5 Key Lessons I’ve Learnt from Freelancing

Honestly, I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to blog about this topic. To begin with, I felt like I wasn’t qualified as some kind of success story where being a freelancer was concerned. In fact, my track record hasn’t been the most consistent. However, in recent years, I’ve become less concerned with what others might think about my failures and successes in freelancing. I chose to embrace that about myself and be honest about it because I’ve come to think that nobody can be totally perfect all the time. It’s just not possible. Even the best specialists/experts I’ve met in the last 8 years have had their worst days. During those conversations with other specialists within their very fields, I’ve come to learn that being totally honest about my successes and failures had earned me more respect than just talking about my successes (while trying to hide my failures).

While I might not be actively seeking out freelancing gigs at the moment in my life, I won’t deny that there is a part of me that is still considering the idea. Let me put it this way, if a promising opportunity does present itself right now, I might actually consider taking it on. Taking my current goals and visions into consideration, I think having that additional income on top of a full-time gig would really help a lot. I am still amid my job hunting though. So I’m just assuming that an opportunity may present itself before/after I’ve landed a full-time gig.

On that note, let’s just get into the 5 key lessons I’ve learnt from freelancing (and also the lessons I believe can help you to be more successful, whatever your field of work is).

Lesson #1: Be Honest/Transparent

“The most common mistake many freelancers tend to make (including myself) is when we assume that it’s better not to reveal certain information to the client.”

This very first lesson, to be honest, is an area that I’ve also failed at on multiple occasions. There were times when I managed to stay honest from the start to end of a freelance gig, and the overall freelancing experience was way more positive. But the real problem arises when I tried to hold on to certain information and keep something to myself at a key moment when I really should’ve just told the client about it. The most common mistake many freelancers tend to make (including myself) is when we assume that it’s better not to reveal certain information to the client. We may think that the piece of information is not too crucial in the client’s perspective, or maybe we assume how the client may react when we share that piece of information with them; either way, by withholding that piece of information from our clients, we may end up opening a door and inviting potentially unwanted outcomes further down the road.

Trust me, I’ve had that bite my arse on numerous occasions over the years to know that it’s really just better to be totally honest and transparent. Whatever the information/update is, and whatever the potential reaction/response from the client may be, one thing is for sure – when we are being totally honest and transparent with our clients, we will almost always end up earning their respect and trust. Besides, it also creates a positive effect on the overall working relationship.

Lesson #2: Maintaining Frequent/Constant Communications (Not Less)

One very common sin that many freelancers would commit (including myself and from stories I’ve gathered from past clients), is that they [the freelancer] would get a contract and then they would disappear for one month or two months with zero communication. Now, I get that some freelancers (including myself) enjoy working in solitude. One of the reasons why I enjoy freelancing so much through the years is because I get to work independently. I didn’t have to wait on anybody else for any tasks to be done. I get to control the entire workflow, speed and quality of those deliverables.

“frequent/consistent communication really makes a huge difference between having a successful freelance gig, or one that ends in failure”

But having flexibility and independence as a freelancer doesn’t mean we should stop talking/communicating with our clients. One of the biggest lessons I can share from my experiences and the observation of other freelancers is that frequent/consistent communication really makes a huge difference between having a successful freelance gig, or one that ends in failure.

I can almost guarantee you that when you keep that communication channel open and frequent, even just to speak to your client over coffee/zoom (in the remote working culture today) and get their thoughts and ideas of what you’re trying to do, listening and being attentive to them, it can make such a major difference. 100% of my successes in my past freelance gigs actually have one thing in common – consistent and frequent communications.

Lesson #3: Avoid Underquoting (or Overquoting)

While I can’t really speak for everyone else on this pointer, I do want to speak from my own experiences as well as those stories I have gathered from previous clients of mine.

It might sound silly at first, but yeah, I’ve made the mistake of underquoting a client in the past (yes…on multiple occasions if you’ll believe it). While I have never made the personal mistake of overquoting a client before, I have heard stories from past clients of freelancers making unreasonable quotes/demands while not really providing anything value-adding (or actually being able to deliver what they have promised to). This is obviously a classic example of overpromising.

But underquoting can also lead to essentially “overpromising” on a project. When I underquoted on projects in the past, they usually happened under two different circumstances:

