When you become a freelancer, it’s very easy to make a lot of mistakes, especially at the beginning of your journey. No one is immune to them, but it's essential to try to avoid them.
After all, mistakes lead to stress, dissatisfaction with work, low income—and as a result, a beginner gets discouraged and leaves freelancing behind. Even though they might have built a successful career.
By the way, many of the mistakes listed below have backed even experienced freelancers into a corner.
Let’s take a closer look at six important mistakes that beginners (and not only beginners) should avoid in freelancing.
# WORKING 24/7
The more I work, the more I’ll earn!
This is the first and biggest mistake any beginner freelancer makes. Just because remote work offers flexible hours and lets you work whenever you want, doesn’t mean you should spend all your free time working.
The easiest way to avoid this is to create a clear schedule, separating work hours from personal time. Your working hours don’t have to be 9 to 5, but they should be consistent so you can stay on track and be more productive. Plus, having a set schedule helps clients know when to reach you, and family and friends will know when not to disturb you.
# UNDERESTIMATING YOUR WORK
Another huge problem that beginners often face is low self-esteem. Simply put, beginner freelancers often underestimate their work and the time spent on it.
Beginners are willing to take on jobs for ridiculously low prices, just for a review—or even for free. But this only tells clients that your work has no value. You know the famous saying about flowers: “If you don’t give them to yourself, no one else will”? Same goes for freelancing: if you don’t value yourself, no one else will either.
Of course, if you're brand new, it’s okay to do a few small, quick projects for a low price and a review. But that should only be temporary—to build your profile and collect testimonials.
# TAKING EVERY PROJECT
About half the projects you come across are pure garbage. And that’s totally fine—you should say no to them.
Don’t focus on every single listing you see, and definitely don’t accept projects that make you feel uncomfortable or will overload you. Here are five types of projects you should avoid:
# IGNORING EDUCATION
Technology never stands still—new techniques, tools, workflows, and trends appear every day.
If you don’t keep learning new things in your field, you’ll start falling behind other more progressive freelancers. It’s easy to feel like a pro in your field, but if you don’t improve your skills, learn from others, or seek out new solutions, chances are you'll start losing clients before long.
There’s no such thing as “done learning”! And that applies 100% to freelancing—especially if you aim to reach the top.
# OVERPROMISING
Don’t promise something unless you’re 100% sure you can deliver.
Believe me—beginners do this all the time, trying to be polite or win over a client. But the consequences can seriously damage your reputation (even if you don’t have one yet).
This is when you need to figure out if you’re truly able to deliver what the client wants, whether you should charge extra and how much—or if you should simply say it’s not doable.
# WORKING WITHOUT A STRATEGY
Freelancing is an endless ocean of opportunity, where you don’t need to wait years for a promotion. Your career growth depends entirely on you.
To actually achieve something, you need to build your own kind of business plan or strategy.
Take some time to reflect and define where you want to be in a year, two years, five? What income level do you want to reach? If you don’t know where you’re going—it’ll be very hard to get there.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are many hidden pitfalls in freelancing, and I’ve personally stumbled on quite a few. From the outside, remote work may look like a little paradise where you rake in money effortlessly.
It’s impossible to walk this path without stepping on a few rakes—but there are ways to make those hits less painful.