The Top Five Freelance Fears… and How to Face Them

Is this scenario familiar: You’re having a so-so working day. Perhaps you’re grinding through a long, not particularly exciting project. Maybe you’re catching up on admin. Or just surfing the web. Then something happens. A client calls. An email arrives. You see a web page or a tweet. And suddenly your day goes to the dark side.

You’ve just hooked up to freelance fear.

It’s always there, waiting for its chance to pounce. And because you work alone, with so much uncertainty and a fair amount of stress, that chance will surely come. Here are the top fears I have to deal with – one for every year I’ve been freelancing. I hope my reflections on each one will help you deal with freelance fear.

I’m not good enough

This one doesn’t even need a trigger for me. I submit a draft, the client takes ‘too long’ to reply (whatever that means), and fear sets in. They don’t like it. They’re going to make me rewrite it. They’re not going to pay.

The next day, I get their positive feedback along with an apology for taking so long, and all’s well again. What happened in the meantime was something every freelancer feels at some point: the fear of not being up to it. The suspicion that, deep down, you’re just not good enough. A charlatan. An impostor. A faker.

Firstly, realise that this fear is nothing to do with reality. John Lennon, to name just one, suffered deep doubt about his work. (‘Part of me suspects I’m a loser and part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.’) Obviously, it didn’t mean he really was no good. He just couldn’t hear his music they way other people did.

It’s no small thing to put yourself out there, promote yourself, big yourself up – all alone. Performers have to do it, and so do freelancers. For both, the keys to confidence are self-awareness and positive feedback.

Self-awareness means appreciating how much you’ve already achieved. Every dollar or pound you’ve earned, every client you’ve gained and every project you’ve completed is another success. Hey, just setting up a freelance business is an achievement. So don’t sell yourself short – look back at the view and remember how far you’ve come. Savor it. Celebrate it.

And for the 360º view on your work, always seek feedback. Collect reviews and ratings diligently, and re-read them frequently. By reliving the value you created for clients, you’ll soon get back in touch with how good you are.

Others are better

This is closely related to ‘I’m not good enough’. It’s easy to slip into if you’re tired, a little short of work or trying to deal with a difficult situation. For me, a common trigger is following a link on Twitter and ending up on a competitor’s site. Although its function is to appeal to clients, it serves a useful secondary purpose: giving me the fear. They’re so creative! This site is so cool! They’ve worked with such amazing brands! They must make so much money.

First point: be realistic. People have different characters, skills and experience. That means they offer different types of value and can command certain fees.

Now, if you want to put a hierarchical frame around that, then yes, other freelancers are ‘better’ or ‘superior’. But a more useful perspective is that of differentiation, or specific value. Everyone can do what they can do; everyone is good at what they’re good at.

For example, I have done very little copywriting for consumer brands. It’s something I’d like to change, but business-to-business work suits both my experience and my temperament. It’s a positive feedback loop: the more B2B work I do, the more it becomes a specialization, and it’s easier to go with the flow. This ‘hole’ in my resumé can feel like a shortcoming. But I have to remember that a copywriter who could write really well about snack foods, cars or vacations would no doubt struggle with the sort of technical, corporate content and tone of voice that I eat for breakfast.

Similarly, I work with a lot of small companies, and relatively few multinationals. Other copywriters seem to work exclusively with the big boys. That may mean they earn more, but at the same time, they’d probably have a hard time talking one-on-one to a small business owner with the right blend of practicality and authority. Everyone can do what they do.

Even novices offer something that seasoned pros can’t – whether in terms of youthful enthusiasm, flexibility, a willingness to innovate, or just plain old affordability. And if you’re an ‘old novice’ who had another career before freelancing (as I did), then you bring the skills and perspectives of your former role, making your freelance DNA even more unusual and valuable – to someone.

To sum up, every freelancer has something unique to offer. Some people may earn more than others, but that doesn’t mean that freelancing is a competition or a race. It’s simply about going where you can add value.

I’m not going to have enough work

Most of my work comes in at very short notice. At any one time, I might have one or two weeks’ confirmed commissions ahead of me, at most. As a result, it’s easy for me to lapse into anxiety – and believe me, I do lapse. I lapse a lot. Each month since I started freelancing, I’ve been convinced that the next month will be the one when my workload really will fall off a cliff. In reality, my client base and workload have grown steadily – bar one or two minor blips.

It’s important to remember that this type of growth is the natural state for a functional freelance business. If you keep delivering, meeting expectations, then people will tell their friends about you, and those friends will become your clients.

If lack of work is really getting to you, don’t wallow in it. Make a plan. Think of things you can do to get more work, whether that’s advertising, networking, cold-calling, or whatever. Then do them. They may not lead directly to work, but positive action will always breed opportunity one way or another.

I’m not going to make that deadline

It’s really, really tough to keep on top of a freelance work schedule. Every additional client, project, or request adds a whole new dimension of complexity and uncertainty. You never really know when someone will send you an urgent job, change a brief or take three weeks to reply to you – but one thing you can count on is that they’ll still want you to deliver on time. And that can generate some serious anxiety.

Apart from just chilling out and not taking work too seriously (easier said than done), the best remedy I’ve found is rotating your attention. Make a list of your active projects, and work on them in turn, in 30-minute bursts. Use a timer with an alarm to give a sense of urgency. You’ll make encouraging progress on several fronts, and your unconscious mind will think about the inactive projects while your conscious mind is focused elsewhere. Believe me, I do this and it really works.

My prices are too low/too high

Hello pricing my old friend… I’ve got the fear ‘bout you again. Yes, I’ve saved the best for last with every freelancer’s ultimate nightmare: setting prices.

First point: pricing is never as precise as you hope. Get used to pricing by the job, with different rates for each client and hopeless inconsistencies between the rates. While it’s a great idea to get some structure to pricing, don’t beat yourself up as long as it all adds up to a decent wodge at the end of the month.

Prices too low? You’re probably right. If you’re offering a few years of experience, you should be charging more than novices. Charge too little and people will think you are a novice – or that your service is inferior in some way. So start getting used to the idea of higher rates. If you charged twice as much and lost half your clients, you’d have the same money but twice as much free time. If that sounds insane, how about a 20% rise?

Prices too high? You’re not going to get every job. When you lose out, it’s natural to worry that price was the key factor. But it’s far more likely to be lack of suitability. (And if it wasn’t, let it go – you really don’t want to work for people who are all about price.) Just refocus on getting the jobs you’re truly suitable for, and pulling in a fair rate for them. Only reduce your prices if you’re getting consistent feedback that you’re too expensive compared to genuine peer competitors. Otherwise, demand what you’re worth!

What’s your biggest freelance fear and how do you cope with it?

Tom Albrighton

Tom Albrighton is a freelance copywriter based in Norwich, UK. He trades under the name ABC Copywriting and tweets as @tomcopy.

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