1 Feb 2025
12 mins
Freelancing, Professional Development, Digital Marketing
My Freelancing Mistakes of 2024: Lessons from a Digital Creative
A candid exploration of freelancing mistakes and lessons learned in 2024, covering pricing strategies, client management, and essential tools for digital creatives. This personal blog offers practical tips for navigating the Irish freelance market, including project management tools, communication platforms, and financial solutions for modern freelancers.
Introduction
Have you ever found yourself making the exact mistakes you researched and promised yourself to avoid? As a part-time freelancer—yes, I still have my 'official' job—2024 taught me valuable lessons, often through mistakes I swore I wouldn't make.
Here's the irony: I did my homework. I researched other freelancers' mistakes extensively before starting. Yet somehow, those red flags I read about? I walked right into them as if I had never seen them before. So here I am, sharing these lessons hoping you'll spot these flags better than I did.
Learned Lessons:
The power of 'NO'
Saying no to clients and projects isn't just about being selective—it's about survival. My biggest mistake was taking on projects that sent silent alarm bells ringing. Trust your instincts; they're usually right. But heads up, because not always is our future client's fault, sometimes we say yes for projects that aren’t even in our field of expertise, with that “i can do it” attitude, trust me: you can get yourself in big trouble by doing this.
Never Skip Onboarding
I learned this the hard way: a proper onboarding process isn't just paperwork—it's protection. If you don't have one yet, create it now. It sets expectations, working hours, boundaries, and prevents those 3 AM emergency client messages, and it happens!
Pricing Courage
Underpricing isn't just about losing money—it's about losing respect. The projects I undercharged for invariably became the most demanding. Price correctly from the start; it's easier than raising rates later. Remember, you got bills to pay, tools to use, gadgets to buy and the list goes on… If you have absolutely no idea about price, check your competitor, have a look at Fiverr, there's nothing wrong with doing this.
Quality Through Prospection
Cold leads rarely convert to dream clients. The best clients came through proper prospection—research, targeting, and understanding their needs before reaching out. Idealise your ideal client, create a simple but organised spreadsheet with clients that are similar to your ideal client and create a schedule to prospect them, don’t rely only on social media or word of mouth. You know better than anyone who’s your ideal client.
Platform Proficiency
Avoiding freelance platforms was a mistake. They're not just job boards—they're learning grounds. Understanding how they work opens doors to better clients and opportunities. The platform that I use and recommend is Contra (link-will-be-here), but you can also have a look at Fiverr (link-will-be-here) and Upwork (link-will-be-here), these are the ones that I like and use the most.
"The projects I undercharged for invariably became the most demanding. Price correctly from the start; it's easier than raising rates later."
Action Items for Fellow Freelancers:
Document your red flags from past projects. There are many ways to do this, you don’t need the most advanced app or system to start doing this, you can start with a pen and paper and spend less than 30 min on it, trust me, it’ll make a huge difference in your journey.
Create a basic onboarding checklist this week. If you’ve never done it before, you can get help with AI (don’t let it write everything, because it’ll be too generic). Adapt to your ways and necessities. It would take less than one hour and will be crucial as new clients arrive.
Review your current rates against market standards. As I mentioned before, set up profiles on 2-3 major freelance platforms and regularly check your prices/services/deliverables, check what your competitor is doing and remember what Don Corleone said: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Build a prospecting system (even a simple spreadsheet works).
Irish Market Context:
Working in the Irish market adds unique challenges. Our close-knit business community means reputation matters more than ever. I've realised that word of mouth works really well in Ireland, and most of my clients came from this way, and I have no doubt that it’ll work in the next few years, as long as I take care properly of my business and reputation. (not necessary to mention the quality of work that you’ll provide, right? Keep it at maximum always, and whenever is possible, over delivery).
Building trust takes time, but one mistake can echo quickly and in the era of social media and connectivity, you wouldn’t like this happening to you. That's why these lessons are particularly crucial here.
Tools & Resources that might help you:
Essential Tools for Freelancers:
Project Management & Organization
Notion - An all-in-one workspace where you can write, plan, collaborate, and organize client work in a highly customizable environment, perfect for managing projects, documentation, and notes.
Trello - A visual project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to manage workflows, track milestones, and handle approvals, making it easy to see progress and manage tasks across multiple clients.
Asana - Another excellent project management tool, particularly useful for managing tasks across multiple clients.
Communication & Scheduling
Calendly - Streamlines your scheduling process by allowing clients to book meetings based on your availability, reducing the back-and-forth of setting up appointments.
Slack - For team communication if you work with other freelancers or need to be in close contact with client teams.
Loom - For creating video walk-throughs or tutorials, which can be invaluable for client communication or explaining complex marketing strategies.
Mailchimp - For email marketing campaigns, managing subscribers, and analysing campaign performance.
Grammarly - Ensures your writing is clear, error-free, and impactful, crucial for content creation.
Design & Content Creation
Canva - Fantastic for creating professional-looking graphics without extensive design skills.
Figma - For collaborative design work, especially useful if you're involved in UX/UI or need to share design concepts with clients.
Framer - A powerful no-code platform for creating interactive, high-fidelity prototypes and fully functional websites. It's ideal for designers and freelancers looking to deliver dynamic web experiences with ease.
Pocket - Great for saving articles, videos, and other content for later reference, aiding in content curation or research.
Analytics & SEO
Google Analytics - Essential for tracking website performance, understanding user behaviour, and optimizing digital campaigns.
Hotjar - Useful for understanding user behaviour on websites through heat maps, session recordings, and feedback polls.
SEMrush or Ahrefs - SEO tools for keyword research, site audits, and competitive analysis.
Financial & Business
Contra - Combines prospecting with invoicing in one platform, specifically designed for freelancers. It helps in finding clients, negotiating payments in USD, and simplifying the invoicing process to ensure you get paid on time.
Payoneer - Another payment solution, especially useful for international transactions.
Hootsuite or Buffer - Both are great for scheduling and managing social media posts, which can save a lot of time.
Revolut - Facilitate invoicing and payments in Euros with this fintech solution, providing fast, low-cost international transfers and currency conversion.
Zapier - Automation tools that can save time by linking different apps and automating tasks like social media posts or data entry.
BONUS: Quick Recovery Tips
When you inevitably make mistakes (we all do), here's what helps:
Communicate immediately, this is undoubtedly the most important thing to do, as soon as possible you realize you made a mistake, inform, you might have time to correct it before it's too late and cause more unnecessary trouble.
Offer solutions, not excuses! I could write a lot about it, but it is self explanatory.
Document what went wrong, so you can avoid it next time. Understanding what and why went wrong is crucial to avoid mistakes in the future and learn.
Adjust your process to prevent repeats, always.
This is an honest review that I’d love to write and send to myself from 2023, when I started. I hope it helps! Stay safe, stay sharp!
