The reason why this is both good and bad, is because you can do whatever you want. But you don’t have anyone who holds you accountable other than yourself.
It’s your fault when you don’t make sales, it’s your fault when you forget to pay your taxes on time, it’s all on you.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to be your own boss. You have to choose which compromises you have to make.
And the problem with that is: If there is no manager whose job it is that we continuously improve, we often forget to set time aside to upskill.
So today, we’re going to learn how to keep learning.
Find a skill to learn/improve
This can be a skill that you already have but maybe you want to become better at it. For example, if you’re a good UX Designer, maybe you want to focus on how to do better user research.
But this can also be a skill that you know nothing about, like marketing or sales. Find a skill that will complement your business and make time for it.
Let me show you how ⬇️
What skill is worth investing in?
As a fellow freelancer, one piece of advice I can give you is that people book you for a specific skill. For me, it’s UX Design. People hire me because they want a new website or app or want to improve an existing piece of software.
It’s important to stay up to date with the main skill you offer as a freelancer. But often, it’s not the people who are best at their skill but the ones who are the best communicator and sales person. So it’s very important to be good at that when you want to be a successful freelancer.
Find what it is that you want to learn and improve on.
Currently, I’m investing in my communication skills. The main reason for that was the Freelance Blueprint Podcast. When I edited the first episode I noticed how rarely I finish my sentences and um and er. And only when I listened to my voice without watching the video to it I realised how important it is to communicate better.
Set a budget aside
It’s always good to have some money to re-invest in your business aka yourself. At the beginning, while you’re still building your shit happens-fund, you might not have budget to upskill. But overtime, your budget will increase.
For reference: At the beginning of my freelance career, I’ve not invested in myself at all. But currently, i’m spending 2k+ on coaching. I’m a strong believer that what you invest in yourself will come back to you.
What if I don’t have a budget?
If you don’t have any money you can invest right now, you’re lucky. Today, there are so many free resources out there. You can google anything and there’ll be a video tutorial for it.
The advantage of courses is that you get a structure. Modules are built on one another and as Eli has said in the latest Freelance Blueprint episode: It’s the fastest way to get you from where you are now to where you want to be.
You can also follow people on social media who offer great advice. Check out my stories today to see who I consider share great insights on UX and freelancing.
How to pick a course?
Personally, I tend to choose courses that are hosted life. Because otherwise, I won’t make time to watch them in my own time. It’ll have to be a set time and date.
But find a course that works around you. If the time zone doesn’t work for you, find one to watch in your own time or where you can watch the recordings.
And ideally, you’d pick a course that also offers a community access. The other people on the course will be in similar situations as you. It’s a great way to expand your network and find support.
Why do I need to invest in a new skill?
The world is constantly changing. 5 years ago, we wouldn’t have imagined that ChatGPT will write social media posts. Or that Midjourney will come up with designs. Especially when you work in tech, it’s important to stay up to date.
TLDR
Pick a skill to invest in
Define your upskilling budget
😩 If you have no budget: find a podcast or Youtube Channel💰 If you have a budget: browse for a course for your desired skill set
😩 If you have no budget: Schedule time to upskill, otherwise you’ll never do it 💰 If you have a budget: Buy that course 💪
This is probably the question I get asked the most. And it’s the same with almost anything you do: The longer you do it, the easier it gets.
But here’s the thing:
☝️ You don’t have to find clients. You just have to find one client!
Let’s get started with one, and then build from there 💪
But how do I get a client?
When you start your freelance career, getting that first client feels like climbing Mount Everest when you don’t even know how to go for a walk.
But did you apply for jobs before and got a permanent job? Did you apply for internships before and got one? Finding clients is pretty much the same and the best part: If it’s a nightmare client, you can easily find another one 🤫
Baby steps
But before applying for gigs, let’s see where people are looking for your services.
Set up a Job Alert
Just like with permanent jobs, there are several platforms online where you can look for freelance gigs.
Today, we’re just looking into setting up job alerts so you see how much demand there is for your service. It also helps with getting an idea of what type of projects there are (duration, payment, team sizes) and what type of companies hire your services.
For UX Design, I still find it one of the best platforms to find high quality clients and projects.
Of course, you don’t have to use Linkedin. Depending on where in the world you are and what services you offer, you might find better opportunities on other platforms.
But one way to get started is to set up a filter for the jobs you’re interested in. This will show you how much demand there is for your services and how many potential next clients there are.
As a freelancer, you need to be able to deliver work for your clients. And to do that, you need to keep track and prioritise your tasks, especially when you work on several clients at once.
Let me show you how 👇
What tasks do I need to do?
There’s so many tasks that you might not even think about yet. But don’t worry, these blogs are designed so everything is a baby step. Let’s not think about 20 steps ahead, just look at the tiny one in front of you 👶
If you see all the different tasks together, it can be very overwhelming. So ideally, you’ll list your 3 most important tasks and prioritise them. Only do the next one once you finished the one with the highest priority.
If you’re anything like me, you might find this difficult. I’m a “productive procrastinator” as I’d call it 😩 I tend to do all the non-important tasks first but the one task I should be doing always feels like the most daunting one.
So I do everything else, but the main thing and then do it last minute under time pressure and not at the best of my ability.
And I’ve tried many different things to help me manage those tasks.
Disclaimer: Just because something has worked for me, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. The ideal way to manage your tasks will be different to what I’ve tried. Find a way that works for you 🫡
What are the options?
Nowadays, there are so many different tools to help you organise your tasks.
TickTick
This is a free tool and after Wunderlist discontinued (an amazing task management tool), this was the best alternative I could find.
TickTick allows you to create subtasks, add a deadline to your tasks and categorise them into different buckets. You can also tag them with hashtags and put them into different client folders.
It’s a great tool if you like things simple.
Trello
When it comes to organising client tasks, this one helped me a lot. It’s like TickTick but you can organise your tasks on a Kanban board.
Notion
You can create more or less the same type of boards you have on trello on Notion. But notion has – in my opinion – a nicer User experience.
Basically, I love notion 😍 I’m having a kanban board for the podcast, a spreadsheet for all the content I want to create for freelancers like you and also manage private tasks like upcoming flights and holidays.
Google Calendar
Yes, I’ve tried time blocking. It doesn’t work – at least not for me. But once I tried google tasks, it has helped a lot. Putting a task visibly in my calendar where I can clearly see it and tick it off is very satisfying 😌
Momentum
This Chrome extension has only come on my radar in the last month and it’s helped me a lot 🤯
It’s doing the same thing as the Google Calendar tasks, but the difference is that you enter your main focus for the day and it’s always visible when you open a new Chrome tab. So far, this one has been the biggest help when it comes to my productivity
We’re all different
Just because something has worked for me, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. It might be that the ideal way to manage your tasks will be different to what I’ve tried. Find a way that works for you.
Right now, momentum and notion are the tools that help me to be the most productive.
👩🏻💻 Free Guide
The exercise described in this blog article is one of the steps of my free guide for people who want to create a work life that works for them.
Who are you going to help with your freelance services? The more specific you are, the easier it will be to find those people who will hire you.
Think of a person, not a demographic
If you’re a UX Designer, you probably heard of personas. If you don’t know what a persona is, it’s basically a summary of a crowd or your target audience in shape of one person.
Why does it matter?
It’s much easier to target a person than to target a crowd. When I’m writing these emails, I’m thinking of the person who is reading this, not the demographic behind it. This makes it much easier for me to talk to you and I hope you feel like I’m talking to you directly, and not to a crowd of the however-many people who are reading my blog.
The clearer you are with your persona – aka who you’re going to help – the easier it will be for you to find them.
