Are Freelancing Expectations Keeping You from Your Ultimate Success?
Posted February 17, 2011 in Inspiration, Lifestyle, News
No matter what your freelancing specialty is, I think it’s fair to say that we all entered freelancing with a certain set of expectations. Of course, your expectations were most likely different mine.
If you’ve been freelancing for any significant length of time, you probably already realize that there are some differences between your expectations before you were a freelancer and your actual experience as a freelancer. In the past, we’ve done a really good job at comparing common freelancing expectations with the reality of freelancing.
In this post, I’m going to do something different. I’m going to explain why your freelancing expectations may be keeping you from success and why you should let those old expectations go.
One Positive Factor About Expectations
Before we totally dismiss your freelancing expectations, I think it’s only fair to admit that your expectations may be what motivated you to become a freelancer in the first place. If you enjoy freelancing, then it’s definitely a positive factor that something gave you enough courage to strike out on your own. If that something happens to be an expectation, so be it.
But, there comes a time for many freelancers when they have face down those same expectations that spurred them into freelancing in the first place so that they can move forward.
6 Reasons to Move Beyond Your Initial Expectations
After you’ve been freelancing for a while, you may find that you need to face your initial unrealistic expectations and make a course adjustment to replace them with a more realistic perspective. Here are six reasons why:
- Unfair comparisons. You may have started out in freelancing by comparing yourself to another freelancer. You may have expected that your freelancer career would progress the same way that their career did. Without any other information, that comparison may have been the only thing you had to base your early decisions on. However, every freelancer’s experience is a little bit different. Once you have some experience, it’s important to be fair to yourself and base your decisions on your own experiences.
- Incomplete information. When you started freelancing, you didn’t really know what it would be like…and that’s okay. Your first decisions and goals as a freelancer were most likely based on incomplete information. This means that you may have actually overlooked opportunities when you started out simply because you weren’t aware of them or didn’t know that you had the abilities to pursue them. Once you’ve been freelancing for a while, you will have better information about freelancing opportunities.
- Changing environment. One thing about the freelancing environment is that it is constantly changing. Almost every month, new tools become available for the freelancer. This is true regardless of your freelancing profession. Also, as the tools change, the demand for freelancing services changes. What clients expected from their freelancer five years ago is not what clients expect from their freelancer today. If you’re in freelancing for the long-term, it’s important for your freelancing business to keep up with the changing freelance environment.
- The unforeseen. Let’s face it. No matter how much research you did before you became a freelancer, there’s always at least one thing that comes up (once you’ve actually started) that you had never thought about. It’s the unforeseen events that often threaten the success of your projects (especially if you have no Plan B). However, as you gain freelancing experience you will start to accumulate a list of these possible unforeseen events and develop a possible plan for handling each of them.
- Underestimates. At first, nearly every freelancer struggles with underestimating either the time required for a project, the cost involved, or both. It’s a rare freelancer that understands how to accurately schedule his or her time and the cost involved with a project when they are first starting out. Most freelancers expect projects to be much easier than they actually are. However, like some of these other reasons for moving beyond your initial expectations, this is something that usually improves as you gain experience.
- Frustration and resentment. If you’re still stuck trying to apply the original set of expectations that you operated under when you first became a freelancer, you may be feeling a bit frustrated. You may even be feeling a bit of resentment. That’s perfectly understandable because, while those initial expectations may have been the best information you had at one time, many of them are no longer valid.
What About You?
Are you still trying to live up to your original expectations that you had when you started freelancing? If so, it may be time to adjust your expectations to take into consideration what you’ve learned.
Share some of the expectations you had when you started out as a freelancer in the comments.
Image by jurvetson
Related posts:
- Setting Expectations & Why You Should Question Your Clients
- The Freelancing Success Code
- 8 Tips for Success When Freelancing On the Road
- Talent Versus Skill — Which Leads to Freelancing Success?
