However, there are a few individuals who just aren’t cut out to be freelancers (and that’s perfectly okay).

In this post, I list some characteristics that I’ve observed over the years of former freelancers who ended up returning to traditional employment. Most of these folks were quite miserable as freelancers. If you see several of these characteristics in yourself, you may want to carefully reconsider whether freelancing is really the right choice for you.

Freelancing May Not Be For You If…

In the past we’ve shared a few of the drawbacks of freelancing, but sometimes you’re just not right for freelancing.

Here is my list of possible indications that freelancing isn’t right for you:

1. Your only source of socialization comes from work. When I tell people what I do for a living and they realize that I work from home the most response that I receive is “I could never do that–I’d miss my co-workers too much.” Of course, if you really want to freelance there are many workarounds to the loneliness problem, but if you completely depend on your job for your social life freelancing may not be for you.
2. You’re much more comfortable when someone tells you what to do. Let’s face it. Not everyone is a self-starter (and that’s perfectly okay). Some people prefer to have someone who gives them directions to follow. If this is you, you probably won’t enjoy freelancing very much. As a freelancer, there will be no direct supervisor. You will be responsible for your own work.
3. You like to have very regular hours. While freelancers can and do set regular business hours, nearly every freelancer that I know departs from them occasionally. Whether it’s to meet a deadline, to handle an overload, or simply to upgrade your website–freelancing overtime (at least some of the time) seems to be a fairly standard practice.
4. The only reason you became a freelancer is because you hated your job. Hating your job is not really a sufficient reason to become a freelancer. It’s possible that you were in the wrong job, or that you were working with someone who was unusually unpleasant. (If you think freelancing will allow to avoid dealing with difficult people, think again.)
5. Your personal finances are a complete disaster. If you can’t handle your personal finances, why do you think you could run a small business (which is essentially what freelancing is)? While you don’t need to be an accountant to be a freelancer, keeping good financial records is a must if you are to succeed.
6. You always do the absolute minimum that you can do and still get by. There are many jobs that don’t require much of their employees. Some employees prefer this type of work and look for fulfillment through hobbies and other interests. However, if you cut corners or try to coast by as a freelancer your customers will probably leave you for someone more diligent.
7. You really have no idea what you’re good at doing. One of the basic requirements for freelancing is that you have a marketable skill. If you have no idea what you’re good at doing (no marketable skill), then you will have a really difficult time as a freelancer. It may be a good idea to try out a few traditional jobs to see what you can do before you freelance.
8. You are looking to get rich quick. Freelancing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, no matter what the scammers may tell you. For the most part, the overnight success stories are months (and sometimes years) in the making. Every successful freelancer that I know worked very hard for their success. If you are considering freelancing as a shortcut to wealth you are bound to be disappointed.
9. You think of freelancing as passive income. You dream of relaxing pool-side while your freelancing business rakes in the cash–but for nearly all freelancers this is not the reality of freelancing. Freelancing takes a lot of effort. Even if you set your business up as an agency and outsource much of your work, you are still ultimately responsible for what your business produces.
10. You can’t control your temper. As I mentioned earlier, freelancing requires a great deal of self-control. The freelancer who is subject to fits of anger (and displays that anger to clients or publicly through social media) may have trouble staying in business. Freelancing actually requires you to be able to listen calmly and courteously to customer complaints and gripes without lashing out.

Of course, most of these characteristics have a workaround or solution for someone who is really dedicated to the idea of becoming a freelancer. However, in my experience, those individuals who aren’t cut out for freelancing won’t even bother to try those workarounds.

Your Turn

Can you think of any other indications that freelancing is not right for an individual? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image by quinn.anya

However, some customer requests are just plain unreasonable. This post describes some “hoops” that aren’t worth jumping through–even to make a client happy.

Unreasonable Client Demands Before a Project

Often, unreasonable requests from clients begin before the project even starts. Sometimes, they begin before the client even officially hires the freelancer. Here are three examples:

• Asking for free samples–While it’s not unreasonable to want to see an example of a client’s finished work, under most circumstances the freelancer’s portfolio should be sufficient. Unfortunately, a few troublesome clients want more. They’ll ask a freelancer to create a sample without offering to pay for the sample work. In nearly all cases, this winds up being a bad deal for the freelancer. If you think about it, a website owner who asks 100 applicants (not an unreasonable number in today’s economy) to each create a writing “sample article” without pay may receive dozens of articles at no cost.
• Scheduling endless interviews–While requesting one interview, or even two interviews, is a reasonable client request–scheduling four or five interviews in an effort to find the best freelance candidate is not reasonable. For one thing, interviews take a freelancer’s time. And for freelancers, time is money. It’s certainly understandable to want to learn more about potential candidates, especially if the client will be investing a lot of money in a project. However, the client also has the responsibility to filter out as many possible freelancers up front so that the number of interviews needed can be minimized.
• Asking for a low introductory rate–You’ve probably heard this one. I know that I have. A “client” approaches and asks if you’ll take on his or her project at a low rate–with the promise of future work from that same client that pays more. Sadly, this promise of additional work rarely materializes. The freelancer who agrees to this arrangement usually finds themselves working a single project at well below their market rate.

