First of all, I’d like to thank the hundreds of people who have attended The Freelancer Fair. I am deeply moved by your support. I hope that The Freelancer Fair will be a milestone in your freelancing journey. As I’m excited to write about the fair, I found myself thinking about the industry and things that stop freelancers from achieving their dreams. I’ll probably write about the fair in the days to come. I decided to download all of my thoughts into this blogpost.
I’ve seen this industry grow and thrive since 2010. This was the year I started my own freelancing journey. The freelancing industry is definitely a colorful industry. This is what I find most appealing about it. There are a lot of things happening, a lot of events and workshops, a lot of online courses being offered and a lot of live videos, and a lot of inspiration. There’s enough variety to make someone from the outside curious about what’s happening on the inside.
In this industry, there are people willing and able to help you start freelancing. They will help you when you’re stuck in a rut and don’t know what to do. There are big brands, like PayPal, who support you every step of the way (BTW, if you don’t have a PayPal account yet, you can click on this link: PayPal). We have more than 20 communities in the Philippines. Each of these communities have their own advocacies and each one captures their own segment of the industry. All of these support are readily available for anyone interested to be a freelancer.
So I still wonder why there are still aspiring freelancers who are scared to get into this fun-filled, super caring and supportive industry? Why can’t they start their freelancing journey? Why is one disheartened (after a few months or a year) to continue freelancing? Why do some people fail while others succeed?
A big factor is FEAR. We are scared of a lot of things.
I talked to a lot of long-time freelancers and those who are thinking of jumping into this industry and I have grouped the “fears” that they have encountered into 6 FEARS.
Fear #1: Lack of skills
Being new to this industry, we hear things like Virtual Assistance, Online Business Manager, Email Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Content Marketing, SEO, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Artificial Intelligence, Media Buying, etc. Most of these things are words that we haven’t heard before. We often feel that we may not be able to grasp and fully understand any of these things. We think that we may not have any place in this freelancing world, but this is not true!
IMHO: There will always a place for you in this industry IF you REALLY, REALLY want to be part of it. You just need to discover your own strengths and weaknesses. After which, focus on your strengths and develop skills that are aligned with these strengths. Note that if you discover in the future that what you really love is not in this industry, there is nothing wrong with that. The most important thing is that you live a life doing the things that you love.
Also, we need constantly be curious about different things. We always need to strive to learn something new every day!
Do you feel like you’re not spending enough time with family?
Fear #2: Lack of Time Management Skills
A lot of people who start in this industry juggled family life, maintaining a day job and doing side projects. With this, some people feel like they will fail because they don’t have time management skills.
IMHO: The way to face feeling this way is to accept that you will never have the perfect balance of time spent for each aspect in your life. I, too, still feel guilty that I don’t spend time with my family as often as I want to. On other days, I feel useless for some projects that I’m involved with. And in other days, I feel guilty that I could have done better in a freelance work that I delivered to a Client.
But this is not how I feel each and every single day. In days that I feel guilty about not spending time with family, those are the day that I excelled in my freelancing career, and vice versa. So no matter how good your time management skills are, juggling all of these is a fact of life so there is no need to fear it — just be ready for this kind of life.
Do you feel like your missing out on the things that your friends have?
Fear #3: Fear of Missing Out on Corporate Success
Jumping into a new territory always makes us feel like we’re missing out on the world that we left behind. I remember the first time I went full-on freelancing. During the first three months of my freelancing journey, there wasn’t a day when I wanted to go back and work again. I felt bored, depressed, and discouraged. I felt that I was missing out on a lot of things. My friends were going up the corporate ladder, while I was starting from scratch. I had nothing. All I had was my dream and my skills and talent.
IMHO: You don’t need to be scared that you’ll miss out on things that your friends are experiencing. You have your own journey. Each one of us have our own mission in life and our purpose to accomplish. Stop comparing. You’ll miss out on a lot of things when you spend time comparing and sulking. Focus on growing, achieving and helping!
Fear #4: Fear of not having Income stability
Fear #5: Understanding Taxation
Fear #6: Lack of Client Projects or Lack of Skill in Handling Clients
I have much to say about the last three fears. These are the ones that came up more often when I interviewed aspiring freelancers. I will discuss these three during the workshop that I will have with PayPal (Take the Dare: Fear-Proof Your Freelancing Journey). This will be the 10th PayPal Freelancer Community Workshop on September 8, 2018!
The key topics that I will talk about for the Fear-proof your Freelancing Journey are the following:
– What are the challenges to income security and how to overcome it?
– Why it’s important to pay taxes and how it can benefit you and your business
– How to deal with tough clients and strictly manage projects
This is an outline of what I will cover.
Fear #1: Income stability
– Know how to secure finances even when projects are pending or hard to find
– Budget management
– Managing monthly projects and gross revenue
Fear #2: Taxation
– Get acquainted with taxation processes that you have to comply with as a Freelancer
– Know the business benefits and perks of paying taxes
Fear #3: Client projects
– Discover strategies and tactics for finding and pitching to clients for new projects
– Managing deadlines and pressures
– How to deal with hard clients
– How to confront rejection from a failed presentation
– Setting up an invoice system for recurring payments
If you have time to join me, please do sign up using this link: https://bit.ly/10thPayPalFreelancerWorkshop
There is a $100 surprise for a lucky attendee!
Having a PayPal account will really make things easier. PayPal is a trusted payment service by Clients from any country. This will make collecting payments easier for us, freelancers. Sign up for a PayPal account HERE!.
I’d really love to get to know you and let’s see how we can jointly overcome your fears and fear-proof your freelancing journey!
