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12 Comments

Freelancers/Consultants: What am I not seeing?

I have been freelancing in digital marketing and product management along with my full-time job for almost a year now and planning to go all-in into Freelancing/consulting gig.

I'm curious to know from fellow full-time freelancers and consultants, what are some of the things which I should be wary off before I jump off the ship? What am I not seeing? What are the challenges that I might face?

The obvious one which comes to my mind is income uncertainty. Any other things which I should be concerned about?

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    I've been a product management freelancer for a few years now. Sourcing clients is the hardest part. It's why big platforms like Upwork and Toptal exist. I ended up creating my own just for product freelancers called Mana. I know for marketers MarketerHire is probably the biggest.

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      Thanks, Jake. I tried to apply as a freelancer there and it seems like they are not available for folks who are based out of India like me.

      Have you been able to consistently get gigs out of this place? Also, is this more like a freelancing work for a short-term duration or this is more like a consulting job kind of arrangement that typically goes on for a long time with some company?

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        Which one are you referring to? You can get consistent gigs on all of them

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    Waiting for clients to pay invoices is not fun. Some pay instantly and some take a few weeks. Then you have to be careful how often you remind customers about outstanding invoices so you are not hounding them.

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    1. In the inital, try to build long term relationship with the client rather then quick bucks.
    2. Fixed a time daily/weekly, to market yourself. As early you start, it will help you in long run.
    3. In the initial while finding work, try to focus on one or two medium rather then going all.

    Save money for 6 months before starting out, or start doing it.

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      Thanks, Ankur. As a freelancer what was the most difficult part to deal with for you? I checked your website. Any ideas as to how you will compete with Upwork, freelancer.com, design pickle, etc?

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        As a freelancer, my main issue is creating a personal brand.

        About the product, HiretheVerified is not competing with Upwork, freelancer.com, it is solving a different problem.

        Basically, it helps the business to get the pre-vetted freelancers who's technical, communication skills, and background checks are already done.

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    I've been freelancing as my primary job for over 2 years now. The income uncertainty is real, which is why I've focused on finding clients who are interested in permalancing setups - where I set aside ~10 hours a week for them for a fixed monthly retainer. That really has helped smooth out times where shorter gigs dried up.

    The other thing that has been a drawback for me is that the other side to "controlling your own time" as a freelancer is "you're never really free". Even though you can choose to go on vacation whenever you want to, you never really get to unplug 100% because you want to stay on top of client requests and potential jobs.

    On balance, though, I think the benefits really heavily outweigh the costs. Even if I'm not banking as much cash as my friends at big megacorps like Google, I still live a very comfortable lifestyle, free to travel when I want (and am not on lockdown), and get to do it all while never having to work for someone else for more than 30 hours a week.

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      That's interesting. Most of the folks who are doing this full-time have said that the loss of a few thousand $ at the beginning of a freelancing career outweighed the peace and other benefits.

      Curious to know, if you were to pick one, what would you choose?

      1. Consistent steady flow of work

      2. Increase in payouts

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        In a magical world where I didn't have to source the work, I would definitely take fewer, higher paying jobs. But, because sourcing new jobs can be a real timesuck, I wind up optimizing for consistent, steady work at a slightly lower hourly in the real world.

        I personally know of zero freelancers who would say that it is the most lucrative possible career, so I get where your friends are coming from. Even once the engine of your own consulting company is up and running, there will always be better paid jobs being a little 50-hour-a-week cog in a big corporate machine. So, I think it only makes sense if you're the kind of person who would trade making a little less money in exchange for the lifestyle and control that being your own boss and business affords you.

        Given that you're on the IndieHackers forum, though, I'm guessing you might be that kind of person ;)

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          Absolutely! The end game is to build a SaaS or micro SaaS which can crack out the steady flow of income regularly. But until then, going to freelance my way through it!

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