Are You a Freelancer? Here’s Why You Should Stop Acting Like One

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Epic Freelancing

8 min readFeb 21, 2017

If you’re a freelancer who’s been chasing after clients and worrying where to find your next gig even before your current project is complete, you might be doing the wrong thing. And guess what — before you know it, you’ll risk burning yourself out.

Stop thinking and acting like a freelancer.

Some of the most common reasons for burnout among freelancers are:

Chasing after clients. If you’re doing this, you’re not into a freelancing business. You are struggling to be financially healthy and stable. This is hard because when one project ends, you have to bid again, send a new proposal or wait for a client looking to pay $5 for a service. It feels like starting from scratch every time. This is not only tiring, but also unsustainable.
Dealing with unreasonable clients. Not all clients and all projects are the same. Nothing can be more frustrating than chasing a client and finding out later that you just got an unreasonable client or a demanding project without ample pay.
Finding it hard to say “no” to any project. Sometimes, there are so many “attractive” projects right there on Upwork. So, you keep on proposing or bidding until you realize there are already so many projects on your plate. You’ve just ended up with so many commitments. This is a surefire way to lose your focus.
Lack of time for yourself. Let’s admit it — freelancers understand what it means by a downtime or a “dry” season. You probably want to work as much as you can while there are still many projects. The ending? What else but burnout?
Lack of specialization (or niche) in your services. Just because you can do “a lot of things” doesn’t mean you can offer “a lot of services” to any client. A freelance writer, for example, may be tempted to accept all kinds of writing projects (e.g., copywriting, academic writing, content marketing, competitive analysis, research) instead of specializing in one or two fields. All of these types of writing have different requirements and approaches, and juggling among them may just slow down the completion of any project.

Although you can take several steps to overcome burnout and stay motivated, totally avoiding it is still the best option.

To avoid burnout, consider your freelance career as a business. Most freelancers don’t realize this. Why? They’re too busy chasing after clients.

If you want to thrive, take off your freelancer’s hat and wear an entrepreneur’s hat beginning today.

Think and act like an entrepreneur.

If you began your career as a full-time employee and later ventured into freelancing, you knew at the beginning that you had also ended your “employee” status, which made you come to work at 9 a.m. and leave the office at 5 p.m.

As a freelancer, you can get the freedom and flexibility you want, as well as the salary you’ve always dreamed of, but you need to be ready to work smarter, not harder.

“Freelancing is a chance to do great work, a ticket to freedom, a school that trains you to become truly responsible, and a way to make a living by making a difference.” — Seth Godin

As a professional freelancer, you must develop an entrepreneurial mindset by being more strategic in your activities. Here are five simple ways to do so:

1. Have a clearly defined vision, mission and goals.

Chasing after clients or sending project proposals after another is not a goal. It also shows you have no vision or mission. Ask yourself, Where do I want to be in the future (vision) and what impact do I want to have as a professional freelancer (mission)?

You can set your own vision and mission by first being clear with your values. You also need to set specific goals. What do you want to achieve in the next year, or the next three years? Make your goals measurable. Do you want to gain more clients in the next few months? How many clients? When exactly do you want to achieve it? Perhaps you can say, I want to gain 100 new clients by June 2017.

To achieve your major goals, try to break them down to short-term goals. For example, to gain 100 new clients by June 2017, you might need to gain at least 20 new clients each month. You can further break down your short-term goals into tasks by indicating what you will do every day to add at least five new clients once a week.

Tip: Be honest with yourself about where you are now as a freelancer, and be clear with where you want to be in the future — do these if you want to thrive in the freelancing industry.

2. Identify your core products or services.

You are the CEO of your own freelance business. The main services you offer to your prospective clients depend on your key skills. So, if you are a freelance writer with an entrepreneurial mindset, your writing and editing skills — backed by your technical experience — will help you decide which specific services to offer.