How to define your client
Where do they work? What does their day to day look like? What platforms do they use? What are their pain points?
But also, what values do they have? If for example, you want to work with start ups, do you want to work with someone who will ask you to work on weekends? Or do you value work-life balance? Do you want to work for a start up that makes a positive impact or just wants to increase their earnings?
Here’s what i’ve put together for my ideal client persona
This persona is based on one of my previous clients. I really enjoyed working with her and hope to work with more clients like her in the future. Mainly because she’d CC me into emails where she’d message the finance team to pay my invoices on time so they don’t risk losing me as a freelancer 🥹 That’s the type of clients I love working with 🙌
✍️ Your turn
Now it’s time to define your ideal client. You don’t have to design your persona in a digital way, just using pen and paper and drawing a stick man does the job as well 💪
But if you want to, I’ve used this template to create Julia’s persona above in only 5 minutes.
When you’re done, put your ideal client persona somewhere visible. Print it out and pin it to your desk. Or put it as a desktop background 😅 Just make sure you keep reminding yourself of who you’re helping. It’ll be much easier to target them and finding that ideal client.
👩🏻💻 Free Guide
The exercise described in this blog article is one of the step of my free guide for people who want to create a work life that works for them through freelancing.
Someone recently reached out and told me about a freelance project they got. The role itself sounded great. But there was something that made her feel unsure about taking on that client.
When you freelance for a while, you learn that some clients are better to work with than others. It’s not so much about the project itself but the people you work with. If you work within a great team, the outcome will be something you’re proud of.
I told her, that over time, you get a good gut feeling who to work with and who to avoid. Even during the interview stage. But until you gain that knowledge, here are certain red flags that might indicate that it’s a bad client.
Spot a bad client during the interview stage
Ideally, you’ll spot a bad client before you start working with them. This will safe you a lot of time and grey hair.
🚩 When they interrupt you during the calls
This one is a very quick way to spot a bad client. If they ask you a question and semi answer it for you. Or if they interrupt you mid-sentence because they think they know what you’re about to say.
Try to avoid working with those clients. They don’t hire you for your expertise, but they hire you because they think you’ll do what they ask you to. They don’t think they hire someone who knows their stuff better than themselves. They hire someone so they just execute the details. This type of client is often a micro manager. Which brings me to the next point.
🚩 “This is what I want”
I worked on projects before where the client has prepared some user flows or wireframes. There’s no issue with that at all, they want to put their ideas down to not lose track and will ask you to flesh them out and improve them. BUT if they just hand you something and say “Just make this look pretty” and don’t want your input on improving anything, that’s the type of client to avoid. They don’t value your expertise, they just want to work with a machine who executes their tasks.
🚩 Badmouthing previous designers
During the interview, ask how many people are working on the project. Will you be the sole designer or part of a team? If you’re replacing a designer, ask why the previous designer is leaving.
If they talk badly about a current or previous designer, it’s usually a sign that they don’t respect designers and therefor won’t respect you and your expertise. It could be that they don’t get along with that particular person, but even if that was the case, it’s irresponsible to show that to a new designer during the interview stage.
Anyone can promote themselves as a freelancer and copy+paste work created by AI or from platforms like Dribbble. So I can imagine that some clients get scammed. This is quite rare though.
🚩 It’s all about the money
It’s a red flag when they ask about your fee before they ask about anything else. Or when they ask for discounts or even free services. The money question should come towards the end.
For me, this can also be a design task. Especially if it’s a task which is about a real problem they have and not just a generic task. Which leads me to the next point.
🚩 They ask for a design task
When it comes to UX Design, they often give you a task to prepare for the interview. I understand where they’re coming from and why they do it. But I don’t see why this is such a common thing for designers and developers, but not for other jobs.
You wouldn’t ask a doctor to operate before you hire them. Their certifications and work experience will give you that proof. Same thing with a mechanic: Have you ever taken your car to someone, asked them to fix something for free because if they do that, you will come to them to fix the real problem about your car? Exactly!
Especially when you 1. freelance 2. have a portfolio with real work 3. client referrals
When it comes to freelancing, notice periods are usually quite short anyway. I understand that clients want to hire the best person possible, but please don’t do design tasks. Offer them to talk them through a project instead that is similar or relevant to their task.
Red flags for clients you’re already working with
How many times have you been in a situation where you felt like you wanted to finish your freelance gig early? Was it, because there was another change of brief? Or because the client suddenly wants you to work on something else, something urgent, that was needed yesterday but only got to you 5 seconds ago?
So here are a few red flags when you’re already working with the client and how to deal with those.
🚩 Constant change of scope
Constant change of deliverables can be very frustrating. When you deliver something that won’t get implemented because the client isn’t aware of their root problem, but also wouldn’t let you do the research to dig into it, it won’t be fun to work with them.
Of course, at start ups or companies that are in the early stages and are working on POCs (Proof of concepts) or on quick solutions to get funding, this can be common. So be aware of what you’re getting into when you work with start ups. There are also small companies that have defined their core product, so change of scope isn’t that common.
It can be very frustrating to work on something and then learn that it won’t get developed because of a change of direction. If that’s something you can deal with, fine. If it’s something that annoys you, let the client know that they need to define the scope better. Or suggest to them to start with research instead of going directly into the next design phase.
🚩 “I know it when I see it”
Run!! Just run! You’ll end up tweaking and tweaking, start doubting your skills and loose motivation and the love for design. Those clients don’t know what they want or need. They don’t know the core problem and therefor will never know, no matter what they see.
🚩 No boundaries
In days of remote work and where everyone works in different time zones, it happens every now and then that you receive an email or slack message late at night. If they expect you to reply instantly though, that’s a red flag. We exist outside our work life and if a client doesn’t understand that, it’ll be tricky to work with them.
Don’t get discouraged. There are good clients out there. And also, not all clients with red flags are bad clients. It’s a warning, but not a guarantee. So go with your own judgement.
I hope these tips will help you avoid working with a bad client in the future.
Every freelancer knows this feeling. You finish your project, the client is happy, you are happy, you send the invoice, you get paid, and then your calendar is empty. No emails, no standups, no calls, no deadlines, and it feels great until it doesn’t. What ifthat’s it? What if I don’t get another client?
But girl, boy, whatever you identify as. I’ve been freelancing for 6years and it still happens. Sometimes it’s nothing to do with you. It doesn’t matter if you have a lead funnel, if you have good marketing, if you have good word of mouth, whatever, sometimes it’s just the market fluctuating. I have phases where I’m like, shoot, I need a project. But no matter how many times I felt like this, there has always been another client.
And yes, in an ideal world, we’ll have a wait list. We’ll have people that can start with us right away. But that doesn’t always happen. It might depend on your industry, but for me as a UX designer, they want their projects designed and delivered now. If you’re only available in 3 months, they’re not going to start development time for another 3 months until you’re free.
Reframing Downtime
So, a wait list doesn’t always work. But yes, having downtime as a freelancer can be very irritable, but downtime isn’t the end of the world. It’s all about how yousee it and your perception of it.because it’s actually super nice if you expect it to be busy and you have all this free time. And it’s a great time tonot just work in your business all the time, but to finally work on your business because especially when we’re busy with projects, we end up not having the time to work on our business.
We just work so much in executing everything and doing like all of these tasks that we don’t get the systems in place that would actually make it easier for us to do the tasks. and client management, invoicing systems, all of these kind of things that are on top of actually just doing the task. So, inthis episode, I talk about the three things I do when I have downtime. First of all, having downtime is just part of freelancing. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Don’t see it this way. So,let’s reframe how you think about downtime. Sometimes it’s just a cycle.It’s how the year works. Think of freelancing and your business like amall. Of course, in summer, people are out. They’re by the pool, but on BlackFriday, Christmas time, everyone’s in the mall. It’s crazy busy.
