Is Freelancing Hard?

Freelancing gives you greater control over your career, but that comes with more responsibility. Before starting the journey down this career path, you may be wondering, “Is freelancing hard?” Building a freelancing career can be challenging at first, but the trade-off of being your own boss makes it worth it for many independent professionals. 

In the Future Workforce Index, The Upwork Research Institute found that more than one out of every four (28%) skilled knowledge workers now operate as freelancers or independent professionals, seeking greater autonomy, financial control, and meaningful work. While freelancing may be hard at times, many independent professionals find it worth it in the long run. 

If you’re considering freelancing, but are worried that it’s hard, this article will explore the main challenges of freelancing and compare them to the biggest benefits. 

Freelancing means running a business

Freelancing is providing services directly to clients on a contract-by-contract basis. Compared to working for a single company, freelancers are self-employed. Freelancing means running a business—you’re responsible for finding potential clients and projects. 

Suzanne, an Expert Vetted graphic designer, explains the business side of freelancing in her success story:

“As a freelancer, first, you're running a customer service business. Second, you're running a marketing business. And third, you're doing whatever it is that you were hired to do, like graphic design."

Running a business can be hard work. You need to have an entrepreneurial mindset and handle many different aspects of your business, from marketing to administration. Freelancers work directly with their clients, making communication a key skill. You’ll also have to:

• Negotiate contracts
• Manage your freelance projects 
• Invoice clients
• Market your business 
• Pay self-employment tax 

Being self-employed and running your own business means that you also get to create your schedule. You can work the hours that fit your lifestyle best, while meeting your deadlines. Freelancers also get to decide what projects and clients they accept and how much to charge based on the demand for their services. 

While you may have more responsibilities as a freelancer, this often translates into more control over your growth and career. 

Biggest challenges when freelancing

As with any career path, freelancing will have its ups and downs. Freelancers have more autonomy and freedom than other types of workers, but building a business takes time. You may not immediately have a full week of billable hours. Some weeks may be busier than others. You have to manage your time and learn how to be productive while working remotely and balancing multiple deadlines at once. 

Being aware of the most common challenges freelancers have can help you be prepared and make an informed decision on whether freelancing is right for you. 

Building a reputation 

Freelancing is a skills- and reputation-based career. When you're just starting out, landing your first few clients can be the most challenging until you have reviews and a strong portfolio of work samples. Clients want to hire freelancers with a proven record of success to help reduce their uncertainty and risk. 

Many freelancers start out charging less than their target rate and bid on smaller projects to gain reviews and develop their portfolio. 
Hyunjn, an Expert Vetted social media market specialist and market researcher, explains her strategy for prioritizing feedback and reviews as a new freelancer in her success story: 

“When you’re shopping online, you prioritize products with good star ratings and reviews. So that was my strategy for Upwork too. I applied for lots of different projects that suited my skills and always did my best. When you do good work and build a great relationship with clients, they give you a good rating. I always got five stars with good positive feedback. And when you become a top-rated ‘product’—or a top-rated freelancer in my case—you get better opportunities.”

What you can do: 

• Use testimonials. If you’ve worked with clients in the past, you can add their testimonials to your Upwork profile. Having testimonials from past clients helps validate your skills and gives you more credibility as a freelancer. 
• Create mockups. Portfolio samples don’t have to be from paid clients; they can be mockups or passion projects (just make sure you make a note of this in your portfolio). Creating your own portfolio items can help you get exactly the types of samples you need while fine-tuning your skillset. 
• Earn talent badges. These badges appear on your Upwork profile and help you stand out to clients. The first one to aim for is the Rising Talent Badge, which highlights promising new freelancers.  

Finding clients consistently 

When freelancing, creating a steady workload can take time. The day you decide to freelance may not be the day you land your first client. Even once you have a steady stream of clients, some weeks may be lighter than others.

As a freelancer, you can decide to work on a platform like Upwork and submit proposals to projects recently posted by clients—these are hot leads. You can also reach out directly by emailing or messaging business owners who could benefit from your services. Depending on their interest, these may be warm or cold leads. 