1. I was in a financially bad place and I was hoping to find a freelance gig to help boost my financial situation at that time. So being in a desperate state-of-mind, at the sign of the first freelance opportunity, I would say Yes to everything the client proposes (including allowing the client to dictate the project fee) while also trying to commit to a set of standard deliverables that clearly should’ve demanded a higher fee. The result was that I couldn’t sustain the project for long because the fee/funds were just insufficient to maintain the project costs for very long. This is one of my ugliest personal experiences as a freelancer. Something I’m clearly not proud of and something I am determined to prevent from happening again.
2. The other circumstance where I underquoted is during my first decade of being a freelancer. The industry was way more competitive at that time. There were fewer freelancers at that time and demand was high, so every freelancer was trying to secure as many opportunities as possible. Instead of competing with each other by providing value-adding project proposals and premium quality deliverables, we were competing with each other by seeing just how “affordable/cheap” our freelance services were. It got so bad that we began quoting every project just above the project-cost margin. So basically, for many years, while I was taking on many freelance gigs, I was also making very little from it because most of what I had quoted went into the overall costs of the project (at times, around 90-95% alone went to the overall project costs). While it might benefit the client (clearly), it didn’t benefit me as a freelancer trying to commit to producing high-quality deliverables or providing a premium service. It took me many years, but I finally managed to break out of that cycle, break away from others and began focusing on what really mattered – providing value-adding services and premium quality output. And yes, I made sure that whatever I’m quoting to a freelance client for a project, it will be reasonable both for them as well as for myself.

My final thoughts on this lesson is this – I have a simple rule of thumb. Based upon my experiences, and what I can produce, I would usually quote the client an additional amount of 40%-50% on top of what I estimate to be the cost of the overall project. So, for example, if the project costs USD 10,000, my final quote to the client will be USD 14,000 – 15,000. But ofcourse, depending on your current experience level and the kinds of recognitions you might have, your market value might be lower or higher. Most of my most successful gigs in the past usually come up to around USD 25,000 (approx. SGD 35,000) in total (consultation, UX/UI design, app development, testing, final release, hosting/subscription-related costs, etc).

Lesson #4: Be Self-disciplined

“Those times when I actually managed to deliver the best outcomes/deliverables were times when I only had one project on-hand at that time.”

This next lesson is actually a less obvious one. Something that I’ve learned in all of my years as a freelancer is that self-discipline is so crucial to the success of any freelance gig. Many of us decide to get into freelancing because we love the flexibility that it provides, as well as the kind of freedom it provides. But one thing that can happen is that we start to take on more projects that we ought to. Trust me, I’ve been there on numerous occasions myself. There were times when I thought I would be able to manage 2-3 projects at a time, but the end result was that I ended up being so overworked that it affects my ability to produce good quality deliverables. Those times when I actually managed to deliver the best outcomes/deliverables were times when I only had one project on-hand at that time. It was all I was focusing on and as a result, it resulted in some of my personal best works.

Just as important as it is for us to be self-disciplined with our tasks/milestones/deliverables, we must also be self-discipline with when to take a break. During my best moments as a freelancer, I was spending time away from work to focus on other activities i.e. working out at the gym and spending time with my family and friends/clients. My freelancer life isn’t all about the project work. I had a truly genuine work-life balance.

Lesson #5: Following up After the Project has been Completed

Here’s my final lesson that I like to share today – following-up with your clients after a project is completed. I have to admit that I wasn’t very faithful in this in the past. I think there were many instances where I finished a project, and almost immediately, the communication would end. In hindsight, many freelance gigs felt more transactional (artificial). In my view, it was a total breakdown of the working relationship. In contrast, when I managed to build a long-lasting relationship with my freelance clients, it may eventually lead to other referrals and follow-on gigs.

But more importantly, I’ve realized that when I am properly compensated for my services, I am usually more motivated and willing to continue following up with my clients (long after the project is completed). The goal of the follow-up? To find out if they face any challenges with the app, and whether or not they needed future changes/improvements to the app. In most cases, it might not lead to a new referral, but it would still lead to a separate contract for “future enhancements/improvements.” It won’t pay as much as the initial project, but it’s still additional income.

But one very important thing I might highlight here is this – if you are attempting to follow up with your freelance client, it’s really important to remain authentic/genuine. I’ve made the mistake myself of trying to push the client too hard (border lining on hard selling, if you can call it that), and it ended up souring our relationship. And in contrast, in those instances where I was successful, I was genuinely interested in wanting to help the client to better their app/project. Clients can almost certainly sense it when freelancers are not being genuine/authentic with them.

So the next time you are about to conduct a follow-up call with your client, I encourage you to ask yourself, “Am I doing this because I really want to help the client to be successful? Or am I doing it because I have some kind of ulterior motive?” If you can be truly honest with yourself in answering that question, then congratulations, you might just have a good chance at building a successful long-term relationship.

Closing Thoughts

As I reach the end of this blog entry, I do want to acknowledge that those 5 lessons listed above might not be all you can learn as a freelancer. In fact, I think we may have different lessons we can exchange and learn from each other. But as someone with roughly 18 years of freelancing experience, I’m quite confident that when we apply those 5 lessons I’ve just shared, it can help to boost our odds of success in future freelance gigs. Besides, these 18 years as a freelancer have also made me one of the most experienced freelancers in the tech, software engineering, agile, UX/UI fields. So if I can share something from my own experiences that will help you to avoid those mistakes I’ve made, and help you progress closer to success, it’s a win in my books.