Freelancing Frustrations

Have you ever worked a freelance job and then had trouble getting paid by your client? It happens. There is a bill going before New York City council at the moment to help freelancers get paid. That's great but not much help if you don't live in New York. What can you do if you have trouble getting your invoices paid?

I have been following this story about the potential new legislation in New York for a while. You can read the full details of the bill here if that's the kind of thing you're into. I'm a full time freelancer so obviously I approve of anything that makes freelancing more viable. According to a report from the Freelancer's Union 71% of freelancers have reported trouble collecting payment at some point during their career. The report is heavily skewed towards the US market but I think it is representative of global trends.

We here at no9to5 have had our own problems with getting payment. For the most part this has simply been clients needing a little reminder to pay their invoices. Most of our clients are small businesses who are always busy. Paying invoices is something that tends to slip down their priority list unless reminded. This is one reason that finding clients through Upwork is great. Upwork does take 10% but all payments are automatically debited from the client's account and paid to you. 10% is not too much to never have to chase anyone up.

There was one time in particular which I wanted to talk about. Back in the early days of our freelancing career Agi found a client through freelancer.com. The client wanted her to do some web research. To make this especially interesting the client produced a sex toy. They wanted Agi to research as many shops, magazines and websites as possible that they could potentially advertise in or sell to. Only the most committed and energetic of perverts could compete with Agi's web browsing history during that job!

When the job was complete Agi submitted her spreadsheet of research; the "filth sheet" as we affectionately named it. There was no acknowledgement. We waited a few days and sent a message asking for feedback and payment. We received a reply saying it was fine and payment would follow shortly. Nothing. There was no response for 2 months.

It wasn't a huge amount of money so we weren't aggressively pursuing it but after we had sent a number of requests for payment we decided to raise a dispute ticket through Freelancer. This allows you to state your case and gives the client a number of days to respond. The dispute prompted a response from the client who apologised saying that the person who we had been dealing with had "left the business". That may or may not be true, we'll never know but they did finally pay up.

So what lessons can be learned?

1. Whether you like them or not, the freelancing brokers like Upwork, Peopleperhour, Freelancer etc provide a way to dispute problems. They do cost some money but that's the price you pay for security.
2. If you have an issue with non payment don't give up. In our experience we have always received our money eventually. Make sure to keep pestering the client. You shouldn't have to but... life isn't fair.

Until laws similar to the one in New York are enacted everywhere these are pretty much your only options apart from taking your client to court.

To end on a positive note, our freelancer friends and us don't have any horror stories to share. Generally, we do our work and we get paid for it. If you are sensible with who you take as a client and avoid anyone you have reservations about you should be fine. Have you had problems getting paid? We'd love to hear your stories.

What's It Really Like to Work and Travel?

I talk a lot about how Agi and I work while we are overseas... it's sort of the whole point of this site. We do give ourselves vacation time but usually we continue working when we are travelling. During our recent trip to Japan a thought struck me; am I missing out on experiencing the places I visit because I take time to work? Would other people actually want to do the same?

Let me start by giving an example of our schedule in Japan. This is not a fixed schedule but an approximation of what happened.

• 06:30 Wake up and shower
• 07:00 Work
• 09:00 Eat breakfast
• 09:30 Go out sightseeing
• 16:30 Get back and relax or do some work if necessary
• 18:30 Go out for dinner
• 20:00 Relax: read, watch a movie

We fit in roughly 4 hours of work and 7 hours of sightseeing without staying up late or cutting short our activities. Your mileage may vary but I think that's pretty good.

The thought I had was: would I regret using those 4 hours to work instead of seeing more sights or doing more activities? Would I look back in a year's time and think "Man, I should have got out and seen more of Japan."?

The conclusion I came to? No. I don't think so. We saw everything we wanted to in Japan and were tired out everyday from walking / cycling / snowboarding. The recommendation these days is to walk 10,000 steps per day; during our time in Tokyo & Kyoto we averaged 12,000 steps per day.