When freelancing, the pay can be less consistent than if you’re used to having a fixed paycheck every week. When a project ends, you may not have a contract lined up immediately. If you’re working on fixed-price contracts, you often don’t get paid until the deliverable is approved. The time you spend finding clients and doing administrative tasks isn’t billable—you’ll need to factor this into your hourly and project rates. 

On Upwork, contracts can be hourly or fixed-price, each with its own payment structure. When working hourly contracts on Upwork, clients get automatically invoiced each week for the hours you work. On fixed-price Upwork contracts, the client funds the milestone before the contract starts, and the funds are released to you after the client approves it or 14 days pass, whichever comes first. Both types of contracts have payment protection on Upwork. 

What you can do: 

• Optimize your proposals. Uma, Upwork’s Mindful AI, can help improve your proposals. You can use Uma to draft your proposal after answering a few questions or get tips for what you’ve already written.
• Run ads. Stand out to clients by running ads on Upwork. You can signal to clients you're ready to take on more freelance work with the Availability Badge, boost your proposal so it gets seen first by clients, or boost your profile to gain more job invites. 
• Deliver great experiences. Every client you land has the potential to turn into a long-term relationship or referral. Even if it’s a one-off project, client feedback and positive reviews are fundamental to building your business. 

Managing multiple clients at once

Freelancers work directly with their clients and often have to balance different clients, projects, and competing deadlines at once. Managing this workload takes strong project management skills, as well as discipline to avoid overcommitting. Successful freelancers know how to prioritize tasks, stay organized, and set boundaries to keep their schedules sustainable.

As a freelancer, you’re also a project manager. You’re responsible for making sure that you have everything you need from a client to complete the project successfully. Client communication is an integral aspect of freelancing. You’ll need to stay on top of deadlines, give status updates, and make sure that you’re meeting the client’s expectations.  

Accepting every project and contract that comes your way can be tempting, but you have to maintain work quality. Before saying yes to a new client, make sure they seem like the right fit and you have the skills and bandwidth to complete the project successfully. Negative feedback can hurt your business. One of the many perks of being a freelancer is that you have the authority to say no. 

Each client will have their own work style, communication preferences, and personality. As a freelancer, you’ll need to learn how to quickly adapt to build strong relationships and collaborate effectively. While some clients may be more challenging to work with, the beauty of freelancing is that once a contract ends, you’re not obligated to work with them again. On the other hand, you may have clients that you have worked with for years and developed a personal relationship with. 

Joshua Masterson, a Top Rated Plus Freelance Writer and Editor, shares how he balances multiple projects and deadlines:

"As an editor and proofreader, clients need your work to be as nearly perfect as possible, because it’s the final product. You need to know how long each project will take so that you can create a schedule that will pay your bills while delivering quality work. But you also need to develop a relationship with clients so that you know, between different clients, which tasks are a priority. If a long-term client asks for help with a presentation they’re giving in two days, you might need to ask for an extension from a different client on a project you know has a softer deadline.” 

What you can do: 

• Onboard new clients. Set the tone from day one by outlining expectations, deliverables, and communication preferences. Creating a simple, repeatable onboarding template can help you stay organized and build client trust from day one.
• Incorporate AI into your workflow. You can use AI tools to help speed up your processes and be more efficient in your day-to-day life. The right AI tool can be like having a personal assistant ready to help you brainstorm or automate repetitive tasks. 
• Use project management tools. Stay organized and keep track of all of your deadlines and deliverables with a project management system. Visualize your workweek and make the most out of your billable time. 

Mastering self-motivation and time management

Running your own business means that you have more autonomy than you would as an employee. Freelancers report to their clients, not a manager or supervisor, and can work remotely unless the job requires them to be on-site. Depending on the client and project, you may be working independently with minimal check-ins and status update requests until you submit your deliverables. 

Freelancers need to learn how to be productive without having the structure that traditional employment provides. While many freelancers enjoy this freedom, some struggle with time management and motivation. Freelancers typically only get paid when they’re working. If you procrastinate on a fixed-price contract and take longer than you need to, your hourly rate effectively decreases. 

Some freelancers create their own structure and develop strict schedules that mimic an office environment to succeed and avoid distractions. Figuring out what works for you may take some time.