If you’re asked to jump through any of these hoops, your best option is usually to just say “no.” Remember, clients who are unreasonable before you are hired are not likely to suddenly become more reasonable once they’ve selected you.

Unreasonable Client Demands During a Project

Sometimes, unreasonable client demands don’t materialize until after a freelancer signs a contract with a client. Here are some examples of unreasonable demands that occur during a freelancing project:

• Asking for endless revisions–While it’s customary to make minor revisions to keep a customer happy, endless revisions are unreasonable. A client who demands revision after revision–even to the point of changing the scope of the project–is being unfair. Worse yet, multiple demands for a revision can delay billing, which often means that the freelancer doesn’t get paid when they expected to get paid.
• Demanding the freelancer be continuously available–The majority of clients don’t pay enough for a freelancer to dedicate 100% of their time to the client’s project. This means that most freelancers juggle several projects in order to make ends meet. However, some clients act as though their project is the only one the freelancer is working on. They may call multiple times each day for status reports, make sudden rush demands, or become upset if a freelancer doesn’t answer an email instantly.
• Not holding up their part of the bargain–The flip side of the client who wants a continuously available freelancer is the client who is never around themselves. They don’t return drafts on time. They don’t answer questions or provide information as agreed upon. They can’t be reached by phone or email for days at a time.

The best way to avoid some of these unreasonable situations is to make sure that you have a well-written contract with your client before you begin work. The contract should specify how many revisions and meetings you’ll be responsible for as well as list deadlines for both freelancer and client.

Unreasonable Client Demands After a Project

Even after a project ends, some clients are still making unreasonable demands. Here are some examples of that:

• Asking for additional time to pay the freelancer–Let’s face it, freelancers have to eat too. A client who doesn’t pay on time as agreed upon negatively impacts the freelancer’s cash flow. It also takes the freelancer’s time, since they must now make extra efforts to try and collect the money that is due them. From my perspective, a client should not hire a freelancer unless they have the money to pay the freelancer in hand.
• Complaining about work even though it met the requirements–Some people just can’t be pleased–and that goes for some clients too. No matter what you do, they aren’t going to be happy with it. In this situation, minimizing the client’s unhappiness is sometimes the best a freelancer can do.

Your Turn

When you find yourself jumping through hoops for an unreasonable client, remember you can choose not to work with them.

Have I left out any unreasonable client demands? Have you ever dealt with an unreasonable client? Share your answers in the comments. (Please don’t use specific company or individual names–be creative.)

Image by agiamba

Needless to say, internet marketing experts and other professionals associated with this industry used to frown upon the idea of doing freelance work for others. IMO, times have changed, and starting an online business is not as good an idea as it was a few years ago.

These days, I meet a lot of professionals (for example: SEO, writers, developers, designers, etc) who are fretting over the fact that they are doing all the work while the “company” gets all the riches and growth without doing anything. That viewpoint is not entirely wrong, but things are not easy on the client side of table either. Of course, experiences will turn out differently for different people.

However, I believe that starting an online venture is not the ultimate answer to success any more. In this post, I’ve listed some reasons why I think working as a freelancer for others can sometimes be a better choice than starting your own venture.

Reason #1: Start Earning Money Right Away

No matter how good your business plan is or how competent you are, it will always take some time for your business/website to get going. In the beginning, you will have to invest a lot of time and resources, so you need to have the financial means and patience to go through the initial period when you will see little or no results. For someone looking to start a career, it’s hard to have that kind of financial support and patience.

On the other hand, when you work as a freelancer for others, you can start to earn straight away. Having the rewards in your hand at the end of each month (or at the conclusion of each project) is important, especially in this day and age when the economy and businesses are not doing well.

Reason #2: Stability Factor

Having your own business might appear to be a more stable option than freelancing for others, where you can lose the job or project at any time. But, to be honest, business owners don’t really enjoy that much stability and peace of mind. This is especially true of the online businesses.

As we’ve seen in the case of Google Panda update, businesses that were going great came to a sudden halt with their websites disappearing from the first pages of Google. That might sound like a minor setback for those who are not aware of the power of Google, but the truth is that it’s big enough change to totally eradicate a small business that doesn’t have the budget to sustain and invest in a recovery process.

What’s good about freelance jobs is that if you’re skilled and good at what you do, you will get another job (project or client) even if you’ve lost your current one. For a business owner, it isn’t as easy to simply dump one business and go for another one.

Reason #3: Fewer Administrative Chores

You still have to organize your work when working for others as a freelancer, but it’s far less time-consuming and stressful than managing day-to-day business activities that range from marketing to finance and from human resource management to bookkeeping.

