In September of 2007 I was a nearly unrecognizable shell of my former self. Where I had been happy, optimistic and idealistic, I was now a hopelessly trapped, pessimistic and depressed wage slave. The number one contributor to my demise was a six-month-old, 40-hour-per-week part time (yes, “part time.”) job in a hospital emergency room packing bloody needles and discarded organs into plastic buckets and tidying up around the bodies of the recently deceased. At the point I finally couldn’t stand it anymore, I put in a two week notice. No plans for the future. No idea what would happen next. I just quit with the vague notion that I would somehow be a web designer.

Fast forward to today, I have been a freelance web designer for nearly two years. Do I regret my decision to quit without any plans? No! But that doesn’t mean other people should go that route, either. I learned the hard way how NOT to be a freelancer. Before you get started, take a look at these five mistakes beginning freelancers tend to make.

1. Being a Jack of All Trades

It’s fine to have lots of different interests, but you should find one or two closely related skills from which you’ll make your money. When I first started I took any job that came along. I wrote reviews and blog posts, edited audio, designed webpages, photoshopped images and tried to create branding. There was a very big problem with this, though. While I was continually getting work, I was mediocre at everything I was doing and cursed to low-paying, unchallenging jobs.

It wasn’t until I saw a video of Seth Godin talking about niche marketing that I realized I had to narrow my skills and promote them to a specific kind of person. It took some exploration and some tweaking, but I finally saw that my true passion was web design and development.

If you want to make a living, go for a small, specific market rather than the biggest possible audience. Remember, specialists make more money than generalists.

2. Thinking Of Yourself As A Freelancer

You might think this is an odd “mistake” to include. You want to be a freelancer and if you ARE a freelancer, why wouldn’t you treat yourself like a freelancer?

Because you aren’t really a freelancer!

You are your own brand and your own business. The sooner you learn this the better. Even acting as a one man (or woman) operation, all the rules of business still apply to you. You still need to organize and track your finances and your projects, get a logo and a website, and develop methods for handling all of your daily tasks, from billing to marketing to communicating with your clients.

3. Not Saying No

When you are just starting out, every job that comes your way seems like a blessing. If you turn one down, who knows when the next one will come… besides, you have bills to pay, right?

But you’ll soon find out that you can’t and most definitely shouldn’t take on every job or keep every job. If you are planning on beginning your journey as a freelancer, keep in mind the 20/80 rule, introduced to me by Tim Ferriss‘ book, The 4-Hour Work Week. That is, 80% of the money you make will come from 20% of the projects and 20% of your projects will take up 80% of your time. Here’s the catch, though. These two 20 percents may not be the same projects! If a low paying job is eating away your time and making you miserable, renegotiate or drop it and focus on getting more high paying, quality projects.

4. Not Treating It Like A “Real” Job

When you are just starting out, you’ll be very likely to abuse your freedom. That’s understandable. After working 6 and 7 days per week for six months, my first week of freelancing was more like a vacation. I finally had some free time and I was going to take advantage of it.

I started by waking up around 11am instead of my previous 5:30am. I had really long breakfasts and enjoyed some TV before I even dreamt of working. And then once I was ready to work, I would decide to take a walk or maybe listen to some music or read a book. I did get some work finished, but it wasn’t much. In the first few weeks I never sat down at my desk for longer than 1 or 2 hours at a time.

But when the old checking account numbers started falling, I realized the seriousness of my situation. I set a work schedule, found a few apps to get organized and then I started reading as much as possible about marketing and web design in order to get me some quality clients.

You need to treat you work like a “real” job… at least to a certain extent.

5. Treating It Like A “Real” Job

You really have to find a balance with how seriously you take your work. You need to take it seriously enough that you make enough money, but if you take it so seriously that it eats away at your desired lifestyle and your well-being, what good is having money.

After a month of the “take it seriously” schedule I gave myself I was completely burnt out. I had left one “real” job I absolutely hated only to find myself basing my freelance career on those same awful principles that made me hate it. Strict schedules, forced work, no free time. It was killing me, but this time it was different. There was no escape. There was no one to blame. I was my own boss. I had some correcting to do.

Today I’m happy to say I’ve finally found my groove. I am able to enjoy the freedoms of freelancing while also maintaining all my projects and responsibilities. For example, I still wake up at 10 or 11 in the morning, take time for exercising and a good breakfast, but now I work at least 4 or 5 hours per day Monday through Friday. Enough to get done what’s important, but not to burn myself out.

Make sure you find a balance. It’s different for everyone. Find out what works for you.

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Photo by zachklein

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