What you can do: 

• Create a schedule. Start your day with a plan outlining what you’re going to work on, and then block your time using the Pomodoro Technique. Dedicate yourself to one task at a time and use your scheduled breaks to recharge. 
• Track your time. Even if your contract doesn’t require it, log the hours you spend on a task and take advantage of reporting features in tracking apps to be more productive and optimize how you spend your time each week. You may find tasks that are time-consuming and can be streamlined (or automated) using AI. 
• Set goals. Keep motivated by setting goals daily and making them actionable through the SMART framework. Breaking up tasks and goals into smaller steps can help them feel more manageable and accomplishable. 

Benefits of freelancing

While freelancing has challenges, it also has many benefits. The trade-offs are well worth it for many independent professionals. You may have to put in more work at the beginning to build your business, but in return, you gain more control and freedom over your schedule, workload, and career growth. 

In the following sections, we’ll explore the major benefits to help you evaluate if freelancing is a good match for you. 

Working remotely

As a freelancer, you can work remotely unless your skill requires you to be on-site, like photography. Working remotely allows you to choose when and where you work. When applying to jobs in-office, employees are limited by location—companies within a commutable distance—unless they’re willing to relocate. 

Being able to work from home (or wherever you choose) gives you more flexibility over where you live. You don’t need to live within a drivable distance to the office; you can live in a different city, state, or even country from your clients. Working remotely also saves time each day by not having to commute to the office. 

Working remotely means that you’re not bound to a location unless you want to be. You have the freedom to travel the world or spend the day at the local coffee shop. On days you’re not feeling great, you can work from bed or in your pajamas (as long as you don’t have any camera-on meetings). This can help improve work-life balance. 

“Freelancing allows me to pursue my love of travel. I can work anywhere with Wi-Fi, opening up an entire new world of opportunities that wouldn’t be possible if I had to be in an office. I can explore different cities, work from coffee shops during the week, and go on weekend adventures. I’m not anchored to any city, I get to travel wherever I want as long as I can still make any meetings I have.” 

—Cassie Moorhead, Freelance Writer

Decide your rates

Freelancers set their rates and negotiate contracts with clients. Compared to being an employee and having a set hourly rate or salary, freelancers get to decide what they want to charge for each contract. Freelancers typically have a base hourly rate and then can charge a client more or less depending on the difficulty and time requirements of a project. 

What you can charge clients depends on your skills and experience. If you’re just starting out, you may want to charge on the lower end of the average hourly rate for your skill. As you gain experience and have more positive reviews on your profile, you can begin to increase your rates.

Instead of having to ask for a raise, as you would if you were an employee, you can increase your rates based on your workload and the demand for your skills. When working on certain long-term contracts on Upwork, you can include a scheduled rate increase. After a set amount of time, your hourly rate will increase by the amount you specified and the client agreed to. 

Choose the projects you work on

Because you’re running your own business when freelancing, you get to choose the projects you work on. When working as an employee, typically a manager assigns you tasks and you’re expected to complete them. Freelancers get to decide which projects they want to accept. If a project or client isn’t the right fit, you have the power to say no. 

Choosing the projects you work on also gives you more control over your workload. You get to decide how much you want to work—you don’t have to do overtime if you manage your workload. A client may have an urgent request, but typically freelancers work around deadlines that are agreed upon before they accept the contract. 

Catherine, a Top Rated Plus Virtual Assistant, shares how freelancing gives her more freedom in her success story:

"So there's many times I'm somewhere else and enjoying life while I'm working. I do what I love. I choose projects that make me happy. On Upwork, you have the freedom to pick what you want and reject what you don't." 

Set your own schedule 

Choosing the projects you work on allows you to set your own schedule as a freelancer. When taking on new clients, before accepting a contract, you can discuss when you’ll be available to respond to questions and your typical work hours. As long as you set these expectations ahead of time, you can be away from your laptop during your off time and only respond to urgent messages. 

Some freelancers prefer to work traditional 9-5 hours, while others need more flexibility in their schedules. You may have clients spread across different time zones and need to coordinate meetings. 

Being able to work nontraditional hours can be helpful for caretakers, traveling, or managing other responsibilities. Some people are more productive in the morning, while others are more productive at night. You can create a schedule that works for you, as long as you’re meeting your deadlines and have clear communication guidelines with your clients. 