Making the most of the Ebbs and Flows of the Freelance Market
So, as a freelancer, it’s pretty much the same. You will have phases where you get more requests and more projects coming your way than you can handle. And you will have phases where it’s absolutely dead silent. And it’s very tricky to balance those because often, like in a mall, there’s not so much that you can influence. Yes, you can have certain discounts. You can have certain eventsin the mall to attract people, but thereare so many things out of your control.So, let’s just make the best out of theapps or flows as a freelancer. And thelonger you’ve provided your services asa freelancer, the more you’ll realizewhen the phases usually are, wherethings are picking up.
For me personally, as a UX designer, and I guess for many people that work online, it’s usually at the beginning of the year where people are reviewing their budgets, etc., Sometimes you get an email around December, but that’s usually before people are getting ready for Christmas and go on holiday. That’s when it starts to add up a little bit because people are reviewing the budgets for Q1 the next year. So in January, usually that’s when it picks up.January, February is when you get a lot of requests because people have budgets.People have their money they want to spend and that’s when they’re looking for people who could start as soon as they’re ready.
Then over summer again,you have a lot of people going on holiday. Many projects might pause because the developers are going away, some important stakeholders are going away. So, usually summer can be a littlebit quiet and it’s also a good time to take leave, plant leave. And then sometimes around October, November time, people want to spend the remaining budget that they haven’t spent yet.
So, they’re just looking for someone to keep that because it’s a little bit funny.Many companies, especially corporate ones, if they have a set of budget thatthey can spend on freelancers and theyhaven’t used it up and then they willreview it in the next year of if thebudget was too much or too low, they’retrying to spend that budget because theywant to keep that high budget forfreelancers for the next year. So, youmight find a phase of like very oddproject requests because they’re notreally sure what it is that you couldhelp them with, but they just want tospend that money on freelancers. So,then things are picking up again beforethey go quiet on Christmas and then pickagain for the year. But again, everyindustry is a little bit different. Sothe longer you’re in the game, the moreyou’ll realize the abs and flows of yourindustry. If you know your es and flows,it’s good to plan with that. Takeholidays when you usually have lesswork. Take a planned holiday. Likethat’s another topic for a differentepisode, but often freelancers, we’relike, “Oh, I’m just going to take offwhenever I have downtime.”
And then thedowntime happens and you’re so prepared for it and you’re like, you didn’t setup maybe your apartment for sublet. You haven’t packed your suitcase. youwouldn’t know where to go because it’s a random time of the year and maybe it’snot really time for a summer holiday.It’s not really time like you’re notprepared and it’s not nice like unlessyou’re very spontaneous. You just book aticket to wherever. But I’m a person Ilike to plan. I like to have a little bit of structure. I have to have a bitof an idea. So I like to plan at least one two months in advance if I gosomewhere.
Also to make sure that I have a good accommodation where I don’t haveto hop around all the time. So if youknow the phases of your businessdefinitely plan your holiday there aswell. But in case you haven’t figuredout the abs and flows of your industryyet and you find yourself in somedowntime, see it as an opportunity to doall the things that you always wanted toimprove in your business but didn’t havethe time to. Unlike me, I tend to usethe time to procrastinate and dochecklists and think about what I couldimprove rather than actually improvingit. And then by the time I actuallyplanned, okay, these are the things thatneed the most work on my business, thenI get another client request and then Ididn’t have the chance to improve thosethings. So, don’t take the time toprocrastinate.
More Downtime at the Beginning of Your Freelance Career
Take the time to actually improve things and work on your systems.If you’re just starting as a freelancer, you might find yourself having more downtime than you’d like because you probably just focus on getting one client at a time rather than how you can manage several clients at once. So, you’ll end up in this hamster wheel of working project and then project ends and then you have to like find a client.
You’re in the answer wheels doing thatand then maybe like, oh, I have to update my portfolio. I have to send abetter CV. Blah blah. constantly hustling even though you don’t have aclient. And there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what you like to dobecause I also really like working on my business. I like feeling productive.That might be some sort of childhood trauma where I feel like my productivity is tied to my work. That’s something that I need to figure out. But overall,I actually like working on things. Thisepisode isn’t about how you can avoidthe downtime. It’s what you can do whenit happens. So, here are the threethings that I do in my downtime assomeone who has been freelancing for 6years now.
Maintain Your Business
First, I look at maintainingmy business. These can be all sorts of things, and one of the first things that popped to my mind is updating my portfolio, which I haven’t done in ages.I still have projects from like two or three years ago, and I should definitely get some of my latest project in there because I worked for Gregs. I worked for like Astrazeneca. I worked for like really incredible brands and I had some really cool projects and AI data bases and all this kind of stuff, but it’s not reflected in my portfolio because now when someone reaches out to me or if I find a gig online that I find interesting, I send them an portfolio that reflects my experience from 3 years ago, which isn’t ideal. So, in the downtime, you can work on yourportfolio. And it’s not just about going through your old case studies and makingthem better or the description, but to actually get the good case studies thatthe good projects that you worked on into your portfolio in the first placeor somewhere out there in the world.
Post About Your Past Project on Linkedin
It will probably be easier to just do a LinkedIn post of the project that you just finished and now that it’s finished that you have downtime, you know, like don’t necessarily mention it, but people will probably get the hint that oh, you finished the project, you’re probably available for something else again. So just do this post, talk about it, talkwhat you did, how you helped the project moving along, what your contributionwas, and how that might help anyone who might see that post. And you never know,maybe you’ll get a few leads from thatLinkedIn post alone. So that’s the firstthing you can do. Just talk about the project that you finished. And if it’s aproject you’re proud of or if there’s anything worth mentioning that you thinkwould be worth it in your portfolio, work on that portfolio case study. ThenI do all the other business maintenance boring things. I send the invoice, ofcourse. I mean, if there are anyinvoices that I need to send, if thereis like any tax returns I have to do, Iusually really keep it to the very verylast date. If there’s a deadline, I feellike why should I do it before if I can do it then if I have all this time,which isn’t the best way to work with things sometimes. But with taxes, I think I push it off as much as I can because I just don’t like doing it.
Build Systems Where Needed
So,if you have some downtime, do it now and it’s out of the way and you don’t haveto think about it for the rest of the year anymore. I’m saying this to myselfas much as I’m saying this to you.Maintaining your business also meansdoing something like updating your folder structure or finding your folderstructure that works for you. Maybe itbe your G drive, may it be somethingthat you store on your Mac, like anykind of things that you need to easilyfind. And yes, you can always have asearch function, but if all yourprojects are structured the same way,you always know, okay, if I go intoproject A, I’ll find the contract here.If I go into project B, I’ll find thecontract in the same place. Things likethat. That is very useful in the longrun. It’s very daunting to set thosethings up.
But for anything that youhave a system, if you have a structurethere, that’s going to save you so muchtime in the long run. You can also lookinto automating things. Are there anysoftware platform SAS products where youcan automate invoices, where you canautomate reminder emails? Maybe you canwork on your client on and offboarding.What are the systems that you feel likein your business they need a little bitmore love and nurturing and guidance?
Personally, I feel like my onboardingprocess isn’t too bad, but myoffboarding process isn’t that great. Iliterally just send them a feedback formand if they fill it in well, I ask themto use the testimonial and that’s prettymuch it, which I think is a little bitmore than most freelancers have. Butthose are the things that you canimprove.
