I started doing freelancing 3 years before during my college days when I learned designing and some fundamental web stuff. And after couple of years I had some hard span of time which makes me quit freelancing. After that this was the question which was coming into my mind for next 7 months and I spend many sleepless nights and gypsy days to find out the answer. I was not surprised after getting many answers to my one single question. Because I know that those mistakes were mine and I was totally responsible for them.
I think, in my case I started doing things my way without having so much knowledge about doing those things in a correct way. I started earning sufficient amount of money very soon and it makes me very desperate to earn some more and here I made my first mistake.
Accepting too many projects
Yes, that was my very first mistake. Accepting too many projects at a time and working on all of them simultaneously is too tough for a freelancer. It’s because you are the only one who have to handle many aspects of project single handedly. Each client has had their own needs and expectation from you. You have to attend their calls, reply to their emails, understand their need and requirements, etc. And it becomes very difficult to prioritize the work you have/should do when you started working on more than two or three projects.
When this is the situations, you end up with nothing but irritation and frustration. In the beginning when you are new in industry and struggling to create your own identity, it’s ok to work on maximum 3-4 projects (try to avoid this also). But after that, try to avoid this peril situation. Make such a reputation of yours, that you should be able to choose your projects. Choose projects which will excite you.
You will earn money, some popularity in industry, people will start recognizing you and you will also make some friends. These so called friends will ask you to do some friendly contribution in some of their project. Then this is an alarm! In my case I accepted one college event website projects. It was a very cool kind of feeling that I will be working on something like that. I designed the whole website, developed it and maintained it for almost one and a half month. I was not getting paid a single penny for that. The demands were rapidly increasing from the organizing committee. It was too much pressure and workload for me. I stopped working on the project without letting them know. And one fine morning they got another designer and a completely new live website. I went into too much depression because in the end I had nothing. No money, no credits! So, please don’t work on projects which will not pay you in return. Don’t do things for free in which you are good. Learn to say NO.
I never said NO
I think this was the most important reason behind all this. I almost never said NO to any one of my clients for their every demand. And it leads me to unfinished projects and empty bank account. If you always say YES without thinking the pros and cons of that “Yes”, then it will surely give you pain. It becomes a false promise/commitment, which degrades your credibility.
You can say No to the things which you are unable to do. Give a genuine reason for your No. It will really help to manage things in easy way. It will keep you happy and so your client and make easy for him also.
Unaware of my capabilities
I said above in that choose projects which excites you. But it doesn’t mean that you should accept it before analyzing the requirements of the project. I accepted one project which was demanding a very strong knowledge of PHP language. And at that time I would have given 3/10 to me for my PHP skills. I thought I can learn and make it done. But unfortunately I was totally wrong. I spend almost one month to improve my PHP skill and in between I lost my project for not providing it on time. In this case I was unaware of my own capabilities and skill sets.
Predicting project cost
I never calculated the cost of project, I predicted them. I predicted them on the basis of how much money I want to fulfill my needs. This was totally a dumb thing. While submitting a quote for a particular project I should have calculated the total cost of the project. I never done market research and tried to find out that how much amount other designers are charging for the same kind of work. Calculation depends on the total hours require to finish it, technology used, some outsourcing, complexity of project, etc.
Even If my predictions were almost right, I never asked my clients for money even after I had almost finished the project. Because I was quite shy kind of a guy. This was the most hopeless thing from my side and some people took advantage of that. They started throwing tantrums on me whenever I asked them for pending amount. And then after some time I also stopped bothering about it and used to get busy in next project.
Folks, never let your money go which you have earned by your hardwork and skills. It will affect your future projects. Your clients will think that they can get the work done in cheap price. So please avoid this. Never shy to ask your money and be prompt on this front.
Conclusion
It may be a point of argument that when you should start freelancing, after working with some established design studio or before it. While you work with a team, you gain experience about the current trends of industry. You will come to know how this industry works, what is the process, how to deal with client, etc.
Sometimes it happened like I got really irritating clients which make me work the way they were used to and I was not comfortable with that. On a concluding note, I just want to let my folks know that please avoid the mistakes I have done during my freelancing days. Doing freelancing is a great thing. You can choose your project; you can work on what you want to work. You will have that kind of freedom. You will be able to set up your own standards.
What would be the other reasons behind my quitting freelancing? I will be glad to know your views on all this.
Cheers!
Feature Image by: Joel Glovier
Great post. I quit freelance years ago for many of those reasons into a career exclusively of corporate and independent app engineering (although freelance keeps finding me in hiding from time to time). I completely relate with the difficulties of saying no to prospective clients, especially when they’re closely linked to you.
Missing the other vital pieces of the development team was another major drawback for me. I’m a perfectionist and not having a person doing their own specialty role (such as project management, business analysis, testing, etc) at an expert level put a burden on me as a sole freelance designer/developer to spend much more time-comsuming (and tough to estimate hours) dabbling in those other areas of the development cycle while balancing too many projects.
While some projects are great for a single designer/developer, I’m now a strong believer in doing most major projects in a team of at least 3 diverse development cycle skillsets for more world-class results.
My thirst to build my own products also began to intensify which was the breaking point for my freelance career. For me, it was so much more gratifying building and nurturing creative projects rather than just engineering them and sending them off to a client, rarely to be seen again.
Very good post Akash,
It is people like you, willing to share their experiences that will help others like me. It is good to share and I try to help others on my journey through life by sharing my experiences.
I am an MA interaction designer, a web designer, a web developer, a graphics designer, one who wears many hats, a freelancer at the end of the day.
I am currently studying PHP MySQL and freelancing part time. It comes with all the headaches you have mentioned and when I am finished my training next year, I will either develop my own publications and become self employed or seek a job with a design / development company. The latter being my wife’s choice the first being mine!
I live in Ireland, here the market is small, the competition with development companies and freelancers is BIG, many many freelancers under charge for their work which makes people think design and development work should cost near to nothing and everything on the internet should be free!
The Irish economy is in the toilet near on five years and jobs in IT while they seem plenty are hard to get as experience is required and coming straight from college the jobs on offer are for unpaid internships or offer salaries so low they are not worth it(student rates I call them), yes gaining experience is obvious but paying your rent, bills, food etc.. is a necessity. I freelance just to build my portfolio but don’t plan to stay freelancing for too long.
Emigration to Canada or the US looks like a healthy option for good paying jobs with seemingly good companies, it is a massive move for us, we have three children, mortgage, car loan etc…
Keep the faith and you will do well!
Thanks Simon, thank you very much!
Great post, I like many other people have experienced the same mistakes as I began designing and developing. I think freelance work can be great for the right person and even supplement your current income as it does mine on occasion but you have to know what projects are good for you. When you work at studio that’s been doing it for awhile you get the expereince needed to be successful.