While you can often get away with a simple explanation when you can’t do freelance work for a client on a particular day, in business, you will get no real days off. This is true even if you’ve got people working for you. You will still have to oversee many things.

Reason #4: Income Factor

Contrary to the popular belief, working for others doesn’t necessarily mean having less income than running your own enterprise. You can earn quite a good income while doing freelance work for others.

For me, having a handful of good clients assures me a better income than some of my friends who have recently started their own ventures. Of course, not all freelancers earn that much, but not all businesses are producing bags full of cash either.

Reason #5: Stress Factor

Hardly any job is stress-free. However, people working for others often tend to consider their boss or managers’ job to be hassle-free, mainly because they don’t have to report to anybody. The truth is that the pressure that comes from management is less than the pressure of being in charge when almost everything depends on your performance and decisions.

A company will manage if some freelancers don’t deliver. However, a business might be seriously affected if the owner was incompetent, and that pressure takes the stress to a whole new level.

Your Turn

Which do you prefer–doing freelance work for a client or starting your own venture? Share your answers in the comments.

Image by notmargaret

You start by building a website, and showcasing your work. But you don’t have any traffic, so you make your way over to the online freelance boards like eLance, oDesk and 99Designs.

And finding work for decent pay is a lot harder than the online job boards make it out to be.

Sure, you’re really good at what you do, but you don’t have much of a portfolio to show, and in the online world, most prospects don’t know you from Adam.

Not to mention the enormous amount of online competition, and that most business owners are very hesitant about trying a new freelancer on for size.

But eventually, you get a gig. The key is not to blow it…

My Flaky Freelancer Story

I was inspired to write this post by a recent “flaky freelancer” experience.

I wrote a book called Engagement from Scratch!, about how super-community builders create a loyal audience. I got 30 big-name community-builders to write chapters.

Since I’m self-publishing, I needed a cover design.

I set up a design contest, and received a bunch of design submissions–some good, and some not so good. There was one design in particular that I thought had potential. I asked for revisions, and the designer agreed to make them, so I awarded the project.

That’s when things started going off the rails. The freelancer wasn’t responsive, and would take days to reply to my emails. Every round of revision, that was supposed to take days, ended up taking weeks.

After a few rounds, when we were 95% of the way there, the freelancer flaked out, and disappeared. She didn’t give me the latest design, so I was stuck with an early-stage concept, and I had to recreate all the work that she had already done (and I’m not much of a designer!).

I was able to salvage the project (as you can see), but I’d never work with her again. And unfortunately, I’m a lot less inclined to give new designers a chance, because I’m afraid of the risk to my budget and timelines.

What lessons can freelancers learn from my experience?

It’s Not About the Designs!

The biggest mistake that freelancers make is thinking of themselves as artists, instead of service providers. They believe that what matters most is the quality of their work, and the creative process that makes their work as good as it possibly can be.

Well, unfortunately, that just isn’t the truth.

Sure, design matters–but there are a lot of designers out there, and while some are exceptionally good and some are exceptionally bad, most of them are more or less the same in terms of design skills.

What differs, though, is their communication, work ethic and reliability–that’s what the client experiences on a day-to-day basis, and that’s what creates the vast majority of frustration that clients experience with freelancers.

The biggest risk of hiring a freelancer isn’t that the design won’t look good–the freelancer won’t be responsive, will be difficult to work with, and the process will drag way past the deadline.

So… how can you make sure you don’t fit the stereotype, don’t flake out on your client, and do wind up with a lot of repeat business?

It starts with attitude…

It’s Business, Not an Art Project

The first ingredient to creating a positive experience for your customers is to treat your work as a business, rather than as an art project.

This is particularly difficult for freelancers who are just starting out, because for them it really is a side project, that they do after work, and on weekends. And of course, life happens–you always have to deal with friends, family drama, the kids, etc.

But if your freelance project is at the bottom of your list of priorities, then your client will know it, and won’t be happy. They’re paying you to do a job, and they expect the job to be done–professionally, and in a timely manner. They expect you to be responsive, and communicative.

So make a mental shift–this isn’t a project, it’s a business.

And in a service business, if you want to keep your clients happy, you need to remember the 3 Cs…

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

In real-estate it’s location, and in services it’s communication–that’s what it’s all about.

You see, the tricky thing about services is that while you’re off working hard, the client sees… nothing. They don’t see you working, and they don’t see all the steps of the process that aren’t ready for client consumption.

Which is fine. They shouldn’t see any of that–all they need to see is a finished product, right?

But along the way, they need to know that progress is being made, and that their project is in good hands. The way to give them that confidence is through communication–both responsive, and proactive.

Responsive communication is about answering your clients’ emails and phone calls promptly (meaning definitely within 24 hours, and ideally faster than that), and thoroughly (answering all of their questions, addressing all of their concerns, and going the extra mile to make sure that they are 100% comfortable, and know exactly what is going on).