What would I have been using that working time for otherwise? If I look back on other holidays before I became a freelancer (AKA The Before Times) I don't think I did more sightseeing or activities. I probably fit in some more reading or had longer lie ins. To be honest there is a limit to how much sightseeing it is actually possible or desirable to do.

Did I feel like I hadn't had a holiday? Not at all, we loved our time in Japan and were able to spend longer there overall than we could have when we were salaried employees. In the past 6 months we have spent more time on holiday / travelling than any year of my salaried life. While writing this I just added it up:

• Koh Lanta: 5 days
• Kanchanaburi: 2 days
• Taiwan: 7 days
• Australia: 10 days
• Chiang Mai: 7 days
• Japan: 17 days
• Total: 48 days

That's on top of being based in Bangkok which is pretty cool in its own right.

I don't want to labour the point but this was a real debate I had, first internally and then with Agi. I wanted us to be honest with ourselves. We talk about how cool it is to work and travel but are we fooling ourselves and shortchanging our experiences?

I love being productive and I get bored doing nothing. I have never enjoyed holidays lazing by the pool. It's possible that our experiences are not representative of everybody but if the things I have described above sound good to you then freelancing is probably the way to go! Drop us a line and we'd love to discuss it with you.

Unexpected Pros & Cons of Freelancing

On this site I have talked a lot about how great freelancing is. I also try to be honest and present the downsides. Everybody knows that being able to work from anywhere is fantastic. Everybody also knows that not having a regular, steady paycheque can be problematic. Today I thought I'd talk about some of the lesser known pros and cons of working remotely; the things that have taken me by surprise.

Cons

Last week I mentioned a tool that helps me navigate time differences between me and my clients. The downside of having international clients is that sometimes when they want to talk the time difference goes against you. I recently had a conference call with Sydney, Australia and Salt Lake City, USA. Saying that makes me feel pretty cool (see the pros below) but in order to make it work for everybody the meeting happened at 5am my time. I got an early start on my work that day!

Pro or Con? You Decide

I've read a lot of articles about how to be productive as a freelancer / remote worker. I agree with a lot of the things they say: separate your living and working spaces; maintain a routine etc. One that I totally don't get down with is to dress as if you were going to work. I have never been a clothes horse and I don't like dressing smart. One of the best things for me is that I can work in shorts and t-shirt all the time.

The downside? Recently, 2 of my best friends got married. When the weddings approached I looked in my wardrobe to find - a fine selection of shorts and t-shirts... and little else. As I don't need smart clothes for work I had gradually, largely unintentionally but very thoroughly eliminated all smart clothes from my wardrobe. Cue a quick dash to the department store to find some smart trousers!

Pros

My clients live in quite different parts of the world. Some of them work remotely and move around too. I personally get a kick out of talking to people in other countries and hearing what they are up to. It also makes me feel like a boss player when I say, "I have to run, I've got to speak to Washington." Plus, as documented in this post one of my Australian clients invited me over to visit. Hard to imagine how that would have happened when I had a normal job.

In one of my first posts on this site I talked about how freelancing had got me back into music in a big way. Working by myself lets me listen to whatever I want. I invested in a Spotify subscription and I haven't looked back. I also discovered Noon Pacific, a weekly playlist of funky tunes that I always look forward to. All of this has led to me discovering new artists that I love, rediscovering old favourites and generally spending a lot more of my time listening to music. A definite win!

Most of the jobs in my adult life have involved a whole lot of time indoors. I'm not constantly outdoors now but the flexibility of freelancing means I get to see a lot more sunshine. I even get to work from much nicer locations. Currently I am sitting in my local coworking space which has cool decor, comfy chairs and serves great coffee. A big improvement on some of the factory offices I used to work in!

I'd love to hear about any unexpected things you discovered when working remotely. Alternatively, I'd be glad to tell you more about what I discovered. Drop me a line and let's chat.

A Little Housekeeping

In case you hadn't noticed, 2016 is now in full swing so this seems an appropriate time for a little 2015 housekeeping. I recently attended a small business owner's workshop with one of my clients and read this article. Both of these got me thinking about "knowing your numbers". As a small business owner or freelancer you are often so involved in doing what you do that you don't look back and understand how you performed. If you don't know how you did, how can you know if you're improving?

