4 Deadly Sins of Freelancing and How to Avoid Them

Freelancing is a convenient career option. It gives you ease and independence. Freelancers are their own boss. However, this particular job pattern sometimes compels them to indulge in some mistakes. Lack of authority over oneself makes the job tough to perform. Freelancers often start to take the job for granted. These "freelance sins" can affect the livelihood of freelancers. Here, we will discuss the most common four sins and the paths to avoid them.

Working at your will:

Freelancing gives you the opportunity of working at your will. This is something that the traditional 9 to 5 job deprives you of. However, this convenience creates a laid-back attitude towards the work. People often avoid a routine in their freelancing service. They tend to work at their will. However, this can harm the career of a freelancer. Gradually, lack of responsibility towards work schedule will affect their service and productivity. Hence, one needs to follow a productive work schedule. Breaks should only be taken at the scheduled time. Set a schedule for your personal and professional tasks. Try to stick to that schedule. Make your clients informed about the time of your availability. If you fail to ensure your clients about your service and availability, your freelance service will suffer the consequence of low profit margin.  

Failing of deadlines:

Deadlines are important for your freelancing service. Missing a deadline is one of the major sins in the freelancing world. You need to understand that deadlines are meant to be met. Put yourself in the shoes of your client. They have paid you for your service within the decided timeline. Providing them the promised service after the deadline makes the service lose its utility and value to the clients. So, don’t be recognized as an irresponsible service provider. Always try to meet the deadlines. Before accepting jobs, make sure you understand the requirements of the jobs and the clients. Ask yourself whether you can serve the task within the deadline or not. If you have the slightest doubt, decline the task. It is better to say “no,” than failing deadlines. If in any case, you are having a doubt about meeting the deadlines, you must inform your clients beforehand. As a freelancer, you need to be very conscious about your service. It is your business. Missing a deadline will hurt your profit margin. The clients will lose their confidence in you, and your business will suffer the consequences.

Lack of communication:

 When you are not in the direct touch of your clients, upholding an effecting communication is a prerequisite for your business success. Freelancers often fail to identify its important. As clients are not going to knock on your doors, don’t treat communication lightly. Try to be available to your clients whenever they want you. Inform them the exact time frame when you are not able to communicate with them. Communicating with your clients about their requirements and your services and compensation will help you avoid future conflicts. Provide a clear idea about your compensation to your clients. Try to understand what exactly the client is paying and what his /her requirements are. Be open to feedbacks. Ask for feedbacks from your previous customers. This will provide them the chance of airing their views about your service. You will be able to update and upgrade your service according to their feedback. It will make you popular among the customers. Communication and networking will also help you gathering new clients. Use the networking websites and make people know about you and your services. Share your professional achievements and the positive feedbacks of your previous clients with the virtual society. It will help you in attracting potential customers.

Procrastinate:

Procrastination will take you nowhere. We have a general tendency to procrastinate tasks when we have a lengthy timeline. You may have thought that you will complete the easier tasks “later.” However, those tasks will be accumulated, and then you will have no time left for completing them. Finally, you will end up with failed deadlines. So, do not wait for tomorrow, when you have “today” on your hand. The ease of freelancing sometimes leads us to self-indulgence. We start to take our work for granted and treat the tasks lightly. It harms our reputation as a freelancer. So, ditch procrastination and do your task on time. Set a timeline for yourself for each task. Get a calendar and track down your improvement every day. It will increase your productivity. Get a schedule and try to manage your time. Take help from the experienced professionals in your field and follow their strategy of time management. You can also opt for popular online apps for assisting you in managing the freelancing initiative.

Freelancing is an easy and exciting career option. However, you need to be conscious of a few issues which have the potentiality to harm your initiative to a great extent. Be careful about them and try not to make those deadly freelancing “sins.”