r/freelance

When I started money was the whole thing. I was scared honestly. My cousin told me to only think about billing. Are you getting billed or not. That was the advice and it was the right advice at the time.

Went freelance a few years later with the same mindset. Nothing changed except who was paying.

then somewhere around year four or five I got fascinated with architecture. Frameworks, tooling, how the thing was structured. I was proud of that work. The clients never cared, which is fair, they were never going to. But I did, and for a while that was enough.

After that I stopped caring so much how it was built and started caring whether the clients business actually grew from it. That shift came from working with small businesses where you can see the difference directly.

Now I mostly think about the person using it. Not in a UI sense, I was always thinking about UI and UX. More like, if a client asks for a feature, does the end user actually benefit from it or is it just something the client wants.

So the order was money, architecture, clients business, user. Roughly eleven twelve years.

What I do not know is whether that order is normal or just mine. Did anyone here start out caring about the client's outcome or the end user, and pick up the billing discipline later? Or does money always have to come first when you are starting out on your own?

I bumped my rate on a returning client for a new project, first real increase in about two years, and I spent way too long staring at the number before I sent it, rewrote the email a few times pulling out all the justifications so it wouldn't read as defensive, then they replied within the hour with basically sure sounds good when can you start, no pushback at all, which should feel like a win but mostly just made me realize the old number was under the entire time. ngl I don't even have a real method for setting it, I pick a number that feels a little scary, feel bad about it, send it anyway, and that's the whole system. How do people actually set the next number without it just being a guess.

Hi! I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.

I’ve been dealing with some very, very rude clients recently, and honestly, it’s getting exhausting. I work in real estate, and I understand that dealing with difficult clients is part of the job, but sometimes it really feels like they expect you to tolerate anything just because you’re the one providing the service.

I currently have a foreign (American) client who is generally very rude and demanding. I always do my best to be kind, patient, and professional, but somehow, when I try to be polite, he’ll say things like “You don’t seem sincere” or compare me to other people and tell me to “work harder.”

Like… I’m doing my job. I’m not his personal secretary. 😭

And the frustrating part is that if we try to avoid talking to him or limit interactions, he notices every little thing we do. He notices everything. So it’s not even like we can just keep our distance and avoid the stress.

I know clients can be demanding, and I’m not expecting everyone to be nice all the time. But there’s a difference between being demanding and just being unnecessarily rude.

How do you guys deal with clients like this without letting them get to you? Do you just develop a thick skin, or is there a better way to set boundaries while still keeping things professional?

A client approved my work, said thanks, and then just... disappeared. No replies, no payment. I know exactly who they are, I've just never had to deal with this before.

Has this happened to you? Did you actually do anything about it (formal notice, legal route, whatever) or did you just let it go? Kind of stuck right now and not sure what's worth trying.

I’m a freelancer myself. I’ve also hired other freelancers for my clients and for things I needed personally

One thing I keep seeing is freelancers being way too pushy after sending a proposal or having a conversation

If I didn’t reply, maybe I got busy. Maybe I lost interest

Maybe I’m talking to someone else. Maybe I just need time to think

I’ve seen the same thing happen with 5 different freelancers, and, it’s annoying

One of the things my own clients have told me they liked about working with me is that I was never pushy. I kept it professional, gave them space, and let them make their decision

I get approvals. I get rejected. That’s normal

If someone says no, I don’t question it. I don’t keep trying to convince them. Not everyone is going to need your service, and that’s okay

I’m not trying to shame anyone here. Maybe you were given some terrible sales advice that told you to “follow up until they respond.”

But please, let people breathe

You don’t need to send 7 messages because someone hasn’t replied

If you’re already working together and you need something from them? Follow up. Obviously

But if they haven’t hired you yet, give them their time

Pushing harder doesn’t magically turn a no into a yes

Sometimes they’ll come back months later

Sometimes they’ll refer you to someone else

I’ve literally experienced both

Learn to let the conversation end without treating every “no” or silence like a sales objection you need to overcome

I’ve been freelancing for a small company for about a year, contracted for 20 hours a week. My background is in graphic design, but my role has slowly expanded into almost everything digital: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, content writing and ideas, email marketing, SEO, website updates, graphic design, short videos, presentations and product marketing.

The problem is that I often work around 30 hours a week but can only bill them for about 10. I don’t bill for things like research, learning marketing as I go, developing ideas, fixing AI generated content, troubleshooting or correcting mistakes. (They can’t hire me full time because they don’t have the budget and they also can’t pay me more. But if I worked the 20 hour contract I’d effectively be doing 40 hours of work a week and earning less than i would at Tesco)

I’m still learning, so I know I’m slower than someone experienced in marketing. But this takes a huge amount of mental energy and what I’m earning isn’t enough to cover my £1,000 rent.

The company also has almost no marketing budget, they don’t have much news or activities to share, many of my recommendations aren’t followed through, so there are very few results I can show in my portfolio. There simply isn’t enough meaningful content that I can use to post everyday. Also it’s the consulting world so as someone fresh out of design university, there’s not much I can invent with AI. (Any tips on content ideas will be highly appreciated btw)

I need another income source, but this client already takes most of my time. Plus it’s incredibly stressful and I need some insane level of discipline to do job applications after this, not to mention how not driving results has busted my confidence entirely.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is this normal in the design world? How would you handle it, and how would you actually grow in this environment?