As wonderful as it is to work freelance, it can be a total pain in the behind when business issues arise and you have no one to turn to for guidance. To ease your burden, here are five popular freelancing problems and what you should do to solve them:
Photo by Jan Baborák on Unsplash
1. Lacking A Professional Address
Coffee shops may be your preferred place to set up your laptop and get to work, but they cannot, unfortunately, act as your professional address for mailing services. Likewise, it’s not always ideal to use a home address for business reporting purposes, especially if you move around a lot or are based overseas.
The solution many freelancers are turning to is using virtual offices. These packages can provide you with a professional CBD base, mail forwarding, and even secretarial support should you need it.
2. Improper Meeting Locations
Another consequence of being a location-independent professional is not having a meeting space always available to you. Coffee shops are not always going to cut it, particularly with group meetings or formal presentations; and your bedroom will always be an inappropriate setting, even if it’s a virtual appointment – no client wants to see so deeply into your private world.
An easy way to guarantee you have a meeting room ready when you want it is to hire one. Virtual office companies provide conference spaces that are furnished with all the latest equipment and technical support on-hand. If you hold meetings frequently, you could even add this service to your virtual office package.
3. Having An Outdated Website and Socials
Nobody ever plans to neglect their business website. When you’re occupied by a busy work period or have implemented changes that need to be monitored, updating your online presence can slip your mind.
Outsourcing the task to someone else might be in your favor (and that of your budget). You can offer the job to a friend or relative who is social media savvy and in need of extra work; perhaps someone who is still a student or in need of flexible work themselves. You can also seek an experienced Web and Social Media Manager on gig economy websites like Fiverr or Upwork.
4. Wasting Too Much Time On Admin
When you’re self-employed without a team or assistant, it’s easy to get stuck on admin tasks like appointment setting, answering queries, and sending quotes. This can end up delaying your main business activities.
Hiring a full-time secretary can be expensive and perhaps a bit excessive for many freelancers. A virtual receptionist who answers calls and handles your appointments, however, might be just what you need. This service can easily be set-up with a click of a button as it’s another popular add-on in virtual office packages.
5. Loneliness
Many freelancers choose to work for themselves because they prefer working independently. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t get lonely sometimes. Flying solo for long periods can take its toll, especially if your work is all online and doesn’t involve much communication with others.
Whether you just want the comfort of being surrounded by other workers or are actively seeking collaborators, shared workspaces give you these opportunities. Designed for freelancers, co-working space memberships are often flexible so you can try out this new work environment for as long or as short a time as you like.
As you can see, the most common issues happen to most freelancers, regardless of industry. Whatever your issue, remember that you’re not alone and there is help available when you need it.
I like the pragmatism of the post. Focus on your core business and find ways to get the things done that have to happen, but that “eat” a lot of your time. Additionally, there are a lot of virtual office spaces that are not too costly, so a great starting point! Great blog!
Thanks for sharing, this was really helpful.