Misha, an Implementation Specialist at Workiflow, discusses how freelancing allows her to start her workday after her kids go to bed in the agency’s success story:

“Being a freelancer means I can be there for my kids the whole day, which is great. Then they go to bed, and I start my workday because I work with clients in the US. My full-time job is actually a mom. I live in India, so earning in dollars and spending in rupees is definitely a positive. I get to work maybe five hours a day or four hours a day, and I earn more than I would in a full-time job in India.”

Continuing education and skills development

Depending on where you work as an employee, you may have access to corporate training tools. The company may reimburse you for tuition or give free access to an online learning platform. These tools may not be enough to keep up in a rapidly changing environment, especially around AI. 

The Future Workforce Index found that employees are more likely to limit themselves to corporate training structures, while skilled freelancers are “outpacing their skilled full-time counterparts in future-readiness—through self-directed learning, hands-on experiences, and continuous self-development that is not always possible in a traditional organizational setting.”

As a freelancer, you can take an online course or teach yourself a skill and immediately gain on-the-job experience by completing small projects for clients. You can expand your niche with complementary skills that are in high demand. Smaller and more beginner-friendly projects help you to refine your new skill and build your portfolio.

Listen to the Work Week Podcast episode “What's Driving the Rise of Independent Skilled Workers?” to hear why many professionals are choosing to freelance and learn in-demand skills like AI. 

Frequently asked questions about freelancing: 

How do you start freelancing?

You can start freelancing by making a free profile on Upwork and submitting proposals for jobs that fit your skill set. This guide can help you get started. 

How do you find clients freelancing?

Freelancers can get clients by reaching out to their personal network and offering their services, marketing their freelance business, and using platforms like Upwork to apply to freelance jobs posted by clients.

How much do freelancers make? 

The Future Workforce Index found that full-time freelancers in categories like writing, creative design, and IT and development earned a median income of $85,000, making more than their full-time employees counterparts. How much a freelancer can make depends on their skills and experience. 

‍What skills are most in demand for freelancers?

You can see the top 10 most in-demand skills by category from The Upwork Research Institute. As more businesses integrate AI into their workflows, the demand for skills around AI and data analytics continues to grow. 

Is Upwork free to use as a freelancer?

You can create a profile on Upwork for free. Freelancers pay a variable service fee to use the platform and submit proposals to jobs costs Connects. 

Should I use Upwork to find freelance clients?

Whether or not you should use Upwork to find freelance clients depends on your skills and what you’re looking for as a freelancer. Upwork has jobs in over 125 categories and across 10,000 skills. You can find jobs recently posted by clients that match your skillset. You’ll need to create a strong profile and portfolio and spend time submitting proposals for jobs that fit your background. 

How do freelancers get paid? 

On Upwork, freelancers have payment protection on both hourly and fixed-price contracts when terms and services are followed. Clients are automatically billed each week for hours logged through Upwork and pre-fund fixed-priced milestones.

Do I need a portfolio to start freelancing?

Yes, having a portfolio and work samples helps you to land clients as a freelancer. Clients want to see past examples of your work. If you don’t have any paid projects from past clients, you can create mockups of the exact samples you need. Just make sure that you make a note that the project wasn’t from a paid client. 

What if I don’t have any experience yet?

You don’t have to have any experience to start freelancing. You can build your skill set and portfolio by working on personal projects or volunteering your services. In the beginning, you may want to take on smaller projects and charge your initial clients less to help gain reviews and build your portfolio. 

Can I freelance part-time?

Yes, as a freelancer, you get to decide how many hours you want to work each week. Many freelancers start off working part-time outside of their main employment until they’re ready to become full-time freelancers. Freelancing can also be a great side hustle to earn additional income in your free time. 

Build your freelancing career on Upwork

Freelancers get to choose when, where, and how they work. Compared to being a traditional employee, you have more flexibility over your day-to-day and control over your career. Freelancing is a business. You have responsibilities outside of the skill you want to offer clients. You have to build your business and actively find new projects and clients. 

Upwork can be your home for freelancing work. You can submit proposals to projects that fit your skills on the Talent Marketplace™, log your hours, communicate with clients, and get paid all within the platform. There are thousands of opportunities every day. Start by creating a free account and making a profile, and then see what projects spark your interest.