Proactive communication is the same, except that you don’t wait for the client to email you and ask what’s going on for you to get in touch. Email them on a regular basis (one to two times per week) to keep them in the loop, tell them how things are progressing, and what they can expect to happen next.

Assuming you do all of that, all that remains is to deliver (you can’t just communicate excuses all the time). Deadlines have to be met, and revisions have to be made graciously, and quickly.

Remember, I’m the Customer…

Some of what I’ve written here may seem a little unfair to freelancers.

After all, many freelancers do see themselves as artists, and life is happening all around them–they have jobs, and families, and all of those things are more important than the random freelancing gig that they got on some website.

But the fact of the matter is that I’m the customer, and I get to decide what my expectations and priorities are when I’m hiring a freelancer.

So if you’re serious about your work, and about your freelancing business, then I hope to have the opportunity to work with you.

And if you’re some flake whose freelancing hobby is making real freelancers look bad, then get out of the market already.

What Do You Think?

Am I being unfair? Are my expectations unreasonable? Does it matter, if I’m the customer and I decide who I want to be working with?

This is my story of how I became a freelance writer and of what I learned in the process.

Lowered Expectations

When I started out, I was confident, arrogant even, completely sure of success, ready to straddle the world of freelancing with firmly planted feet, dazzle clients and fellow-freelancers alike. Of course, all these illusions were shattered within a week as I realized the going rates for freelancers without experience ran in the low single figures per article, and that finding (and keeping) clients was harder than playing pool with a pencil.

Humbled, I eventually settled for a low paying job writing keyword rich, SEO articles for an internet marketer. It was a far cry from delusions of month long paid assignments for Rolling Stone, but it got the ball rolling nonetheless. After a week of effort, I finally saw a $100 payment sitting in my PayPal account, which did wonders for my motivation. I was soon combing through listings, trying to catch more lucrative gigs.

Building a Business

Within two months, I had a solid roster of clients who would sometimes even refer their friends to me. Work streamed in, and I could now charge at least in the low double digits per article. Visions of grandeur were rekindled–paid articles for New Yorker dripping with grit and character, gigs for Vanity Fair, hobnobbing with celebrities for People!

Another Run-In with Reality

Three months later, however, I was rolling in fatigue, not hundred dollar bills. The work was too tedious, didn’t pay nearly as much as I’d hoped, and finding more clients was becoming more and more difficult. Worse, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get better paying clients. Exhausted, I took a week long break, concentrated on college, and let emails from clients go unanswered. Within ten days, I lost most of my clients, and was back to square one.

(Hard) Lessons Learned

I neglected my budding freelancing career for a month before I ventured on to job boards again. This time, however, instead of blindly jumping in with naïve assumptions of success, I took the time to analyze my first failure. Here’s what I concluded:

1. Loyalty Matters. My clients dumped me within a week of unanswered emails because I hadn’t taken the time to build loyalty. A loyal client will stick to you, cajole you, coax you and wait for weeks before flicking on the kill switch. I was, to them, merely a writer, not a core part of their business. They could fire me, and they would just as soon find another writer to fill the spot left behind.
2. Personality Matters. After analyzing the dozens of articles I’d written in the past six months, it was apparent why I couldn’t find better paying jobs: no personality. My writing was dry (and not in a good way), generic, lacking the width or the depth that gets top freelancers those hundred dollar projects. Each article opened with an over-the-counter introduction. The verbs were listless, and the adjectives lacked punch. Each article blended into the other, no matter the topic.
3. Be a Writer. I was a writer, not a content provider. There is a world of difference between the two (more on this later).
4. Where You Look for Work Counts. I was looking in the wrong places for the right jobs. Hit a job board frequented by internet marketers looking for cheap articles and it’s unlikely you’ll find gigs that will pay you what you’re worth.

Applying the Lessons Learned

In my second inning as a freelancer I decided to do things a little differently. Some of these changes were:

