Start Out Right: Avoid These 3 New Freelancer Blunders

Dave Navarro |
Getting Started
| November 9th

Starting out as a freelancer can be an exhilarating ride, but those first few miles can be littered with frustrating potholes if you don’t know what to watch out for. If you’re just about to make the plunge into freelancing – or you’re trying to make your existing freelance life run more smoothly – take a moment to read these “rules of the road.” They may save you from the late nights and nail-biting stress that await you just around the curve.

Protect Yourself Against Work Creep

It’s all too common for a new freelancer to take on a new project without getting clear about the details and boundaries of the work to come. When that happens, prepare yourself for a (seemingly) endless cycle of back-and-forth revisions and requests for “one more thing” because the client assumed it would all be part of the deal. Before you know it, you’re working more hours than you expected for the same pay.

How to protect yourself: When a client says “we’ll just figure it out when we get started,” that’s a red flag telling you it’s time to take the reins. Define things like how many revisions they are allowed to make (and a firm timeframe for each revision cycle). If at all possible, lock down as many details as you can about what will – and will not – be part of this project.

For a new freelancer, it can be a little intimidating to lay down ground rules for a client – emotionally, it may feel like you’re being pushy or demanding. But in reality, you’re managing the client’s expectations, letting them know that you’re professional enough to make sure they know exactly what they’re getting and that you’ll be able to deliver what you promised right on time.

Protect Yourself Against The “Success Penalty”

Beginning freelancers often worry about finding enough clients to pay the bills, but if you’re good at what you do you may suddenly find yourself facing the “success penalty” – a flood of work requests that you simply don’t have the time for. When all this work comes in you accept it gladly, giddy with the excitement of so many billable projects. But then reality sets in and you realize that you’re incredibly overloaded. Trying to juggle all that work can either lead to burn out or poor work quality that hurts your reputation.

How to protect yourself: As you complete each freelance project, carefully track how much time it really took (as opposed to your initial estimate). This will help you improve your ability to estimate the true workload of future projects so you won’t get overbooked. Additionally, spend a little time each week building relationships with other reliable freelancers you can outsource to when you just have too much to handle.

Most people worry about failure – but success can be just as stressful if you don’t plan ahead. Do what you can to prepare for a spike in work requests and you can avoid the success penalty altogether (or at least take some of the sting out of it).

Protect Yourself Against Non-Paying Clients

When you’re hungry for work, you may just find yourself taking it without negotiating any up-front payment. More often than not, this is a recipe for heartache down the road. Ask any freelancer how many times they had to deal with deadbeat clients and you’ll hear stories that will sell you on the value of getting some form of payment at the start of the project. Don’t fall for the “once our money comes in, you’ll be paid” line … because it rarely works in the freelancer’s favor.

How to protect yourself: After the client decides to work with you, establish a payment schedule that is fair to you both. Some freelancers go the 50/50 route – half up front, half on delivery, but this may not work for every kind of project, especially large ones. In that case you may have to bill in “progress payments,” invoicing upon weeks worked, delivery of drafts or other project milestones. The important thing is to insulate yourself against working for free, regardless of how you do it.

It’s easy to feel intimidated about laying down payment rules for the client, but that’s precisely what successful freelancers do. Chances are you do it as well without blinking when you hire someone to do work for you. If the client hits you with a “Don’t you trust me?” argument you can simply counter by saying that you do trust them, but you require the deposit to reserve that chunk of the work week for their project. Most clients will respect that, but if they balk, it’s a sign you’ve got a bad client, and you should go elsewhere.

What Are Your “Rules of The Road”?

If you’ve been freelancing for a while, you’ve probably been nodding at your experience with each of these situations – but you’ve probably got some valuable lessons of your own to offer. Take a moment right now leave a comment and share a tip you’ve learned from the “school of hard knocks” – and take a look at the other comments to see if there are any tips that can help make your freelancing future a smooth and comfortable ride.

Dave Navarro |
Website |
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There’s a famous guitarist named Dave Navarro. I’m not him. I’m a different kind of rockstar, the kind who sweats behind the scenes rather than on stage, kicking successful people’s asses so that they become even more successful. I’m a personal productivity coach who gets deep into the minds of people who have everything going for them but are hitting some speedbumps and roadblocks - and I pull no punches until they break past the limiting beliefs that are holding them back. I help entrepreneurs get “unstuck.” I push people past what they think they are capable of. I find solutions to their problems that they had never even considered, and I get them to think bigger, work smarter and believe in themselves more. I take their psychological baggage and help make sure it gets lost at the airport. I kick their asses, and then I teach them to start kicking their own so I can move on to the next rockstar-to-be.

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