5 Things I Hate About Freelancing

I'll be honest, I love my job 90% of the time. It's incredible. I get to work with so many amazing clients, and hearing their feedback when we've created something special is so amazing.

I could talk for hours about how lucky I am and why everyone should try freelancing but realistically, no job is perfect. And yes, loving 90% of my job is pretty good, but what about the other 10%?

Let's talk about it.

Long hours

I always joke that I love not working a 9 to 5 job. But in reality, I quit the 9 to 5, 5 days a week, and started working 8 to 8, 7 days a week.

Especially when you start freelancing, it's tempting to work all the hours you can manage before passing out. You have an overwhelming sense that you don't get paid if you don't work. There's no salary or sick pay and no paid holiday leave. If I don't work. I don't get paid. It's very simple but also very intimidating. As a result, many freelancers work huge numbers of hours.

As you get more experience and charge more, you start to panic less and work less. However, there are always occasions with big projects or tight turnaround times when I work longer hours than I ever did as an employee.

It’s easy to spend twelve hours a day working when you’re a freelancer. Pass the coffee?

No work, no pay

As I mentioned above, when you start working as a freelancer, there is an overwhelming panic about your source of income. All beginner freelancers are very aware that no work means no pay. This means that on sick days or holidays, your bank account is slowly going down.

It's frustrating to know that no matter how hard you work, you aren't earning time off. And when you do take time off, it can be hard to realise that your friend is being paid to sit by the pool with you and you're not.

There is also plenty of time spent "working" without being paid. Finding clients, updating your portfolio or checking your social media and website can take hours, and no one is paying you for it.

It can be lonely

If you spoke to my parents, they'd tell you that I've always been happy with my own company. From a young age, being sent to my room was never really a punishment because I was happy to stay there (compared to my brother, who found it unbearable). And while I can still always find things to do and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, it can get a bit too quiet, even for me.

Being a freelance writer means spending long days gazing at a screen talking to no one. If I don't have any calls with clients planned, I can go an entire day without speaking to anyone except my dog, and she never talks back. I'm not overly extroverted, but some company would be nice.

Accountability and distractions

When I worked in an office, it was super easy to separate professional and private. But now I work from home. Nothing is stopping me from running the vacuum round on a five-minute break and then mopping and then changing the laundry and then emptying the dishwasher. By the time I get back to my desk, it's been an hour and a half.

And no one cares. No one is watching or telling me off. I am 100% accountable for myself, and on days when I can't focus, this really sucks. There are a million distractions at home that you just don't have in an office, and while yes, my house is very clean, it's not what I'm supposed to be doing during the working day.

Not all freelance clients are easy to work with. Sometimes, a client is a pain in the ass and there is nothing you can do about it.

Some clients are a pain in the A**

This is the negative no one wants to talk about. Plenty of freelancers will claim they love every client they've ever worked with- some freelancers are lying.

Sure, most clients are great. They might not become a close friend, but they know what they want and communicate well, or they don't know what they want and are happy to you to wing it. Then you get the clients who know exactly what they want down to the word but don't tell you until six revisions in.

Sometimes you want to shake them and scream "WHAT DO YOU WANT" like Ryan Gosling in The Notebook. But it's useless; they won't give you a direct answer. There is nothing worse.

Being a freelancer is great (most of the time). And the rest of the time, it’s not so bad.

So, have I scared you off? I hope not. Like I said at the beginning, no job is perfect, and I adore being a freelancer 90% of the time. If you put in the work, becoming a freelancer could be the best thing you ever do.