1. Establish Relationships. From a drone that shot off template-like emails to clients, I started working to develop relationships. Connecting outside of email, through Skype, LinkedIn or even Facebook helps to put a face and a personality behind an impersonal email exchange. Suddenly, for my clients, I wasn’t ‘Joe Writer’ anymore, but a living, breathing human who was extra polite in his Skype chats, and cheerful in his emails. Clients think thrice before firing someone like that (not that I’m advocating being late or unpunctual).
2. First Impressions Count. As a freelancer, your greatest assets are your clients. Bludgeon them with awesomeness from the very first assignment they send you. You want them to tell their friends, “Hey Fred, I found a great, enthusiastic, talented freelance writer. Maybe you should give him a try,” and not “Hey Fred, here’s a lousy, crabby writer with no personality who is hardly ever punctual. Give him a try, but don’t pay him too much.”
3. Pump in Some Personality. Nobody enjoys reading a dry, dead article by a no-name writer. Bring in a little zest of your own, pump in some personality, use words that you enjoy in a writing style that stands out. This is the number one reason why writers fail to jump to a higher pay grade: better publications simply don’t want a cookie cutter writer. They want someone whose writing jumps out, gets tweeted, liked on Facebook, and forwarded via email. Think of TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington. His voice had a certain ‘swagger’ (as Fred Wilson defined it) that attracted and retained an audience. It’ll take time to develop a unique voice, but once you do, stick to it, and push it into every article that you write.
4. Step Beyond Writing. Recently, a client contacted me for a dozen blog posts in the green tech space. After a couple of emails back and forth, I realized that this client knew very little about marketing, and even less about how content works online. I invited him to Skype and had an hour long chat with him. I learned about his objectives, the breadth of his knowledge and the future vision for the site. Instead of merely offering a dozen articles, I offered him a complete content strategy: what kind of articles to write, how to write them, and what voice to write them in. We ended up brainstorming a bunch of article ideas, and a couple of days later, I was in charge of the site’s entire content strategy with two other writers working under my wings. It pays to go the extra step and work with a client on things that don’t fall under his area of expertise. As a writer, you have to constantly find opportunities that leverage your skills. If you come across a client who doesn’t quite know what he is doing, take the time to help him out. Formulate a content strategy tailored to his needs. It never really hurts to ask a few questions.

What’s Your Story?

I’ve shared my story (and what I learned). What’s yours?

Colleagues and even acquaintances would comment on how my skills were perfect for becoming a freelancer and still I hesitated. I just “knew” something major and bad would happen if I left my comfortable corporate job for the uncertainty of freelancing.

Well, it turns out that I was wrong about something bad happening. I’ve been freelancing for over nine years now. Most of my biggest fears never came true at all.

In case your fears are keeping you from taking that next step, I’m sharing them here in this post.

What I Was Afraid Of

In no particular order, these were my twelve biggest fears:

1. Fear of never having work. One of my biggest fears that I had before becoming a freelancer was that I would never get a client. Since I had mostly worked in a traditional environment, I think this is a natural fear. However, there is work out there if you look for it.
2. Fear of not being good enough. Another fear that nearly kept me from freelancing was the fear that I might not be talented or skilled enough to make it on my own. Even though I’d always received positive feedback on my writing, I was afraid that it wasn’t good enough.
3. Fear of being scammed. You’ve heard the horror stories. I’ve heard the horror stories. There are scammers out there and some of them prey on freelancers. However, if you do your homework about each new client you can greatly minimize your chance of being scammed.
4. Fear of losing my identity. I once knew someone whose identity was stolen. It took her several years to fully recover. One of my early fears was providing too much information. However, if you’re selective about who you provide personal information to, odds are that you’ll be okay.
5. Fear of being ridiculed. Being publicly ridiculed would be even worse than not being good enough. Nobody wants public humiliation. Fortunately, while I’ve faced a few comment trolls–most people online aren’t out to ridicule you (especially if you conduct yourself in a professional fashion).
6. Fear of loneliness. Perhaps the biggest fear that didn’t come true was the fear of loneliness. I was used to the office camaraderie and regular lunches with colleagues. I thought I would be really lonely on my own. However, I schedule regular face-to-face lunches with friends and stay active in social media, so loneliness isn’t the problem I thought it would be.
7. Fear of ruining my career. I was worried that a stint as a (possibly unsuccessful) freelancer would ruin my career. I need not have worried so much. First of all, I wasn’t unsuccessful. Secondly, freelancing is becoming more and more common. It’s not at all unusual for someone to move from freelancing to a corporate job and back.
8. Fear of dealing with angry clients. I hate confrontations. Again, I’d read about freelancers facing unreasonable and angry clients and had no wish to experience that firsthand. Fortunately, all of my clients have been reasonable. Doing a little homework upfront about your clients can pay off.
9. Fear of not being paid. Okay, this one did happen in a very small way. After doing business with a client for about seven years, their business finally failed and I didn’t get the last pay that they owed me. But, overall, most clients do pay for my work. (Charging a percentage upfront doesn’t hurt either.)
10. Fear of working for peanuts. Another fear that I had was that I would only be able to find jobs that paid (gasp!) even less than minimum wage. That would certainly be the equivalent of freelancing failure. Although, I’ve had my share of low-paying gigs, fortunately I’ve usually been able to command a decent rate.
11. Fear of having to work 24/7. One of the reasons that I was drawn to freelancing in the first place was to have control over my own workload. What if, somehow, I underestimated my projects and wound up working around the clock all the time? While I have done some overtime, overall my hours as a freelancer have been reasonable.
12. Fear of being thought of as a failure. No one wants friends and family to think that they’re a failure and I’m no exception. At first, my friends and family didn’t actually understand what I was doing. A few even tried to “help” me find a corporate job again. Gradually, however, acceptance has come.

Your Turn

What fears did you have before you went freelance?

Are you thinking about becoming a freelancer right now? What fears do you have?

Share your answers in the comments.