- A Freelancer’s Ultimate Christmas Wish List
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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13 Comments
Bogdan Pop
February 17th, 2011 at 8:40 amI think you should still keep in mind unrealistic expectations too, or set some if you haven’t done before jumping into freelancing. Why? Because these goals that are almost impossible to nail may give you every now and then the exact kick you need to go forward!
Rachel Small
February 17th, 2011 at 8:49 amWhen I first started freelancing, I thought I would have no problem working from home all the time and staying focused. I’ve had to work really hard at maximizing my productivity and eliminating distractions. Many friends think that because I work from home, I’m always available – it’s been a learning experience for them too.
Laura Spencer
February 17th, 2011 at 9:24 amI understand what you’re saying Bogdan. You certainly don’t want to lose your inspiration. On the other hand, if the expectation is unrealistic isn’t there a point when it becomes a frustration?
Rachel Small–Friends (and family) thinking you’re available during the day is a common freelancing problem. One way to partially offset is to talk about your clients and your deadlines so that they understand you’re busy. You can say things like, “Wow, this week I have to finish a site for an electronics company and start work on x. I hope I can get it done.”
Brad Chacos
February 17th, 2011 at 9:30 amI’ve been freelancing part time for about three years, and full time for just under a year. I underestimated the amount of time needed for marketing at first and ended up spending considerably more hours ‘spreading the word’ than I thought I would initially. Fortunately, I enjoy meeting new people and getting my name out, but it required me to shift my expected workload each day, leaving less time for actual writing.
Sponsi
February 17th, 2011 at 9:33 amOMG you are striking me straight into the heart with your articles… so true, so close to my current state at the moment. Currently for me it’s time of big decisions and things in a sort of “let’s-wait-what-happens” mode. I’m going to Liverpool in the beginning of March, in April – to Edinburgh to have a look at possibilities… still so many things await final movements in Poland… ehhhh… but it’s so much more exciting than my previous job, a full time teacher of English (YUK! no more regular school teaching! : ) I LOVE design, freelancing, IT, web… and everything that with the tune of Chase & Status – Blind Faith (ft. Liam Bailey) – plus changes in the world… oh, don’t let me get too emotional : )
Laura Spencer
February 17th, 2011 at 11:22 amBrad Chacos–Spreading the word is crucial to freelancing success, but if you’re a new freelancer who has never had to do that it’s easy to underestimate the amount of time it takes. A rule of thumb that I’ve heard is that marketing should take about 50% of your time.
Sponsi, Wow! It sounds like you have a lot of changes in the works. I’m so glad that you were able to relate to the post. Best wishes for all your upcoming plans.
Some Design Blog
February 17th, 2011 at 12:28 pmOne off-the-mark expectation I hear over and over again is the when new freelancers (usually ones who have only ever been employees) don’t realize how much non-billable work they’re going to have to do to keep their business going (marketing, invoicing, accounting, etc.). They look at their billable rate and think that if they bill $X per hour, then they make $X per hour. Then they’re shocked when they realize how untrue that is. Thanks for the reminders on these, Laura!
Aubrie
February 17th, 2011 at 8:31 pmI definitely hear you about overestimating your freelancing projects. I’m just starting out as a freelancer, but I’ve actually had a couple of false-starts in the past because of my uncertainty of how to be a “good” freelancer. I don’t know anyone in my area who stands as a successful, independent freelancer, so, even though I’ve been told I’m perfectly capable, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that I’m setting myself up for a bleak future and agonizing failure. I always end up working too hard for chump change, but when you work under those sorts of beliefs, the quality of your work tends to suffer!
Does anybody have any tips on how to fight this?
Bogdan Pop
February 18th, 2011 at 3:22 am@Laura
I guess there’s a point when such expectations could generate frustrations. Hasn’t happened to me yet though. Perhaps my expectations are not that unrealistic? I don’t know, but I think the best way would be finding a balance between tangible goals and a couple sci-fi. A bizarre vision could spark some innovation too.
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