10 common challenges you’ll face as a freelancer (and how to manage them)

Every year, more and more people decide to go freelance. Statista estimates that the number of freelancers in the US alone will hit over 90 million by 2028, up from 57.3 million in 2017. This steady rise in the number of freelancers is hardly surprising. The global jobs market is increasingly precarious and attitudes to work and its place in society are rapidly shifting.

A career that enables more independence, flexibility, and choice is an exciting prospect, but freelancing comes with plenty of challenges. Our current systems cater mostly to traditional employee-employer relationships and freelancers often lack the support and knowledge they need to navigate administrative tunnels, legal issues, and financial insecurity.

That’s what Goose will be tackling, as we grow. We help you deal with the annoying parts of freelancing so you can focus on building up your business, all while keeping you informed and inspired. Here are some of the main problems that freelancers face.

1. Finding clients
2. Getting paid
3. Handling admin
4. Paying taxes
5. Buying insurance
6. Building your network
7. Managing time and productivity
8. Creating a work-life balance
9. Navigating income instability
10. Solving legal and contractual issues

Below, we’ve gathered some tips on how to go about solving these key issues. We’ll build up this resource as we grow so make sure to come back regularly for new and updated content.

Many would-be freelancers balk at the idea of finding new clients or pitching for work. And let’s face it: the application part of any job hunt can be tedious. But finding clients for your freelance business might not be as difficult as you think. Yes, it takes a little time and effort but once you get started, you might be surprised how quickly you can build up your client base.

Ready? Let’s go.

Getting paid well and on time is an essential part of respecting and loving what you do. Many freelancers, particularly those in creative industries, can find money talk extremely difficult. A lot of creative people begin their careers being asked to work for free or get criminally lowballed in financial negotiations. This results in freelancers having very little understanding of what’s a fair rate and how to price themselves. As we don’t tend to talk openly about money in polite—or even impolite—conversation, the spiral of underpaid freelancers continues.

So if you’re at a total loss about what to charge and how to make sure you’re promptly paid, it’s time to do a little homework.

You may raise an eyebrow at this, and you’d be well within your rights, but setting up good processes to handle your freelancer admin can actually be rewarding. Yes, I know that’s a tough sell but hear me out. Staying on top of freelancer admin—and there is plenty!—enables you to focus on building your business and keeps everything running smoothly. From getting paid on time to increasing your feelings of security, good systems help everything else to run.

However, all the paperwork that comes with freelance life can be daunting and more than a little confusing. We’ll go into all these various tasks in detail in later articles, but to get you started, let’s skim through the most pressing admin tasks you’ll need to take care of.

We get it. Networking is scary. The word alone conjures images of name tags and tepid handshakes and 30-second elevator pitches, but there’s more to networking than awkward transactional events. You don’t need special access or to be on a stage or to get to know the most influential people in the room to build a strong network—though, of course, you can if that’s your jam.

The real secret to networking is that anyone can do it. You don’t need to be well-known, or highly experienced, or even extroverted. You just need to be yourself, pay attention to topics and people that genuinely interest you, and be willing to put yourself out there, at least a little. Like all the best things, start small and build from there.

Need a few pointers to get you started? We’ve got a few.

Germany is a highly-insured country. When you live and work here, you need to be highly-insured too. Setting up insurance might initially feel daunting, but it’s a pretty straightforward process and once you’ve ticked it off your to-do list, you’ll have a lot of security.

Yes, Germany is cautious and paperwork-heavy, but the systems do work once you set the wheels in motion. In this article, we’ll give you a brief run-down of the main insurances you need to think about as a freelancer. Only health insurance is mandatory, but the rest are advisable. Bear in mind, too, that this is a non-exhaustive list, so depending on your field, there may be other insurances that you could consider signing up for.

Ready to dive into freelancer insurance? No? Let’s do it anyway.

Freelancers are captains of their own ships and keepers of their own time. The flexibility of freelancing means you can work whenever you feel like it, but if you’re not careful, it can also mean you’re never really off the clock. We all have slightly different rhythms and it may take you some time to find what works best for you. While you’re figuring that out, here are some tips that may help.

Full-time jobs come with schedules built in. You know when you have to be at the office or online and you know when you can clock off. That’s not to say that employees don’t work more hours than they should or are always perfectly productive, but there is at least a set organisational structure around which they can navigate.

As a freelancer, all bets are off. You can work all the time or not at all. Nobody is going to pull you in for a performance review or reward your hard work. The structure of your days has to be self-imposed and you are required to marshal your own time, projects, and schedule. Your workload, your time management, and your ability to deliver work are all on you.

If anything, it’s tempting for freelancers to take on too much work rather than not enough. I can’t tell you the number of people I know who stretch themselves far too thin in order to meet every demand on their time. So if you’re struggling to find work-life balance as a freelancer, let’s take a look at some simple ways you can get back on track.

Tell people you’re a freelancer and 9 times out of 10, they’ll say “That’s cool! [pregnant pause]... But isn’t freelancing really insecure?”. While this might sound like a mild neg regarding your life choices, they’re unfortunately not wrong. Freelancing absolutely can be insecure but it also opens up a whole world of possibility simply not available to employees.

For all its benefits, freelance projects can come and go and even busy freelancers face a very different payment cadence to salaried work. However, with a little forward-planning, some smart choices, and a few acts of financial self-care, you’ll be more than capable of navigating the frequently unpredictable landscape of freelance finance.

Any kind of employment is likely to surface the occasional legal or contractual issue. With freelancing, you don’t have a HR team to help—or bamboozle—you, so when something crops up, you have to figure it out on your own. However, supports are available and at Goose, we’re working on a way to provide legal support to our community.

This article is just an overview and does not count as legal advice. Always consult a legal professional before taking any action regarding a contract dispute.

Here are some legal or contractual considerations freelancers should keep in mind.

The first recorded taxation took place in Ancient Egypt sometime between 3000 and 2800 BCE and taxpayers everywhere have been groaning about it ever since. For many people, the idea of having to manage tax returns and payments is a major barrier to going freelance.

But don’t let fear of the revenue office stop you. Managing your freelancer tax is actually a lot more straightforward than it first appears and there are lots of great tools to help you keep on top of it. That said, it’ll certainly take some getting used to if you’ve always been an employee.

Luckily, Goose is here to help you with all your freelancer needs—including tax wrangling—so let’s take a quick walk through how to pay tax as a freelancer in Germany, starting with the basics.