Freelancing is becoming increasingly more popular these days with the COVID-19 pandemic having resulted in massive job losses locally and anywhere in the World. Freelancing has emerged as a new, flexible short time work. Freelancing has been used in graphic designing, web designing, writing, editing, photographing and many other professions. And thanks to technology, today’s workers can undertake freelance work for a wide range of industries, from just about anywhere.
Freelancing touts the freedom of setting your own hours, working from home. That many trying to take this route ignore the negatives. The challenges relating to freelancing include sporadic and unpredictable income and over-reliance on the internet to cultivate relationships and find work. For most of us the biggest challenge we face is getting paid on time, if not getting paid at all. As a freelance designer l know the frustration of having to track down payments from clients first hand.
Getting paid in full and on time often feels like a job in itself. What can make an even bigger difference than being paid more overall is being paid on time. After all, most of the time, when freelancer bank accounts are empty, it isn’t because we haven’t worked; it’s because we’re still waiting to be paid. We value our independence, but it can make us isolated and vulnerable to exploitation. You can combat this by doing a few different things.
First, if you take nothing else from this article, please take away the following: You should always have a ‘written’ contract in place when you are doing work as a freelancer! In most situations, while a verbal contract can be enforceable, it is immensely difficult to prove the terms of a gentleman’s agreement if a dispute arises. Without a contract if a client decides not to pay you at the end of the project, you will have little to no recourse to collect payment.
When you have a contract, potential employers will understand that these terms are legally binding when they hire you. In other words, a contract gives you peace of mind since it outlines every detail of the work agreement including work obligations, deadlines, costs, and payments. You can easily follow up with the client if they delay your payments.
Second, when I was starting out as a freelance designer, I committed one of the biggest crimes in the freelance world I offered to carry out a project for free in exchange for exposure and experience. Raise a hand if you have been offered “exposure” instead of payment in the past year. Don’t work for free when promised exposure or possibility of more work; you rarely get it and your time and work is too valuable. If, like me, you have had run-ins with such clients always ensure you get at least 50% upfront in case things go wrong. No excuses no exceptions. There is still an expectation that I will work for either an extremely low amount, or nothing at all. I love designing, but I have a bigger passion for being able to afford the rent and having enough to eat.
Third, before jumping into bed with a new client carry out research first. Besides, you know nothing about this company or whether they can be trusted – so why would you go ahead and work for them without being cautious? You can learn a lot about a client through research or from the feedback of other freelancers who have previously worked with them. It is very crucial to establish if the client is trustworthy, so you will not have any problems that could have simply been avoided by turning down the offer. If you see one red flag, there are most often more to follow, try to see the early signs of bad behaviour of the client towards you. Not every shady action is obvious, and sometimes it’s hard to tell whether your judgement of character needs to be taken up a notch. But with practice comes mastery.
Getting paid on time is critical. When you are paid on time, you can focus on delivering the best services instead of following up on payments and late invoices.