There are a lot of people freelancing these days since it is so easy to get work online. The idea of being your own boss and even being a digital nomad and traveling the world while working is very attractive. There is a lot of freedom to be enjoyed since you are able to take on the work you want and not do the things you don’t want to do unlike when working in a traditional job. 

That’s the theory anyway. The reality of being in a freelancer’s work is that it is fraught with challenges. Although you can have a lot of freedom and autonomy, you can also be held back by many things that don’t happen to traditional employees. In this article, we will go over several of the biggest challenges that a freelancer faces. 

1. Unreliable Clients

Getting paid for your work is one of the biggest challenges and something that holds back a lot of freelancers. It is not at all uncommon to need to hire breach of contract attorneys when a client decides to not honor their obligations according to the contract for work agreed upon. 

These clients can even be unreliable when they do pay on time and in total simply by not delivering on work that was promised. It is very difficult to juggle clients and projects as a freelancer. When a client says that they will be giving you a project, you have to often turn down work. When that project doesn’t come to fruition it can be very frustrating. 

2. Micromanaging Clients

Some people have a very hard time giving up control to others. When dealing with freelancers, some managers often want to be in control of them as they would normally be able to do with an employee. 

This makes life difficult for a freelancer when the client is a micromanager. It is often impossible to satisfy a micromanaging client so the work drags on much longer than it should. The way it should work is that there will be milestones assigned so the client can sign off on the progress of the work done to that point. However, many want to check in too often and will ask that things be changed on the fly. Even some of the things that the client had asked for already. 

3. Unclear Requests

All too often, a client doesn’t actually know what they want. They know they have a problem and hope that the freelancer will take the problem on and complete it in a way that they are satisfied with. All without actually having to communicate their ideas. 

This is obviously very problematic since freelancers can’t read the mind of the client and often have different ideas on how to proceed. When you lack specifics, it is nearly impossible to complete a project on time and get paid. The client will often be unsatisfied with the results and will ask for changes. 




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