Let’s Solve Your Most Common Freelancing Problems

Let’s say you were able to find a freelance writing gig or you started doing any sort of freelance work. You found the best bank account for freelancers and you feel ready to conquer the world. Now after a few weeks you realize that some problems are creeping up on you. This whole freelancing thing isn’t exactly how you expected it to be. You’re running into random predicaments that you never expected. What are you going to do?

Let’s solve your most common freelancing issues. What are standard freelancing concerns that need to be crushed right now?

Naming your business.

As funny is this sounds at first, many freelancers will actually struggle with naming their business or blog. Why the struggle with finding a name? The problem lies in branding. Do you go for a keyword heavy name? Do you try to think of something catchy that encompasses your brand?

Naming your freelance business can be a big problem. The good news is that your business name isn’t that big of a deal. Your decision for a freelance business name should come down to two sides:

Personalized or non-personalized name.

You have two options for your online business opportunity. You can create a name that’s personal to you. On the other hand, you can you put together a name that’s full of keywords.

What’s the solution to this freelancing problem? Just decide on a name and move on with your life.

Busting through a downtime.

There will be many low periods in your freelancing career. When you hit these lows you’re going to feel like quitting or that you’re just not cut out for this line of work. This sort of thinking will prevent you from doing amazing things in the future.

“Anxiety doesn’t protect you from danger, but from doing great things. It keeps you awake at night and foretells a future that’s not going to happen.” — Seth Godin

How can you get over a hump in your freelancing career?

1. Join a community. Joining a forum, a group that meets on Thursday nights, or a Twitter group, that’s in the same field, can really help you when you’re first getting started. The power of community and finding a mentor can help you overcome those long dry spells.
2. Practise. Maybe you’re not getting the results that you want because you’re just not as good as you should be. Getting better is all about practise. You need to keep on practising until you know exactly what you’re doing and you’re impossible to not hire.
3. Take a break. Dealing with a full-time job, other commitments, and your new freelancing business can cause some serious stress. You might have to take a quick breather.

That’s how you can lift yourself up. When you’re starting an online business or just getting into freelancing, it’s really easy to feel discouraged. You can’t let this hold you back.

Dealing with problem clients.

You’re going to come across many problem clients. Some issues will be annoying. Others will be a legitimate pain that will drive you crazy. Either way you need to learn how to deal with these clients so that you can thrive as a freelancer.

What problem clients should you expect as a freelancer? Who are these troublesome clients?

• Micro-managers. You know what you’re good at. The micro-managing client won’t feel the same way. They’re going to want to have their hands on everything.
• Complainers. You’re going to have those clients that complain about your and about previous freelancers. They just complain for the sake of complaining.
• Money-oriented. If the first question is always structured around the cost, you know that this client doesn’t care for value. That’s a warning sign right away.

Problem clients won’t go away, but you can always deal with them. The truth is that you might want to avoid the aforementioned problem clients. You can also fire problem clients.

Tim Ferriss said it best on dealing with customers/clients:

“Remember, more customers is not automatically more income. More customers is not the goal and often translate into 90% more housekeeping and a paltry 1-3% increase in income.”

There’s an abundance of great clients out there. You don’t have to stress by dealing with problem clients. You’re never going to enjoy your freelancing career this way.

That’s how you can solve the most common problems that are plaguing new freelancers. Did I leave out any issues?  How would you deal with these issues?