Image by chad_k

If you’ve been freelancing for several years, you may be pretty comfortable by now.

You’ve got an established client base–folks who come to you regularly when they need something done. You know and like them and they know and like you. Plus, you’ve found your ideal niche and as a bonus, you’re really good at it. The niche work that you do is just challenging enough to hold your interest without shaking you up too much.

All in all, after several years of struggling things are getting pretty comfortable in your neck of the freelancing universe. Things are so comfortable, in fact, that you feel like you can relax and take things easy–but should you?

I say “no.” It’s good for everyone, and especially freelancers, to move out of your comfort zone from time to time. Tackle something new. Step outside of the comfortable freelancing cocoon you’ve wrapped around yourself. You can even (gasp!) take the chance that you might fail at something you try.

Here are three reasons why you must move out of your comfort zone.

Reason 1: You’ll Never Know Unless You Try

Throughout history, the greatest discoveries were made by those who stepped out of their comfort zone. Time and time again, the successful people are those who are willing to take chances and try new things.

If you’re a freelancer, you’ve probably already done this at least once. At some point, you bypassed the comfortable, expected path of employment to create your own freelancing business. So, you know exactly what I’m talking about. What would your life be like now if you had never taken a chance on freelancing?

Odds are that there’s something right now that is staring you in the face that you should take a chance on.

• It may be learning a new design tool–you know you should give it a try, but you are really comfortable with what you already know.
• It may be that you need to engage in some face-to-face networking to build your client base, but the very idea makes you nervous.
• Or, maybe you need to bring someone else on board, a partner or a subcontractor, in order to build your business.

Whatever it is that you’re facing, it’s an opportunity for growth.

Reason 2: Growth Can Be Uncomfortable

Of course, growth is often uncomfortable. This is just as true of business growth as it is of personal growth.

First of all, there’s the extra time that you are likely to have to put in to learn something new. Whether it’s launching an information product or learning a new skill, growth requires a time commitment.

Next, there’s fear. Let’s face it. A lot of new opportunities are scary at first. For me, leaving a comfortable job was scary when I started out, but now I can’t imagine earning a living any other way than through freelancing.

Finally, there’s the risk that you might actually fail. Not all chances that you take will work out. But, failure is not always a negative.

Growth may be uncomfortable, but it is desirable. We strive to grow as individuals and we strive to grow our businesses.

Reason 3: We Learn the Most from our Failures

Failure is not always a negative because we learn the most when we fail. In fact, the seeds of success are often found in failure.

Think about it. If you’re sitting there comfortably, not taking risks, are you really learning much? Probably not.

If you fail, however, you can at least learn one of two things:

• This is not for you. You disliked it. You gave it try, but yuck, you’d never do it again.
• This is for you. You failed, but you see where you made your mistakes and next time you’ll do it better.

How I Learned by Taking Chances

My own freelancing career has been filled with stepping out of my comfort zone.

I started small, working mainly with leads from contacts as well as finding the occasional position through bidding sites and job ads. This worked for me for quite a while. In fact, I could have easily stayed there–not growing my business and staying with what I knew.

Instead, I took a risk and started to build an online presence. I participated in forums. I created a blog. I even took a chance and accepted a few paid blogging positions. Could I earn anything substantial through blogging? I didn’t know for sure.

Not too long ago, I took yet another risk and added coaching to my list of services. Was I comfortable about it? No, quite frankly I was very nervous. But from both a business and personal perspective, I knew it was something that I needed to try.

Does my freelancing future hold more moves outside of my comfort zone? You bet!

Your Turn

Is it time for you to move out of your comfort zone?

Share how you plan to do that.

Have you already moved out of your comfort zone?

Share your story.

Image by Lynda W1

Now that I’ve started my own company and am essentially my own boss though, what’s next? Do I continue freelancing forever? Do I continue narrowing my niche and raising my fees?

Before trying to figure out how to make it to your dream job, you need to first figure out what it is. Not only what it is, but how long you’re going to do your dream job and what’s next after you achieve your next dream.

For this post, I’d like to get a little bit personal and talk about how I’m starting to shift my business, and what you can do about yours.

What’s Next

When we first decide to go freelance that’s all we can think about. All we want to do is quit our jobs and work for ourselves. Then when we do that, we’re so busy with clients that we continue down the same path without thinking about what’s next.

After I finally became so busy that I couldn’t keep up with my projects, I realized that I could finally start to pick and choose my clients, projects, and even the prices that I accepted. This is normally the “next dream job” we freelancers aspire to, but we often don’t prepare for it until it hits.

Just this week, I’ve overscheduled myself again (I can really mess up sometimes) and have ended up working from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. This, of course, is not only unhealthy, it’s also not what I started freelancing for.

So what’s next? While I’m contemplating raising my rates once again, I’m already well above the average pricing for a front-end developer. Do I continue to raise rates throughout the years? Do I expand into hiring subcontractors or even employees? I decided it was time to sit down and think.