How can you make the experiencefor your clients better so that theyrefer you and that they come back to youwhen they have another project? Anothergood thing that you can do for businessmaintenance, which might also be a goodlead generator is to reach out to theproject that you just finished and thecolleagues that you work for to get atestimonial. So, this testimonial youcan then put on your case study. You canalso include in a post that you’re goingto do about finishing a project if youdidn’t sign an NDA.
And it’s always goodto have a library of testimonials because it’s like a review. Atestimonial is basically a review of yours. and what are the things that weuse to see if a restaurant is good to see if a hotel is good, where we shouldgo on holidays. It’s what other people are telling us and if we trust them. So,if you have someone that worked with you, say, “I loved working with Lizzie.I really enjoyed that she’s so organized and she’s structured and X, Y, and Z.”Of course, the person reading that is going to keep you in mind for things orat least they will check out your profile.
Review Your Subscriptions
Another business maintenancething, and it’s a very boring task, butit’s also useful and can save you a tonof money, is just to review yoursubscriptions. And you might pay for subscriptions if you don’t even remembersigning up anymore. Like, I pay forCalendarly, and I’ve for a while beenusing the free Google version forclients to set up calls and I’ve beenthinking of maybe if I should move awayfrom Calendarly, maybe if there’sdifferent options. And I still haven’tdone it. And now they charged me againfor the next year. Maybe you don’t needthe paid version of Slack anymorebecause you don’t communicate with thatmany people and you don’t mind if themessages from 3 months ago are going tobe deleted.
Things like that. It’s notgoing to make you rich, but it’s goingto save you some money. And it’s alwaysgood to go through all the subscriptions that you have and see which ones do youactually need, which ones are going to be renewed. If they’re going to berenewed, is it going to be for a full year? Do you need it for the full yearor do you just need it for a couple of months? And it can be very daunting tohave all of those subscriptions and to have to remember them. Actually, I don’t know if you remember the episode I recorded with Kyle Prinsloo. He has a software tool for exactly that. It’s app.softwaresubsubscriptions.com.
And yes, it’s a little bit of a daunting task to collect all of your tools andall of the subscriptions that you have.But you put it in there, you say how much you pay, if you pay monthly, annually, etc. And then it basically tells you when the next payment is due.It gives you an overview of how much there is to pay. You can separate it if you have different businesses. So, for example, I separate it with my company account and my limited company is called Monkeys Play Drums. I would probably name it a little bit differently nowadays, but I mean, it’s just a limited company. Doesn’t really matter.
Or with the freelance blueprint, so I have that separate as well. And then you can also add your private subscriptions, like if you have a Netflix subscription,Spotify, things like that. I log inthere every couple of months or wheneverI have downtime to check, do I actually still need all of those? And it’s things like my insurances. Also, sometimes it’s interesting to see if I haven’t looked in in a while that actually my web hosting has gone from $20 to $35.So, maybe it’s worth it finding a different provider because I rememberwhen I created my website 5-6 years ago,I think I paid $7 a month for it. So, that’s quite a steep increase. So, it’s always good to keep track of those things.
And maybe Kyle, if you’re watching this, it would be good to see if the feeactually changed. Yeah, maybe we’ll have a call on like feature improvements.I’ll add a link in the description ofthis podcast so you can see thesubscription tool. All right, the secondthing I do when I have downtime isbasically marketing and networking. Andsome of that can already be done withthe things I mentioned before where youbasically do a post on LinkedIn or whenyou reach out to your past clients tocollect testimonials. That’s kind ofoutreach and it’s nurturing yourrelationships that you have withclients. But just finishing a project isactually a really good way and a goodexcuse to reach out to past clients.It’s a good conversation starter withoutfeeling like, “Oh, I want to sell yousomething.” because you can just tellthem oh I just worked on this project itreminded me a lot about what happened toour project or there was a situationwithin the team where the stakeholderswere discussing XY Z and it was similarto our situation whereas they chose thatoption while we chose this option thingslike that and just share the learningsor share something that would berelevant for them. You mentioning thatyou just finished a project gives themthe hint of like you’re available againfor gigs. So, it allows them to to takethe tint and talk to you about this. Ormaybe they just ignore your email orthey say something like, “Oh, congratson finishing this project, blah blahblah blah.”
Either way, it’s a good wayto keep you in your client’s minds, even if it was a past client, especially actually if it was a past client, without feeling salesy. Also, of course, only share things that you didn’t signin the Ace for. If you reached out to some clients in the past about some testimonials, etc., you can always reach out again. You can say, “Oh, I just finished this project. Now I’m trying to put it into my portfolio, which made me realize that I don’t have a testimonial for the project that we worked on.” If you would be willing to leave a testimonial for that, you can make itvery easy for your client. You can write some sort of phrase for them up front. You can give them some chat prompts. Whatever it is, make it as easy for them as possible to leave a testimonial for you. Another way I like to use the dial
Go to IRL Networking Events
time is to get into in real life networking events. This might be something like joining some other freelancers who organize a group co-working session because it’s not just networking with potential clients. It’s really good to network with potential colleagues. You might have a skill tha tis complimentary to others. So there might be a software developer. For example, I’m a UX designer. The projectsI work on, they usually need a project manager and a developer bare minimum.Ideally, they would have a copywriter on it, but unfortunately that doesn’t always happen. then there might be someSEO.
If it’s a website, not if it’s a mobile app, but if it’s a website, therew ould be some SEO. And if it’s a very very new idea, there might be a brand designer. So these are the type of colleagues that I have. And yes, as a freelancer, you don’t really necessarily have colleagues, but these are kind of your peers. So if you manage to network with them, as soon as one of them has a project and that project has a developer, but they don’t have the UX designer or they’re in the branding stage, but they need someone to to make that brand do well in digital, not juston print, for example. Those are really good things to network because if peopleknow you personally, they’re more likely to work with you because they know if they work together with you side by side, even if you haven’t worked on the same project, they see your work ethic ,they see what you deliver, and you can talk about the project, etc. So that’s a great way. So it doesn’t always have to be networking, going to events where you find potential clients. It’s also about networking where you can find your potential colleagues. But of course, the networking events where you can find your potential clients, even better. Anddepending where you’re from, dependingon where you’re based, there might be aton of them. In London, I feel likethere was one business and tech eventalmost every single week. No matter ifit’s like a huge tech event where youactually have to buy a ticket to go andsee some talks or maybe it’s justsomething someone organizes on meetup.You never know who the person is you’retalking to. Maybe they are going to bein 5 years from now a SAS product owner.Maybe they are um someone who wrote abook and then you can recommend yourcopyrightiting friends. Whatever it isand even if they don’t hire you rightnow, it doesn’t mean they won’t hire youin the future. And especially nowadayswhere everything is online, everythingis AI generated and so unpersonal, it’salso so refreshing to go to in real lifenetworking events. The third thing thatI really like doing in my downtime isimprove my skills. One of the best waysto use the downtime is to upskill. Any
Upskill! Not just your hard skills
skill you learn cannot be taken awayfrom you anymore. And it can be anyskill. It doesn’t have to be part ofyour main offer. For example, as a UXdesigner, I know Figma pretty well, butI could improve my knowledge on Framer.
Yes, I built a website on Framer before,but do I want to offer it as a service?I’m not really sure. Maybe I can work onmore AI tools like there are like pilot.Um, there are so many like AI UX tools.Maybe I can play around with them andsee how that might improve my workflow.Or instead of learning a new software, Ican also learn something likecommunication skills. One of the bestthings I’ve done for myself and investedin is a communications course becausethat doesn’t just improve how you talkwith your clients and it doesn’t justimprove your business. It also reallyhelps in your personal and private life.You can use your voice in so manydifferent ways. And I don’t know if younotice a difference between the firstepisode and this one now. I hope thatyou might have found a few pieces ofimprovements over time. And yes, one ispractice because I’m used to talking tothe camera now. I upgraded my camera.Like before I used my laptop webcam, soof course like that’s hopefully a bit ofan improvement, but I’m talking aboutthe improvement in my communicationskills.