The article in particular is valuable for freelancers; it helps you to work out what 1 hour of your time is really worth. Obviously this is worth knowing when bidding on client jobs but another benefit that I hadn't thought about before is using this information to make other decisions in your life. To take an example from the article:

Should you buy the nonstop flight and save two hours or get the flight with a stopover and save $90?

Being the cheap ass that I am I would usually save the $90 and spend 2 hours reading. This article made me think about things differently; if 2 hours of your time is worth more then $90 then this is not a cost effective strategy:

If you know your time is worth $80 per hour, then you should always buy the direct flight that saves you two hours even if it costs $150 more than the flight with a stopover.

There is a counter argument that you might not always have work to do, don't mind reading for 2 hours and would like to keep the $150. That is all true but it still got me thinking about how much my time is worth and how I performed in 2015.

Agi and I started freelancing in 2014 so 2015 was our first full year as freelancers. We learned a lot during the year, lost clients, found new ones and kept trying to earn higher rates.

I spent a couple of hours pulling together all of the data I had on my earnings and hours worked last year. I put all of the info into a spreadsheet (I love a good spreadsheet). The result? My average hourly rate for 2015 was $23/hour.

That was a bit lower than I expected but as I discussed in my post about How We Started Freelancing I had to start at a low rate to get my foot in the door. With that in mind I decided to look at how my hourly rate had changed throughout the year:

That's better! So, at the end of the year 1 hour of my time is worth around $32. That's good and I'm happy with that but even more important to me is that I want to keep getting better so check out the trendline:

I'm even more pleased with this trend but how am I going to continue it into 2016? I wrote a post recently about my thoughts on how to keep that improvement going through investment in yourself. I will keep this chart updated throughout the year and let you know how the trend progresses.

Have you done any self assessment like this? What did you find? Get in touch and let me know, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Working as a Freelancer Means WORKING as a Freelancer

I read an article recently about why you shouldn’t be a digital nomad and it really annoyed me. You can read it here. The article isn't new but I hadn't see it before. The author has "done the digital nomad thing" and said that he was unable to feel content without actually working. I’m not quite sure what he thought being a digital nomad was.

Digital Nomad ≠ Backpacker

I have written a lot of articles about how being an online freelancer has enabled us to travel a lot more. This is all 100% true and I am very happy with the lifestyle we have but we WORK to support it. I went to Taiwan for a week and I worked while I was there, often getting up and doing a morning’s work before going to sightsee in the afternoon.

I love the feeling of doing a good day’s work and earning my money. I read an article years ago that said that to be satisfied at work you need the following 3 things:

1. Autonomy: Being in control of our own choices
2. Complexity: Being able to master new skills and improve
3. Direct connection between effort and reward: Seeing the payoff—whether financial, spiritual, or other—of your work

(I couldn’t find the original article but this Buffer article covers the same topics)

I have never been happier in my work life than I am now. Being a freelancer means that I don’t have a boss; I have clients. I can pick and choose who I work for. That’s Autonomy right there.

I have learned new things and been challenged in ways I never expected during my freelance career. Complexity: check.

I know my hourly rate and how many hours I’m billing. Every hour worked has a clear dollar value. The connection between effort and reward could not be more clear. And that’s only financial; the improvement in my life through not commuting to work and being able to spend more time outside is noticeable.

What’s my point?

If you’re going to be a digital nomad you will still need to put in the hours. Being able to travel doesn’t mean that you are on permanent holiday.

I love getting up early, doing a decent day’s work and going out to see something and grab a bite to eat. Living at the same pace as the local people makes me feel like I live there. Also, because you’re working and not on vacation there is no pressure to move move move, see the next sight, take a photo and continue on. You can stay longer and really soak in each place.

Don’t become a digital nomad because you hate working. Become a digital nomad because you want to work in interesting places.

Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Also, if you're looking for work, 24 Seven is a cool new agency. The link there is to one of their blogs on a similar topic to this post.