Decisions, Decisions

I knew from the time I started freelancing that I never wanted to go beyond myself in terms of workers. I’m just a terrible manager, and so many things come into play when you start hiring employees or even contracting work out. This was a path I didn’t want to go down then, and it’s still something I don’t want to bother with now.

While I can continue to raise my rates higher and higher, eventually I will hit a ceiling. I can’t imagine anyone agreeing to pay a developer $1,000 an hour, no matter how good they are.

So then I started to study some of the “big names” in my industry. What do they do once they become pretty successful? I realized that most of them now do something other than what they started doing. Instead of coding or designing, they now fill their time with speaking engagements, events, books, and their own projects.

After listening to a bunch of app developers when I was working on my first app I realized what my next “dream job” was going to be–I wanted to create my own projects that I liked and make money doing it. I really wanted to stop taking on clients altogether.

Habits of Highly Successful Freelancers

Once you decide what you want to do (and this still goes for those of you who are just now contemplating jumping into freelancing) it’s time to get started.  In all honesty, there are several “habits” I’ve seen in highly successful people that I believe make them successful. In the past two years that I’ve been freelancing, I’ve done my best to emulate these habits, and I’ve never been disappointed. What are these habits?

1. Read every day. My major goal this year is to read 100 books and I’m already more than halfway there. Successful people read a mix of everything, but mostly books. You should be reading everything in and around your industry. If you’re a developer, think development, design and business. Read as many books on this topic as you can, and look for articles and videos on the topic. There’s so much great advice out there and you can never read too much.
2. Spend time on you. Take a break from working on your clients’ businesses and work on your own. Experiment with some of the latest techniques and trends in your industry and show them off.
3. Offer goodies. Everyone loves free stuff and the industry experts love giving things away. Write a blog, or an e-book. Code some free plugins or themes. Give all of these away or sell for a cheap price.  Not only will it give you some practice into different kinds of tasks, it will also increase your visibility online and could bring in some extra income.

What needs to be done next? If you don’t have an actionable plan, you will find yourself still thinking about your dream job forty years from now and you will still be in the exact same place as you are in today.

My movement to my next “dream job” started with the creation of CodeSnipp.it. While it hasn’t been a financial success (was never meant to be), it’s been the “goodie” I gave to other developers that allowed me to gain experience in app development, business building, marketing and other tasks that come with trying to make a successful app.

Now that that app is mostly done, I’ve teamed up with a great designer and a programmer to get started on what I hope to become my permanent source of income. I’ve created another app (called SpendK.it). I’m applying what I learned from the first one to this. For example, I’m going with a professional mailing service to handle app alerts and an actual integrated payment gateway instead of upgrading accounts manually.

This is why I recommend doing a starter project in the area you want to move into. This can be done while you’re still managing clients (or your full-time job) and allows you to get a feel for what’s going to be needed when it comes time to move to your dream job. Use the experience as a learning one, even if it fails.

Your Dreams

What is your dream job? Are you doing it already or are you trying to move towards it? Are you outgrowing your current dream job?

Image by Horia Varlan

There are plenty of reasons that could cause you to put your freelancing business on hold. A family emergency, college, having a baby, moving out of your old apartment, relocating, and traveling are just some of the many things that can force you to keep your working hands on your lap. In my case, it’s college this September.

Turn “Unavailable” into “Under Renovation”

But then I realized that just because I can’t expand my freelancing career with more client work doesn’t mean I can’t do anything to promote it further.

Instead of looking at the break in projects with an evil eye, I intend to grab it as an opportunity to give my business a much-needed overhaul. In my opinion, that’s better than wallowing in sorrow over the missed opportunities.

With good time management, dedication, and a solid plan for a relaunch, I’m sure anyone who’s had to put freelancing on hold can get back on their feet with more knowledge and provide more business value than they did at first.

Promote Your Business While It Is on Hold

Here are seven great ideas that you can do whenever you find yourself unable to take on freelance work:

1. Continue providing quality work. If you’re currently working on a couple of projects, don’t let the quality slip away. Continue to provide the same quality of service that your present clients expect from you until the contract is over. Once it’s done, let your clients know that you’ll remember to inform them the next time you are available again. If they love your work, they’ll probably refer you to other people as well.
2. Reconnect with yourself. Being too busy with client projects, I almost forgot what it was like to write for myself again. Now that I’ve got more free time, I’m able to reconnect with the inner me, get back in touch on my passions, and enjoy writing all over again. And because I love writing again, that passion can be seen once more in my work.
3. Start a new project (or two). Have you been wanting to start a self-made project, but couldn’t make it happen because of a lot of client work coming in? Well, now that you’ve got more time on your hands, perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to start making magic. You can then use the project as a new portfolio piece or turn it into a new source of income.
4. Polish your skills. Lack of practice and application can leave your freelance skills dull and old. Take this time to polish them up again by taking an online course, trying out a new technique, or keeping your skills sharp through that new project we just talked about.
5. Learn more. Reading the best books or learning from renowned experts of your field are good ways to learn and stay in touch with what’s going on in the industry. Blogs, online news, and social media are popular gold mines for new knowledge, so pick up your pickaxe and start mining away.
6. Keep networking online and offline. Even without client work to busy yourself with, you can still promote your freelance business by interacting with other people. Join communities, engage in conversation, share your thoughts about interesting blog posts, and help others out. In the long run you gain trust and relationships, which are vital when running a freelance business.
7. Plan out your freelance business relaunch. I’m sure that after learning new things, sharpening your skills, and getting to know more people in your industry, you’ve gained some new ideas for your business that could really work at relaunch. Plan them all out carefully and see how you can introduce these new ideas to the market, especially to your future clients.