Did something change in the typeof questions I asked. Did something change in the way I listen? That’s also part of communication because even when you don’t talk, you talk. It’s your body language as well. So that course was so insightful for me and I have to remind myself every now and then of the things that I learned, but it’s one of the best things that I invested money in.
And if you’re interested in doing a communication course, the one that I did was from Vin Giang. I’m not sure how to pronounce his last name, but you’ve probably seen him across on social media before because he has a huge following and this guy knows what he’s doing. He’s really really good with communicating obviously and teaching it. It’s one thing being good at something. It’s another thing be good at teaching people how to do it. And I didn’t just do the course. I did this whole master class.It was like a one week online thing where you are online on this Zoom call with hundreds of other people for 2three hours a day. And initially I felt like oh this is going to be so daunting.But actually the time flew by. It felt like this 3 hours was like half an hour.It was a lot of fun and you actually work on improving your skills while you’re at it. You don’t just consume the content and the information. You actually learn it and apply it, which was amazing. So, I highly recommend that course.
If you want to check it out,I’ll add the link in the description again because it’s a skill that nobody can take away from you and it’s not just good for your career, it’s also good for your personal life. So definitely chec kit out. If you don’t want to learn a new skill because maybe your brain is fried from your past project or you feel like you’re pretty up to speed with things because you upskill as you do things.Another thing you can do is just to keep an eye on the industry. What’s happening right now?
For example, now AI is everywhere. What is happening? Like how can you use this to an advantage? Is there something that you can use to improve your workflows? Maybe you are niched down to a certain industry. Like everyone talks about niching and I’m nota niched down UX designer. I worked on apps. I worked on websites. I worked on tablet tools. I worked with startups. I worked with big corporates. I worked forGregs on their food ordering platform. I worked for global farmer companies to unify their brand identity. I worked with like AI tools that show crazy dashboards for banks so that they can save money. like all types of different things.
Stay Up to Date within Your Niche
So maybe my niche is that I’mv ery flexible. I’m not sure. But if you have a niche, if it’s let’s say for example, you help people in the health industry, maybe you can see what’s happening in the health industry. What are the trends? What is a constant through like a long-term trend? Like for example, sugar is no longer the bad thing. It is body fat or whatever. You know, what’s happening in your industry?It’s not just the soft skills and hard skills that you can learn for your freelance business. It’s also trying to figure out what is happening within your niche. What are the problems your clients are facing? What are the things that are relevant? What’s happening inthe industry now where you can then get your expertise to help your future clients with the problems they’ref acing? And of course, you can just usethe downtime to go for a walk, go for a run, and listen to podcasts like this.If you’re looking for more podcasts like this, one of my favorite episodes that I recommend to a lot of people is the one with Marchela because it’s about how you can get the cringe out of sales and it’salso about taxes and taxes is usually pretty boring. So, I find it always verymesmerizing when there is a person whois so into numbers and taxes. So, thatepisode would be a good one. Maybe also one of the more recent ones, the one with Ella. I really really enjoyed that conversation because we talked about so many different things and also about coaching for freelancers.
Get a Freelance Coach
So maybe if you’re looking into coaching and and you’re in fashion, maybe Ella would would be a good coach for you. If you’re a UX designer and you’re looking for coaching, you can check out the description of this podcast because maybe you don’t know, but I offer one-on-one coaching for freelancers aswell. So maybe that’s also something you can do. Work on your mindset. Get acoach to help you implement things that you haven’t managed to implement before.
Maybe you’re just starting yourfreelance career and you’re listening tothis to get information. It’s alwaysgood to have someone guide you. Just having that confidence, that borrow confidence from someone else. And that’s an episode that I talked to with one of my previous coaches, Cynthia. When you have a coach, you borrow their confidence. So, you start to believe in your because they believe in you, you start to believe in yourself more and you’re going to achieve your goals faster than you would on your own. And other than the communication course, some of the coaching programs I did, not all of them, but some of them were really, really worth the money. So, it’s hard to find the right coach. I’m not going to say I’m the best coach for you because every person is different.Everyone has different goals, but look at the different options. See who you click with. See who you resonate with and whose style you like and also what feels more natural to you. And then go from there. Maybe taking on coaching to help you work on your business is the right thing to do in your downtime. Allright, those are the things that I usually do when I have downtime. And sometimes I just go on a spontaneous trip. It doesn’t always happen because again, like I told you before, I like to know when I’m going to go on a trip to be a little bit more prepared. But that’s always something you can do. I mean, that’s the whole point off reelancing. That you can go out on a random Tuesday, that you can take arandom trip whenever you want.
Enjoy Life
So, enjoylife. Life isn’t always about work. Your work should support your life, not the other way around. So, go outside, create some good, healthy habits, get into anew routine, call your mom, buy some new notebooks and post-its, do whatever makes fun. Like, pick up a new hobby, start painting, whatever it is, or do absolutely nothing. Whatever it is that you feel like, take advantage of this downtime because I promise you, there will be a time where you wish it would be this quiet because you’re going to be swamped with client work. It will happen.
What I wish someone would’ve told me
And to wrap up this episode, here are the things that I wish someone would have told my younger self when I was experiencing my first downtime as a freelancer. Don’t worry, there’s always going to be another client. You’ll be fine. Trust that more work will come. Downtime is a great time to reflect on what works and what doesn’t and figure out how you can get more of the things that work and reduce the things that don’t work. Get clear on what you wantto achieve with your freelance business.why are you doing the things that you’re doing? And also reflect on it. You’ve done it. You’ve managed to get that client. You managed to deliver that project. You managed to get paid for it.That’s a huge step. That’s something that at the beginning of your career, you would never have thought that youwould be able to do that. You’ve done it once, you’ve done it again, you can doit again and again and again. Look at what went well with your previous client and what didn’t go so well and learn from that. Take notes. Keep reminders of what you can do to improve. And finally, enjoy this time because trust me, it’sgot to get busy.
Outro
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I really hope you found this useful. If you did find it useful, share it with anyone who you also think can benefit from listening. And also, don’t forget to hit subscribe and follow the podcast. That’s all for me, and I can’t wait to have you join again next week.
In this episode of The Freelance Blueprint, host Elisabeth Mayr chats with Owain Lloyd-Williams, an SEO consultant with a fascinating journey from teaching English in China to becoming a sought-after SEO expert.
Owain opens up about his path into freelancing and shares his perspective on: ✅ The evolving landscape of SEO in the age of AI ✅ How to find your niche and stand out in the freelance market ✅ The nuances of working with global clients ✅ His thoughts on scaling a freelance business while staying authentic ✅ Challenges and rewards of building a long-term career in freelancing
Whether you’re an aspiring freelancer or an experienced consultant, this conversation is full of actionable tips and real-world insights to help you navigate the digital age.
🎧 Subscribe to The Freelance Blueprint for more conversations with freelancers worldwide, uncovering strategies, tools, and stories to help you grow your freelance career with confidence.
SEO freelancing tips, Owain Lloyd-Williams SEO consultant, how to become an SEO freelancer, AI and the future of SEO, scaling a freelance business, working with global clients freelance, finding your freelance niche SEO, freelance blueprint podcast SEO, SEO consultant journey, from teaching to freelancing story
In this episode of the Freelance Blueprint, Petra and Lisi talk about their journeys as freelance UX designers.