Now, you might ask: What if I have several skills, e.g., I can write articles, edit content, create infographics, produce video content, manage social media, use WordPress, do SEO, transcribe audio content, edit photos, etc?

Just remember: Don’t try to be everything to every client. Identify your core skil lset by combining 2-5 skills that can enable you to do one specific job effectively and efficiently.

For example, you can make writing, editing, SEO and WordPress publishing your core skill set. With these skills taken as one, you can be a blogger who is not only good at writing and editing, but also knowledgeable in SEO and WordPress publishing.

You can also choose to have secondary skill set and consider both hard and soft skills.

Tip: Have a focus. Avoid being a “jack of all trades, master of none.”

3. Identify your core clients.

After you’ve decided on your core services or skill set, the next step is to identify the clients who need these skills the most. They are your core clients. You might discover there are so many potential clients out there looking for the skill set you’ve identified. In such case, you need to streamline a bit more by finding your niche.

What does this mean?

For example, on the skill set of writing + editing + SEO + WordPress, you can be a freelance blogger or writer. However, writing is quite a general skill. You still have to narrow it down by identifying the industry you want to write about, or maybe the type of writing you want to offer.

On the industry: Do you want to write about fashion? Business? Travel? Food? Something else? Choose the topics you are most knowledgeable about, or the ones you are most interested in.

On the type of writing: Do you want to specialize in general article writing? Academic writing? Copywriting? Business writing? Content marketing?

Narrowing down by industry and type of writing will help you find the perfect clients who match your skill set and interests.

Tip: Offer your services only to clients who need results you can deliver using your core skills in a chosen niche. This way, you get to excel each time and every time.

4. Invest in marketing.

Without customers, your freelance business won’t exist. Again, don’t fall into the trap of scanning freelance marketplaces every day to look for clients, or on waiting for a client who can spare only $5 for a service.

Instead, invest time and money in marketing your services.

Start by scanning the market. What do other freelancers offer? How can you make yourself stand out in the already saturated market? How do you become a remarkable freelancer? The answer is by building and growing your personal brand.

“Choose to do something better, different, unique — to be the one and only. And if you are the one and only … you will be paid fairly, you will be respected, you will get to decide what happens next.” — Seth Godin on Unemployable with Brian Clark

As a brand, you need to create awareness about the services you offer, establish your credibility, and strategically position yourself in the market. Gary Vaynerchuk suggests developing a personal brand by being a “big fish in a small pond.”

Remember that your brand’s market position is also influenced by how you deal with your clients. Always deliver what you promise, so your clients will continue to do business with you.

Tip: Create your own website. Leverage LinkedIn to position yourself in the market if you want to attract high-paying clients. These types of clients rarely go to Fiverr, Upwork or other bidding freelance websites.

5. Invest in learning

Every successful entrepreneur invests in learning. Every freelancer is a learner. The way you do business last year may no longer apply today or tomorrow. To give value to your clients, you first need to add value to yourself. Remember the cliché, You can’t give what you don’t have? It’s still true.

“Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” — Warren Buffett

Several learning opportunities are available online. You can learn almost anything you want. Here are some learning options to consider:

Enroll in massive open online courses (MOOCs). You’ll find paid and free MOOCs on Udemy, FutureLearn, Open2Study, Coursera, edX, Udacity, etc.
Watch relevant videos on Lynda.com and other similar platforms.
Read books and ebooks from your computer and other devices.
Listen to audio books.
Find a mentor.

Are you ready to break free?

Breaking free from 9-to-5 employment is both scary and rewarding. Not everyone is cut out to become a freelancer — someone who must take charge of his or her career by building a one-person business and ensuring a steady flow of clients, while maintaining financial health.

To thrive as a freelancer, you need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and have a higher purpose. Otherwise, you might give up too easily when things don’t turn out right.

This is a guest post by Virginia Bautista. Submit a story of your own to the Epic Freelancing digital magazine.