A lot of employees love the idea of freelancing. The thought of handling tasks in your own time without anyone breathing down your neck for quick completion seems liberating. It is because of this reason a lot of employees jump into the freelance space.
The truth is, for a fair percentage of freelancers, remote working isn’t that different from working under a boss. Freelancing comes with a lot of benefits but it also possesses its own cons as well. Issues like cybersecurity, management of finance, and lack of self-discipline start to become pronounced.
Biggest Challenges Faced by Remote Workers
1. Gaining Clients
The most pronounced issue most freelancers face when getting into business is building a client base. Apart from that, any new client gained has to be retained for consistent revenue.
Sometimes while dealing with the workload of existing clients, the time to find new clients might not be available. Several new freelancers do not have the patience to find new clients and get frustrated. Others find clients become unsatisfied at the seeming stagnancy and inability to gain new customers and find themselves as unhappy as they were during the times of permanent employment.
2. Time Management
Working in your own time sounds appealing. However, this aspect of your work requires time management, self-discipline, and responsibility. One of the most crucial traits of a freelancer is the ability to meet deadlines. Getting done with work later than scheduled can make clients angry.
A lot of freelancers cultivate the habit of leaving work until the eleventh hour. You don’t need a seer to know unsatisfied clients leads to a reduced customer base.
3. Security
The realization that the internet is not as safe as earlier thought hits freelancers when they start remote work. Working in an office environment with a team dedicated to enhancing cybersecurity with tools like antiviruses and firewalls leave employees oblivious to the numerous threats on the internet.
Freelancers are highly likely to use home networks and devices for the completion of tasks. Usually, these tools have low-security levels, and could lead to a breach of the freelancer’s device and subsequently, sensitive client data.
Tools Freelancers can use to avoid these Challenges
1. Tools for Financial Tasks
Freelancers get dismayed when they realize they have to learn new skills like tax management, accounting, and invoice preparation. Some remote workers even go as far as hiring accountants for this purpose, losing a big chunk of their wages.
There are tools that can expedite these processes. Some of the best-known tools for these tasks include Xero and Free Agent. There are also several other financial tools that can perform free financial management for you. In fact, the finance tools that require subscription or a one-time payment work better for you in the long run.
Usually, finance automated tools show users all of their financial data at a glance. There are also accounting apps that can automatically send invoices to clients.
2. Tools for Security
The first security tool on a freelancer’s scale of importance is a virtual private network (VPN). A secure VPN makes certain your privacy never gets compromised by encoding data packets getting in and out of your device. Essentially, a virtual private network can be described as a virtual wall preventing hackers from spying on your internet activity.
If you’re a freelancer, you’re bound to step out of your home and in the process, might try to complete your task outside. Connecting to public Wi-Fi networks that have been hijacked by cyber criminals would give these hackers the ability to spy on your activity. This way, your clients’ login information could get compromised.
A situation like this could send your career down the drain. This is exactly what a VPN can prevent. Your data would be protected in such a way that even if the hacker is viewing your activity, all he/she would see would be several characters, letters, and numbers.
Other tools that you can use for functions such as prevention and detection of malware and ransomware include antiviruses and firewalls.
3. Tools for Proposals
Building your client base is one factor that keeps you in business as a freelancer. However, having to respond to job invitations while completing job tasks could prove difficult. Even if you managed to type a proposal after getting done with various tasks, because of mental fatigue, it might not be to your normal standard.
Proposal tools such as Qwilr and Proposify aid you in crafting suitable proposals for clients. These apps also contain features such as saving a proposal template and automatically fixing in a client’s name in the proposal to be sent.
Concluding Thoughts
Although several employees are willing to get into the freelance world, most are not ready for what it entails. Handling several administrative tasks at once could make you feel like permanent employment might be the better option. However, with certain tools, you can expedite a lot of processes associated with remote working.
You can use security tools such as a VPN and an antivirus, proposal tools to get new clients such as Qwilr, and accounting tools for invoices and taxes like Xero.