Together, they explore the ins and outs of finding and managing clients in the freelance world. They delve into effective strategies for client acquisition, the importance of building a strong portfolio, and the nuances of client communication.
Petra shares her journey from working through platforms like Toptal to establishing her own client base, emphasizing the power of referrals and personal connections.
Tune in to discover practical tips on pricing, project management, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance as a freelancer. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your freelance business, this episode offers valuable insights to help you thrive.
With 9+ years experience as a UX Designer and 5 years as a freelancer, Lisi is trying to help as many freelancers as possible to create a work life that works for them.
🎯 What you’ll learn in this episode
1. Crucial mistakes to avoid when it comes to pricing
2. How to find clients on and off freelance platforms
3. Managing working remotely vs in an office
4. How to maintain a healthy self-worth and mental health
Freelance Podcast, Freelance Blueprint, Advice for freelancers, Finding and managing freelance clients, Balancing work and personal life as a freelancer, Pricing strategies and crucual mistakes, Importance of Mental Health and Self-worth
You’ve done it. You got the client. You delivered the work. 💪
But then… they don’t pay. Every freelancer’s nightmare. But then not paying isn’t even the worst part about this. It’s the questions you’ll ask yourself. “What did I do wrong?”, “Was what I delivered so bad?”, “Maybe they didn’t like me.”, “Maybe I was rude on a calls.”
But before you ask yourself any of those questions, ask yourself: “How am I going to get the money?”
Welcome back to the Freelance Blueprint. I’m your host Lisi, a freelance UX designer and digital nomad. And today I’m going to talk to you about something that hopefully will never ever happen to you, but in case it does, it will help you get your money just incase your clients don’t pay you.
In this episode, I’m going to talk about what you can do to make sure you don’t fall into that situation in the first place. Well, there’s not always the chance thatwe can fully avoid it, but there are some prevention methods that you can useto make it less likely that it will happen to you. And then I’m going to talk to you about what you can do incase it does happen to you without burning any bridges.
If you didn’t get paid, listen to this
So, first I want you to know if you’re in a situation right now, if you’re listening to this podcast because you have a client that doesn’t pay you, I’m really sorry that you’re in this because it absolutely sucks. It adds to your endless to-do list and it’s a very uncomfortable situation to be in, but it happens more often than not.
Many freelancers can feel a little bit ashamed when it happens. And I definitely felt this way the first time one of my clients didn’t pay on time, but it’s not your fault. And sometimes there’s tons of reasons for it that have nothing to do with you.So, first, it’s completely normal. It will happen eventually. Hopefully, it will happen less often and less likely, but it does happen. It even happens to very seasoned freelancers. Like, I’ve been a freelancer for pretty much 6 years now, and I still have like last month I had an invoice that wasn’t paid.
So sometimes that’s just the case of the industry. It can very likely happen with startups because maybe they don’t have someone in charge with just invoices. It can happen with big corporates because there’s just so many levels of hierarchy and approval for an invoice to get approved and get paid. So don’t blame yourself. You cannot completely avoid it. But here are the systems that you can put in place to prevent it where possible.
You need a contract with payment terms
The most important thing is to have a proper contract in place. Have something that you and they signed about all the payment terms and that should include what they should pay you. If you have, for example, like a a one-off fee for the whole project, if you charge per the day rate, hourly rate, it should define what it is that they pay you.
Those payment terms should also define how long it should take them to pay you after you send the invoice and also ideally when you invoice. So if you have like a several stage project, let’s say you work on an app and you get paid for the wireframes, you get paid for the UI design, you get paid for the prototype, etc.
Are you going to invoice them at the end of the month or are you going to invoice them as you’re working on it?Are you going to invoice them as you deliver the work, which can be a bit tricky because then they already have what they need without you having the payment. So it would be easy for them to just take your designs and leave.
So I would suggest that you don’t go for that option in the contract or maybe they pay you a deposit. So you start on the next phase and then they pay you the rest after delivery. So it should define when you invoice them, how often you invoice them and how much time they have to pay you once they receive the invoice. So very common it’s like 30 days or 14days, 2 weeks. But some companies ,they’re like we just operate on a monthly basis. So, if you invoice us inJanuary, you’re going to get paid inFebruary, not within 14 days, but within30 days.
So, some clients, even if you put a 7 or 14 day payment period in there, they might renegotiate that with you. And then it’s up to you how much you want to work with that client and if you’re okay with that, to have that payment in 30 days or sometimes even like 60 days, which I would not recommend.
Late Payment Fees
And another thing you should have in your contract to incentivise them to pay on time is to have a late payment fee, which basically means if they don’t pay within the let’s say 30days, they have to pay X amount extra.You don’t have to enforce it. Sometimes it happens that the client pays like oneday late or you send them a reminder and then they’re like, oh, and they instantly transfer it. I would say stick to your boundaries and that’s up for you to decide.
When I started freelancing, even if they paid me like 10 days late,I was too scared to send a late payment fee. I mean, at the beginning, I didn’t even have a late payment fee, but I was a little bit worried about sending them a new invoice with the late payment fee because I didn’t want to feel like greedy. I didn’t want to lose the client. But in reality, you have your part of the contract that you deliver the work and they have their part of the contract that you pay for it. So if you stick to the contract, they should as well. So now that I have a little bit more experience, I would enforce it, even if it’s like one or two days late because it’s just unprofessional from them that they don’t pay you on time.But again, it depends on the client.
Like there are some clients that I’ve worked with for several years or like they come back for me with new work or for different projects and I don’t want to burn that bridge. So sometimes I let it go even though maybe it’s even a month late, which isn’t ideal, but It hink I’d rather put the client first and I want to make sure that they’re happy to continue working with me.
But if it happens several months in a row, I would definitely enforce the late-payment fee. Another way you can avoid them paying you late is by charging the money up front. Maybe not all clients would be happy to pay you the full amount up front, but you can negotiate a deposit. Let’s say you’re a brand designer and you have a certain set of deliverables. Before you even start working, you’re going to charge them 50%. Because you’re going to do theresearch, you’re going to do some questionnaires.
So, even if they don’t see any designs, any type faces, any colors whatsoever, you got the deposit because you’ve done the work. If they drop out, if they ghost you, you at least have the deposit. If a client is hesitant to pay you a deposit, that could also weed out the bad clients because if they’re unwilling to pay you that, chances are they will negotiate and they will delay payments and things like that. If it’s a good client, they have no problem at all with paying you a deposit to start the work.
The other thing that you can do is to always have the payment terms also in your invoice, not just in your contract. So, every time I send an invoice, I have a little clause in there that says, “Payment due within x amount of days, x% late payment fee applies.” So I do have this little small print and that’s clear on the invoice. So even if someone’s getting that invoice who didn’t read the contract, if they have like a different accountant, etc.
It’s very clear wh ever gets the invoice that they know when they should pay and that there’s an incentive for them to pay on time. If you really want to and um I know that from furniture companies they do that.They sometimes give clients a discount if they pay in advance or if they pay cash instead of card, things like that.So, if you want to improve your cashflow, you could even incentivise the client that if they pay for the full project up front that they get a discount. It’s up to you if you’re willing to do that.
I don’t think it’s that common to do it because you’re basically reducing your rate for like some extra cash. But also, if it means you get money like 2, three months upfront and then you can do something else with that, reinvest it in your business or do other things, why not give them 1%or something off for earlier payment.Also, don’t underestimate emails, especially friendly reminder emails, because people understand that there’s a little bit of a unfriendliness to it that you have to remind someone, but it’s like the friendly reminder.
