibility we will be doing an expat stint in England, so your comment alerts me to the need for another round of research to find out what THEIR rules are in order to service my U.S. clients. If anyone has experience in this realm, I am all ears!
Liz
May 8th, 2010 at 3:38 pmI use to work for a software company where developers live in 9 different locations. I frequently had 6:30am meetings at the office to accommodate for our Korean developers. Eek!
True point about the currency differences. It’s important to discuss the currency upfront, as you can lose quite a bit from the currency exchange. Or, if you decide to use the different currencies, make sure you invoice customers in the correct currency. I like using Billing Boss as my online invoicing tool because it converts invoices in the respective customer’s languages and currency, plus it’s free. For my Canadian and U.S. customers, my customers can pay me online when I email them my invoice and the money will route to the respective merchant accounts. Site is http://www.billingboss.com
Please note: This author has been compensated by Sage.
Ramona
May 8th, 2010 at 8:00 pmI am an international freelancer and indeed, I had to take care of all these details. The good thing is that, if you do manage all the things correctly you can have some great results in this job with clients you won’t ever be able to meet. I was working from Romania for people in the UK, China, USA or Australia. It’s a great feeling to know you deal with so many varied people.
TheAL
May 8th, 2010 at 8:27 pmI don’t deal with international clients, except very nearby Cananda (I’m in Michigan). But this was still a very valuable read.
paul
May 9th, 2010 at 9:36 amMost of my clients are in the US, and it works really well, because the time difference is only 1 or 2 hours, on the east coast. I’m in northeast Brazil.
My mother tongue is English so I don’t have any issues with language.
Najam Siddiqi
May 10th, 2010 at 10:44 amGreat Idea to overcome these challenges thanks for sharing,
Duncan
May 11th, 2010 at 2:41 amVery interesting article. I’m a freelancer in the Netherlands that deals with people all over the world and an extra facet of my dealings with my clients is to research, research, research. Plus my accountant is incredibly useful when it comes to the quirks of payments / documentation / forms.
Jordan Walker
May 11th, 2010 at 9:10 amThis hits home as I may be moving to Brazil with my wife. Thanks for the insight.
milosh
May 11th, 2010 at 4:40 pmi am an international freelancer, neo bedouin and a cyberspace-based startup cofounder. most of my work being done remotely.
time differences could be a real headache, i agree. even though i am used to it, i miss a meeting or two here and there.
legal matter depends a lot on where are you from originally, where do you live and where your clients are coming from. UK ltd, US LLC as well as offshore companies are the way. speaking of taxes, there are corporate and personal taxes. corporate taxes you pay where your company is established, while personal taxes you pay in a country you are a resident of. well, americans pay taxes in the US, never mind where do they live. most of countries treat you a resident and a tax payer if you spend there 183 days or more. if you live there on a visitor visa, like most exapts around south america and southeast asia do, you generally don’t need to pay them any taxes. some countries tax your world wide income (for example argentina), some don’t.
language, especially slang and colloquialisms could be an issue even when all parties share the same native language. i mean, there is more than enough space for misunderstanding between someone who speak spanish in argentina and spain or english in the USA and south africa.
a good accountant (experienced with freelancers / small businesses and international deals) is a must!
if anyone needs advices on freelancing from south america and southeast asia, feel free to drop me a line.
Jae Xavier
May 11th, 2010 at 7:18 pmThree years ago, I signed up my first international client for website design. Yeah, everything was going great…
Consultation + Needs Assessment
Signed Contract
Retainer Fee Received
Concept and Approval Loop
Site Launch Countdown
And then client ABORTS because they don’t have enough money! I could have done some financing with them but they broke contact completely.
nathan
June 19th, 2010 at 5:34 amI was just wondering how people receive payments from clients abroad?
Thanks
Dave Sherohman
June 19th, 2010 at 5:55 amnathan: I generally take payment from my US clients by wire transfer. For smaller projects, I’ll also accept PayPal, but, for anything more than a couple hundred dollars, PayPal’s fee will end up costing more than wire transfer fees, plus I trust my bank a good deal more than I do PayPal.
If you’re going to be frequently receiving payments in the same non-local currency, you should also look into setting up a foreign currency balance on your bank account, so that you’ll have more control over when currency conversions take place and can have them done when the exchange rate is more favorable. In my particular case, having a US dollar balance on my Swedish business account is doubly beneficial because I have ongoing expenses that need to be paid in USD and this allows me to take USD in and pay USD out without having to convert the money to SEK and back in the process, so I avoid two rounds of pointless currency conversion costs.
nathan
June 19th, 2010 at 6:01 amThanks very much Dave, thats a great insight. I am a Brit living in spain and I want to find clients in the UK so I need to figure out the best way to get paid. Up until now I had only seen paypal as an option.
milosh
June 19th, 2010 at 3:55 pmnathan i am a british designer too. presently based in argentina. i get paid by my clients into my account in the UK or paypal. western union or moneygram are the way to go too, but their rates kill. you can consider setting up yourself an offshore company and a bank account in gibraltar too. plenty of brits in spain operate this way. if you need any help, just hit me up.
Ahmed
September 27th, 2011 at 4:14 aminternational freelance writing has its fare share of challenges but the thing that matters is how to really overcome them
catherine
November 10th, 2011 at 4:12 pmI am just starting to do technical editing for international clients – can you make any comments about the ways to get paid? So far I have used Paypal but would like to understand different options. Thanks!
Ready Assembled Bedroom Furniture
April 14th, 2012 at 8:12 amFor what its worth I will be back again tomorrow, very original. Cheers
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