What My First Year of Freelancing Taught Me (The Hard Way)

Freelancing sounded like freedom—until I realized freedom meant doing everything myself. No safety net, no steady paycheck, just me, my skills, and the terrifying void of "Where the hell do I find clients?"

Here's what I wish I knew before diving in.

The Reality of Getting Clients

I thought talent would speak for itself. Nope.

Cold DMs? Mostly ignored.
Upwork/Fiverr? A race to the bottom on pricing.
Networking? Awkward at first, but the only thing that actually worked.

The breakthrough came when I stopped pitching services and started sharing solutions to problems people actually talked about (Twitter, niche forums, even Reddit).

The Ugly Truths No One Tells You

The Hard Parts

Feast or famine is real. Some months I made 3x my old salary, others I didn't.
Scope creep will murder your profits if you don't set boundaries early.
You're now a salesperson, accountant, and therapist—for yourself.

The Surprising Wins

Raise your rates. Seriously. My best clients came after I doubled my prices.
Specialize. "I do websites" got crickets. "I help e-commerce brands convert browsers to buyers" got checks.
Done > perfect. Most clients just want it good enough, fast.

The Systems That Saved Me

Templates for everything: Proposals, contracts, invoices. Saves hours.
Time tracking: Toggl showed me I was undercharging by 200% on some projects.
The "F*ck Off Fund": 3 months of living expenses in the bank = saying no to bad clients.

"Freelancing isn't about working whenever you want—it's about working all the time unless you systemize." — Me, at 2AM working on a client's Server

What I'd Do Differently

Niche down faster: Wasted months being a "generalist."
Fire bad clients sooner: The 20% nightmare clients caused 80% of my stress.
Track EVERY hour: Those "quick fixes" added up to thousands in lost revenue.

Questions That Changed Everything

"Would I do this project for half the price?" (If no, my rate was too low)
"Is this client going to make me dread Mondays?" (Learned this the hard way)
"What's the simplest solution that works?" (Perfectionism is a profit-killer)

Music for Surviving Freelancing

When the imposter syndrome hits: "Started From the Bottom" by Drake. When you finally land that dream client: "Money Longer" by Lil Uzi Vert.