So, what can be useful is to send a reminder email 2 3 days before the invoice is due. Something along the lines of thisis a friendly reminder that invoice X,Y, and Z is due by X date. If you already scheduled the payment, there’s nothing for you to do. If you haven’t, please keep in mind that there’s going to be an X amount late payment fee. It’s up to you how much you want to charge for the late payment fee. Mine is quite low. It’s 2%. I’ve seen other people charge 7% for a late payment fee.
Or it might even depend on the amount of invoice that you have because if it’s like a 100 pounds invoice like I hope you don’t send 100 pound invoices because like you should be charging more or you should acrue more work before you send that invoice because every single time you do those things manually it takes something out of your time that you could be using for something else.But let’s say your invoice is £100having like 2 3% is not really a lot. So maybe then you can charge like a 10% late-payment fee. However, if your invoice is £10,000, 2% 3% is actually a semidecent amount.
Emails are powerful, if done well
Send those reminder emails. And I know it can be super daunting and uncomfortable to press send on an email like that, especially if it’s the first invoice that you’re sending to the new client. So, one way you can do that, making you feel a little bit less uncomfortable, is by automating those emails. But, of course, you need a system that knows if you have been paid already because you don’t want to send this email if you already received the money. Or you can do it manually and just make it look like it’s automated. Like for example, change the font a little bit to what your default font is in emails or add automated message in the subject line.
Seems a little bit sneaky to fake an automated email. But when you’re the receiver of that, you take it a little bit less personal if you think like, okay, it’s a bot that’s chasing your invoice or ifit’s the freelancer personally chasing your invoice. Or maybe you have an assistant.
Ask your assistant to chase that invoice if you have a VA or maybe like I heard from people that have a separate email and they usually use a male assistant because well I’m not going to get too much into that topic but it seems that people respect men more than women and if they get an email by John asking you to pay the email compared to Sarah chances are they actually going to pay John’s invoice before they pay Sarah’s.
So, if you create like a fake email address fora fake assistant, consider making that fake assistant mail. Or if you’re really sneaky, if you don’t have a VA, if you don’t want to fake automated emails, you can create a new email account. Just make sure that it’s like if your email address is like mine, it’s hello.co.uk. It could be like admin@elisabeth.co.uk or like whatever, john@elisabeth.co.uk
And then John would send that invoice chasing it. And it comes across very professional and it kind of takes the burden away from you. So that might be another sneaky way how you can do it.
Consider a Middle Man
Another option is to get a middleman. And I’m not usually a fan of getting a middleman. I would not recommend that if you’re in the industry much longer, butyou can get a middleman doing the invoicing for you with platforms like for example Juno. If you haven’t heard of YunoJuno, it’s basically a platform where people can look for freelancers and where freelancers can find gigs.It’s like a better version of Upwork and Fiverr because they actually pay decentrates and their USP compared to other platforms is they pay you no matter ifthe client has paid the invoice or not.
So, the freelancer is going to get paid within their payment terms and YunoJuno is going to chase the client in case they didn’t pay. But then again, working with platforms like Uno Juno means that they take a batch of the share. I do think they charge the client, not the freelancer, but just keep that in mindif you want to have this extra safety of having a middleman involved.
How to Handle when they’re past the payment due date
Even though you might do all of the things that Ijust explained to you and have all of the precautions of making sure that theypay you on time, you might still get into the situation where they don’t pay you. So, here’s how you handle it whenit does happen. Send them another friendly reminder email because sometimes it’s just a bit of oversight.They forget it.
They have so many things to do at the end of the month and they might have forgotten to clear your invoice. So send a friendly reminder email within one or two days after the due date. If they still haven’t replied to that email and if you still haven’t gotten paid after, let’s say 5 7 days after the invoice was due, send another reminder email. And this one can be a little bit more strict.
So you can think of it like the first email being like the good cop and now you’re saying the bad cop email. Good cop email is something along the lines of like this is a friendly reminder that invoice XY Z set was due on X date please pay. Bad cop reminder can be something like oh invoice was due X days ago. If you don’t pay by the end of the day I’m going to send you an updated invoice with the late payment fee of blah blah blah applied.
Always attach in both of them the original invoice so that they have it handy. They don’t have to waste time to find the invoice to pay you so that they can action straight away. Or if you have things like Stripe and you can send them a payment link that where they can do everything online instantly, even better. Of course, Stripe takes fees.So, it’s up for you to decide if you want the client to do a transfer or if you want to make it easier for them through a payment link.
Okay. If you sent the good cop, you sent the bad cop, and they still didn’t reply, they still ghost you, you still haven’t heard any update on why they haven’t paid you orif they’re going to pay you, then you have to take more measures. This iswhere things get a little bit uncomfortable. You can get out of emails, send them a WhatsApp message, slack them. I once had a client who didn’t pay for like 3 months and I kept chasing them. I sent them emails like weekly and they ignored me. I slacked them and eventually I was like, I’m still on this project. I mean, this is awhile ago now. I wouldn’t do that anymore.
I would have stopped working for them if they didn’t pay the invoice for for this long. And it was a client that I’ve worked with for several years.It was a returning client and they have very interesting projects. They pay my rates. I don’t have to give them a discount. So I was a bit like I don’t want to have to chase her but at the same time mate you’re taking the piss just pay me. So normally I would have stopped work but because I didn’t want to burn that bridge I still worked forthem because also I knew they had tight deadlines and all. So I then messagedthe project manager I messaged the head of project.
I messaged the other developers because they all worked in the same office if they can reach out to that person who’s in charge of paying my invoice. And it’s not good for their reputation. It’s not nice that they know that the freelancers haven’t been paidfor several months. So, if you can avoid that, avoid that. Luckily, everyone inthe team was very understanding.
They were saying like, “Oh, yeah, I messaged him, but I haven’t heard.” Maybe they haven’t. Who knows? But, um, it’s a very uncomfortable situation, but at the same time, it’s your money. You should you should get paid for what you delivered. It’s really uncomfortable. It’s not a nice thing to do, but if you’ve been chasing an invoice for 3 4 months, they’re taking the piss. So, stop people pleasing. You should get paid for your work. So, you should be able to get your money. Okay, you’ve done all of that. You even contacted other people in the team that are not involved with paying your invoices, but you want to add some pressure to it so you finally get paid and still nothing happens.
Cease Work if neccessary
I feel your frustration. I’ve been there. Then stop your work for them because it’s likely that your other invoices are also not going to be cleared. Stop working for them. Make it clear for them that I have sent X reminders. I have contacted people ABC and still haven’t gotten any information about if you’re going to pay my invoice and at the moment this is due including the late payment fee of month 1 2 and three. Now it’s um x y and zed. You send the updated invoice with the updated late payment fees.
So like every single time you do that, it’s extra admin from you because you have to review that invoice if it’s the right amount, etc. So like you do extra work that you wouldn’t have to do if they would have just paid you on time. So tell them, I’m going to cease all the work. I’m not going to continue. I’m not going to handover any other deliverables even if they’re done. Unless you pay those invoices. In my opinion, the whole point of freelancing is that you don’t have a boss. Like you have a business.
Yes, maybe you’re kind of the only person working in the business. And if you don’t have all the systems in place that it doesn’t run without you, it’s not 100% a business because a business should run on its own. But you’re not an employee. You created this freelance career so you can have the life that you want, that you have the freedom you want, and for that you need to get paid.
And you have contracts with your customers. So, if you hold up to your part of the contract, you deliver the work, you send files over, you join meetings, whatever it is that’s in the contract, but they don’t keep up to their part, which is basically just sending you the money and the information you need to do your work,then then why continue working for them?