Letting Go Isn’t an Option

Letting my freelance career go and disappear into the vortex of cyber-mystery is not an option for me, so I went ahead and planned out what I was going to do to keep my freelancing career afloat while finishing my degree.

For now, I’m reading the international edition of The Elements of Style by Strunk Jr. and White, which is an excellent book for writers. Apart from reading, I try to connect with fellow freelancers, blog regularly, and have just started on a second personal project.

I’m doing all this with one main goal in mind, and that’s to relaunch my freelancing career with better business practices, higher quality work, and a stable income.

Your Turn

Let’s hear from you now. Have you ever been in a situation that’s forced you to stop taking more freelance work? What did you do to use the extra time?

Image by benimoto

Rather than write, I focused my attention on my primary skills (I work as a quality assurance specialist at a software company). But I soon found out that there weren’t too many jobs available for QA experts. So I decided to give writing a chance, first reluctantly, and then with more and more confidence.

Of course, I had to start from scratch. Besides my English skills, I had few assets that could help me in my newly discovered career path. Slowly, I built up that foundation, and as I gathered steam, I found it easier and easier to get good writing jobs. Without the courage (madness, luck, call it what you like) of stepping out of my comfort zone, I never would have learned that I can write pretty well and make some money doing it.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Writing blog posts, articles, creative pieces, and technical documentation is a great way of learning new things. Most of us are not fortunate enough to only cover subjects that we love or know well. From time to time, we have to step out of our comfort zone and study something new, so we can write about it.

New Things I’ve Learned from Writing

I’ve learned a lot of new things from freelancing as a writer.

For example, I wrote more than 25,000 words about Denver and the beautiful state of Colorado. I’ve never been there, but I did my best to research all things related to the Centennial state, from the Denver Broncos football team, to the hundreds of microbreweries that make Colorado a hotspot on the maps of beer aficionados. I grew fond of this great American state, and I dream of actually visiting it one day.

Well, you may say–how does knowing stuff about Colorado help you in your day to day life? It doesn’t. But other things I’ve learned while writing do have added value.

Another example of something I’ve learned about is real estate. I’ve read entire books on the subject, blogs and forum posts, just to be able to offer competent advice on anything related to real estate. I now know what a lease-to-buy contract is, how to conduct due diligence before making a deal with someone, and how to spot the best targets for house flips.

Another gig landed me a business proposal, which who knows, I just might accept. It’s about offering training for a wildly popular enterprise planning software. Yes, I had to learn about that before writing about it too, and it was one of the toughest things I ever had to study.

On the more prosaic side, I also know how to fix nicks and scratches on old furniture (tip–crayons!), how to pick the right plants for my north-facing living room and even how to calibrate lathes. I know, glamorous. :)

And there are the things that give me headaches just when I think about them. You never know what writer’s block is until you have to write 12,000 words worth of product descriptions about dragon figurines, Tinker Bell dolls and military themed watches.

The Importance of Research in Freelance Writing

Some consider that people like me, namely freelancers paid to write about subjects they don’t really master, spoil the internet, and… pretty much everything. It’s the raging debate on shallow content and fluff writing.

In fact, I agree with them. I stay away from writing fluff as much as possible, and only write about subjects that I have learned about, if not mastered. This is why I invested so much time into studying real estate and apartment plants. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks is worth to sacrifice precious time to learn something, before churning out the paid-per-word article. And others just don’t care.

When I draw the bottom line, I look with pride at all the new things that I learned as a freelance writer. Every subject I write about improves my knowledge, my culture even, and makes me more prepared to handle challenges. Maybe someday, a writing gig will be the key to the next shift in my career.

Your Turn

I bet I am not the only one who feels this way. Most of you probably have to study something before writing about it.

Let me know what interesting stuff you learned from your freelance writing jobs. Do you think that it’s worth it to sacrifice time and energy to study a certain subject for your writing job? Is writing a good way of improving one’s perspective on life?

Working as a freelance writer has been great for me. In the last year, I grew both personally and professionally, and today I feel more confident than ever that I can make it as a freelancer. How about you?

Image by Sterlic