The world of freelancing offers life-changing opportunities, and it is a great thing. Freelancing is rather a new concept, and it is still growing. It has seen fast growth due to digitization. The covid-19 pandemic in 2019 made working in the office impossible, and freelancing was promoted during this period. The companies are preferring freelancers over regular workers because of the current scenario.
Freelancers are independent people in the sense that they can choose their work conditions. They can work for a couple of hours a day or they can work for 8 to 10 hours a day. They are their boss. They can work from home or the office. They can work from anywhere in the world, and these are the reasons why people are getting more inclined towards freelancing.
Freelancing takes skills, patience, and professionalism. Many freelancers make mistakes while looking for work or working on some projects. These mistakes can be avoided if a freelancer includes some simple yet effective measures while looking for work or working on a project.
These are the mistakes a beginner freelancer makes in 2022
1. Mismanagement of Time(time management)
One of the most common mistakes that beginner freelancers make is not managing their time effectively while working on some project. This mismanagement of time can lead to many problems, including missing deadlines, and projects lagging.
A lot of beginner freelancers struggle with time management. If you are a beginner freelancer, it is very necessary to learn how to manage your time effectively. This can help you get most of your time while working. You can start managing your time by creating a schedule, and prioritizing your tasks.
Making a schedule and sticking to it helps a great deal in managing your time(time management). When you know what are the things you have to do during work, and when to do them, it becomes easier to do tasks. Prioritizing what needs to be done first, and what needs more time, you will be able to easily do your tasks in a time-bound manner.
2. Taking more tasks than you can handle
More tasks are good if you can do them, but they become a big problem if you are unable to do them. Taking tasks more than you can handle makes you feel guilty. More tasks mean you have to put in more time and effort to do them. This often happens when beginner freelancers try to establish their reputation as a freelancer and want to prove their worth.
While taking more tasks can be a successful strategy in short term but if you go take more tasks in long term, it will lead you to burnout and results in decreased productivity.
Taking more tasks than you can handle can be detrimental to your freelancing career. It is difficult to meet deadlines when you have more tasks than you can handle. You will have lesser time to dedicate to each project resulting in poor quality of work. Also, taking too many tasks can lead to stress and anxiety, which can have a severe impact on your physical, and mental health.
3. Inadequate Funds for startup
Starting your own freelancing business as a beginner is an exciting endeavor, but at times it can also be daunting.
The problem with beginner freelancers to startup businesses is that they do not know how to budget their freelancing business.
They lack the knowledge of strategy making. This can lead to an inadequate amount of funds, resources, and a host of problems.
A beginner freelancer should create a realistic budget before setting up their business.
Making an account of every expenditure you are going to incur can help you set up your business. You should be ready for unexpected costs. If you don’t have a job, and thinking of starting a freelance startup, you need to set aside an amount of money for your expenditures too. You can do this by setting aside funds to manage yourself for at least 6 months.
4. Failing to set specific goals
Before you start your freelancing work, this is important to set specific goals. However, many freelancers fail to set specific goals and focus on the work they are doing rather than what they want to do and achieve. This can lead to not charging enough for your services, taking too many tasks, or working long hours for a lesser amount of money.
You should try to set specific goals such as how many hours you want to work each day, how much money you are going to earn each day, how you want to deliver your work, etcetera.
Determining the amount of money you want to earn each day or month while spending a particular amount of your time can help you with managing your goals. This will also result in productivity and the deliverance of good quality work. Your customers will be more satisfied with your work, and the chance of getting more customers in the future will increase.
5. Working without a contract(or with a bad contract)
It is one of the most common mistakes a beginner freelancer makes. After starting your work as a freelancer, the first thing you do is connect with a client. The client seems trustworthy to you. You and the client have a verbal agreement on services and price.
You as a service provider deliver the work. The client pays less than what was agreed upon verbally. You get cheated, and you can do nothing about it.
It happens a lot of the time. Being too trustworthy to your clients can be the downfall of a freelancer. Before starting your work for any client you need to sign an agreement with them. In that agreement, the whereabouts of the work and pricing are mentioned. This document will work as a legal document and if your client fails to adhere to this agreement, you have the right to take legal action against them.
6. Neglecting network
Networking has a key role in getting work as a freelancer. If your network is good enough there is a great chance you will get good quality of work. It helps you in the long run as a freelancer. Many freelancers think of networking as a dumb idea because they think of it as a competition.
They think that why someone will help you find more work if they are from the same field. Freelancers in your network can help you in many ways. If they are more experienced than you, they can help you with their experience. If there is more task in their schedule than they can handle, they can transfer those tasks to you. The same thing you can do for them as well.
7. Accepting wrong clients
At the beginning of their career as a freelancer, it’s easy to over-eager and accepts any work that comes their way. This often leads to taking on the wrong clients. There are clients with whom working can be difficult or clients that don’t pay on time or don’t pay respect to your work.
It is important to be flexible and willing to work for a range of clients at the beginning of your career as a freelancer. But as you gain some experience, and become good at your work, you need to be a bit choosy about the clients, the work they offer, and the pricing of the work.
8. Charging too low or too high
Beginners in freelancing make a common mistake. They often charge too less for their services or they charge too much. Charging too less or too much can lead to loss of opportunities and clients. Charging too low happens more often than charging too high.
If you charge too low, there is a chance that clients will undermine the value of your work. Charging too high for your services can lead to the loss of potential clients. So while posting your services you need to price your services according to your time spent, quality of work, and expertise.
Conclusion
Freelancing for beginners can be tricky at times. Freelancers make common mistakes while beginning as a freelancer. There are some mistakes mentioned above that can help a freelancer cope with the mistake they make.
Time management and proper knowledge of the field you are going to work in help a lot. Setting up your priority areas can help. Before you start your freelancing career you need to keep adequate funds ready because you will need them to manage your work.
Networking plays a crucial role in getting more tasks, and clients, and it also helps in getting experience from others in your network. Pricing your services according to the amount of time spent on a particular service, quality of work, and expertise involved is very important. Choose your clients wisely. Good clients pay you better and provide you with good reviews. It helps in building your reputation as a freelancer.