7 Common Problems New Freelancers Face and How To Fix Them Quickly

For new freelancers, starting a freelancing business is one of the simplest ways to make money online without having to spend your time at the office every day. You can set your own workplace, your own work time, your own clients, and even your own earnings. This is why freelancing is becoming one of the most popular businesses that people have, especially those who love to work at home.

However, new freelancers often face various challenges in their freelancing business, which usually discourage them from continuing on their path. If you are a new freelancer, how can you overcome these challenges?

Here are 7 common challenges faced by new freelancers and how to overcome them:

1. WORKING ACROSS DIFFERENT TIME ZONES

The difference in time zones between you and your client can become problematic if your client doesn’t want to understand it. This can cause problems, such as the client calling in the middle of the night because, in their place, it is in the middle of the day. To overcome this problem, it is important for you to let your client know about the difference in time zones, and to contact you via email instead of calling.

2. LACK OF TRUST FROM CLIENTS

If you are a new freelancer, most of the time you will meet with clients that don’t trust your ability to do the work properly. For this problem, you can challenge your client to try your service and see your work for themselves. In this way, there will be no more doubt in the mind of your client before they decide to use your service for a long time.

3. FINANCIAL TROUBLES

New freelancers usually have financial troubles because they don’t have a steady income. It doesnít mean that their income is not enough for them. The problem is that their cash flow is a bit unpredictable, which often causes various financial troubles. To solve this, you should start to budget your income from month to month.

4. TIME MANAGEMENT

New freelancers will usually have a problem with their time management. This is because of the flexible work hours that they have. They can do their work in the middle of the night, in the morning, in the afternoon, or anytime. This creates a time management problem that causes them to have difficulty in handling a large number of orders. The solution to this problem is to create a fixed schedule for your freelancing business.

5. DIFFICULT CLIENTS

New freelancers are the ones that will meet a lot of difficult clients at the start of their career. This can add to more stress in their daily life. Some clients can be very demanding, which can be emotionally draining. In order to avoid this problem, you should start picking your clients carefully, working only with the ones that won’t force or push you to your limit.

6. NO SEPARATION BETWEEN WORK AND LIFE

Because of the flexible time that they have, freelancers often have difficulty to separate their work life from their personal life, this seems especially true with freelancers who work with video. This can be quite problematic, as it can cause many conflicts in your personal relationships. Be sure to separate your work hours and your personal hours when you start your freelancing business in order to avoid this problem.

7. LACK OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

Most new freelancers will have a lack of social interaction because they are focusing on working with their projects. This lack of social interaction can lead to many psychological problems, such as social anxiety, shyness, and lack of self-confidence. In order to solve this problem, you need to set aside a special time for you to interact with the world around you, preferably every weekend.

If you can face those common challenges as a new freelancer, you will be able to succeed in your freelancing business. In fact, you can become an elite freelancer that has a steady flow of clients coming to you, asking you to work on their long-term projects.

Author: lscottharrell

L Scott Harrell is a startup founder and CEO of InnerJam, Inc. His work is focused on developing online projects involving personal development, community building and destination marketing.