Like, you had an agreement. That’s what a contract is for, that everyone knows what they have to do, and one of their jobs is to pay you. Okay, you stopped working for them and you still haven’t heard from them. Now, it’s time to take legal action. It depends again how much money they actually owe you and that will define what your options are. And it’s so nice to take legal action.
It’s super scary. It’s very uncomfortable, but like not getting paid for your work is so uncomfortable. And do you want to carry with you the anger about them not paying you? And then maybe you’re being worried about future clients not paying you, etc. Do you want to carry that with you or would you be okay to just stand up for yourself and go to court?
If nothing works: Take Legal Action
If you’re in the UK, there is something called small claims court and it’s for anything below I think it’s £10,000 and if the invoice that you’re sending them isbelow £10,000, you can basically do it online. You don’t have to call anyone.You don’t have to go to an institution.
You don’t have to go to some council office or whatever. You can do everything online. And it depends on the invoice, how high or low the invoice is, how much the fee is. I only once had to do this, thank God, and it was like a £500 invoice, but they were just not willing to pay me. And it was because I mean it was like a little bit out of a norm situation, but I was working at the startup. They paid me at the beginning £20 a day, which was absolutely nothing. And then they wanted me to work full-time and they paid me £200 a day, which wasn’t too bad for me at the time, but at the same time, I thought I was employed, butI wasn’t. I was a freelancer.
They asked me to send them invoices. I was in my early 20s. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know that I was a sole trader. At that time, I did end up doing my self-return assessment. So, I did everything legally in the end. But as I was working for them, I had no idea that I wasn’t actually an employee, thatI was not going to get pension contribution, that I didn’t have insurance and all these kind of things.So be careful when you get into those kind of work relationships.
So it was kind of the worst of freelancing because you don’t get the rate and you don’t get the freedom. And it was the worst ofbeing employed because I didn’t get a pension, I didn’t get paid leave, etc. And I’ve been working with them for about a year and I was arguing with them that look, you basically treat me like an employee. I want to get paid. I want to get paid time off. like you barely pay me anything anyway. I had it in writing.
I had an email where they said they’re going to pay me the £500 for a two week holiday or something. And consider I worked there for a whole year not taking any time off, not even calling in sick. Yeah. So after that I left the company and that was before they paid me the £500 holiday money. And then they said, “No, we’re not going to pay you that. You’re not working for us.
So why should we pay for this?” And it’s like because you agreed to it. So then that’s when I had to do the small claims court. Back then the fee was like £35and I was so worried to do that because like oh my god I’m basically suing them what’s going to happen but at the same time I was stubborn like I don’t know if today I would chase £500 might depend but with that client I was chasing it because I was like I wasted I mean yes I learned something there but I wasted a whole year working for you for £200 a day as a freelancer not being able to save any money not being able to like accrue money into my pension things like that. So I was just stubborn.
I just wanted to win. So I went online, researched what I could do, came across the small claims court, submitted the form and paid the £35 fee, whatever it was back then. And I waited and I shed my pants and then suddenly they sent me the money. And basically what happens is they will get a legal letter saying that this is the case.This is what’s happening. You have time to either defend yourself or to pay this amount.
And I think they just didn’t want to make a court case out of it. andI had it in writing that they were going to pay me. So, it was really hard for them to get out of this. So, yeah, that’s then they paid me. It wasn’t a fun experience. It was not nice and luckily it didn’t actually turn into a whole court case, etc. But that’s an option that you have. So, if you’re in the UK, it’s called a small claim court.
And depending on which country you’re from, where you’re based, if you have a limited company, if you work as a sole trader, things like that, you might have different options for that. So keep thatin mind if you have to enforce them paying you. That situation definitely burned that bridge.
But also, I was ready to move on. I didn’t want to work with them anymore. It was actually already after I quit working with them.So only do that if you don’t want to work with the client anymore. If you don’t have anyone in a senior suite that you want to stay connected with, be mindful when you take that step. I really hope for you that you do not have to go through that, but just know tha tif you’re in a situation where they don’t pay you and it’s less than £10,000 or depending on where you’re based, it will probably be a different amount.
Can You Spot in Advance a Client that doesn’t pay?
But know that there is that option. Can you spot in advance if a client is unlikely to pay you? Not really. But there might be some red flags. One of them I mentioned before it’s for example if you ask them to pay a deposit and they don’t want to pay a deposit. Another one could be if they negotiate your rate too much.
You give them your industry standard rate and they still want to say oh it’s too much for us. It’s this is that doesn’t mean that they won’t pay you.might just mean that they don’t have more budget but it could mean that they will struggle to pay you because this is what happened with the other client that I mentioned before who didn’t pay me for 3-4 months because they had some cashflow issues and they thought well we need to pay our staff like it’s a legal thing we have to do but we can avoid paying our freelancers and just wait until all the money comes in which is nice but that’s the risk that you have when you’re a freelancer.
Another red flag could be that you have to chase them for things. So before you start working together, you might have to chase them to send you brand guidelines to um sign the invoice. Whatever it is, if you constantly have to chase them, it means they don’t have the systems in place to do things on time or they don’t stick to their tasks. So chances are they will likely pay you late.
Also, if it’s a small client, if it’s like a startup and they’re also a one person business, you never know what someone’s going through. So maybe someone just passed away, maybe they have some cashflow issues. So always be mindful, always be nice if someone doesn’t pay you. If it’s a big corporate, then I mean there’s still person, there’s still a human behind paying you, but they do have the systems in place. They have those reminders.
They have like software for that. So always think about who you’re actually working with and why they might not pay you. All right. Usually at the end of the podcast, I ask my guests about the things that their future past self would tell them. But now I don’t have a guest.
What You Need to Hear
So I was thinking, how can I wrap these episodes up? So I’m just going to tell you what I wish someone would have told my youngerself when I wasn’t in my first situation where my client didn’t pay me on time.And I really, really hope that you’re not going to find yourself in that situation.
But if you do, and chances are you listening to this podcast episode might mean that you are in the situation right now, hearing these things might help you. You’re not the first freelancer this happened to.
Unfortunately, it’s quite common. You are basically giving away a free loan to your client without interest. So, don’t let them get away with it. You didn’t start your freelance career to continue being a people pleaser. So, stand up for yourself. You’ve done your part of the contract. They have to do theirs.Chasing your invoice might feel rude, but it’s just industry standard. It’s common. It’s normal. Send that friendly reminder. And there are platforms and resources for this. Go get legal advice.
If they haven’t paid you for over 3 months, definitely go and talk to someone about this. What’s the worst thing that can happen? That they’re not going to pay you. Well, that’s already happening right now. So, it can only go uphill from there.
Outro
Thank you so much for listening. I hope this episode was useful. If you ever had to deal with clients not paying your invoice or if you’re in that situation right now, drop a comment below. I would love to hear more about this and see if I can help you. Or if you don’t want it to be public on this video, you can send me a DM on Instagram. My handle is @elisabethmayr. But again, maybe some other freelancers will see your comment and they can help out as well.
So feel free to comment below. If you need some templates on what to actually write when you’re in a situation of unpaid invoices, check the description. I’ll add links to some free templates for you so you know “exactly what you say when your clients don’t pay”. And yes, ChatGPT came up with that sentence, but I was like, actually, not that. Let’s use that. Thanks so much for listening.
Don’t forget to like this episode, share it with anyone that you think can benefit from listening, and also subscribe. It’s all from me, and I can’t wait to have you join again next week.Bye.
🙏 Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode of the Freelance Blueprint.
