You don’t have to be a business guru to know that freelancers and solopreneurs take many more risks than traditional employees. In fact, that’s reason #1 for employees not quitting their jobs and trying their luck in the self-employment world. “It’s just too risky” – They’d say. Now, is it really? How tough are self-employment challenges? And how can we overcome them?

First of all, let’s see what the main challenges for the self-employed are:

• Financial challenges
• Time management challenges
• Admin challenges

Self-Employment Financial Challenges – Changing Your Mindset

One of the biggest fears of becoming self-employed is losing your monthly income. And what’s more relatable than that, right? If you’re used to getting your paycheck at the end of the month, figuring out how to get work – and money! – can become psychologically overwhelming.

So, how can we overcome this challenge? If you’re currently unemployed, starting a freelancing career is going to seem easier, for you don’t have to give up any financial help to get started. However, if you’re going to quit your work, there’s a couple of things that you can do to keep that typically employee’s ease of mind:

• Make sure that you have enough savings before quitting your job.
• A great idea for you to start saving is side-hustle first and then quit your job. And I say that this is a great idea for two reasons:
  • You’ll be automatically saving for those low-workload months.
  • You’ll be acquiring freelance experience – and customers! – before even starting.
• Although you need money to make meet ends, starting a freelance business doesn’t take too much money though – if compared to a brick-and-mortar business!
• Try not to limit yourself to one customer only. That would be increasing the financial risks, as they may stop sending you work!

Self-Employment Time Management Challenges – Planning Is King

If money is the main challenge we consider – and face – before we start freelancing, time management is the real self-employment enemy! Yep. I said “enemy.” And the reason for that is that not managing your time wisely may cause you getting overwhelmed, losing customers and, finally, losing money.

Time is money, and as a self-employed, what you make out of your time can also be the difference between success and failure. So let’s have a look at some tips which will help you master your time and your freelance business:

• Plan your day. This will prevent you from overworking and also from wasting your day with house chores.
• Set yourself office hours. As a freelancer or self-employed, you’ll find that you could work the whole day and night if you didn’t need any sleep. Whatever you do, you aren’t ever going to be done. So make sure you go to bed early and enjoy some private time away from your PC. You’ll feel fitter and more motivated the next day!
• Let everyone know what your office hours are. Having a work plan won’t mean anything if your sister wants to chat with you every other minute!
• Check out this post about working from home and time management.

Admin Work for the Self-Employed – A Challenge Bigger Than It Seems

The most exciting part on freelancing and self-employment is managing the logistics and the strategies you want to implement. The problem is that self-employment also means taking care of taxes, invoicing, insurances, rent and savings!

If you hate admin work, it sounds like a nightmare, right? And I’m not going to sugar-coat it for you, but I can give you a couple of tips to manage your paperwork easily:

• Insurances aren’t fun, but they’re more than necessary for freelancers, so make sure you don’t forget about them! Check this post on insurances for freelancers to get more info.
• Get one central place for all paperwork to be done or to be archived. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, a box will do! Just make sure to place it in a comfortable place for you to put the paperwork in there – and nowhere else.
• Schedule one day per week for admin tasks. I find Fridays are the perfect day! It can be your weekly routine to get ready for the weekend 😉 And what about first thing Monday? Getting your admin ready as a first step, followed by planning what you’re going to work on during the week – How does that sound?
• If one day per week sounds too much for you, save the last day of the month, for example, to wrap the month up!
• Once you start earning enough money, outsource all admin tasks! Think about the time that you could spend doing what you really love!

Change Your Mindset And Overcome Self-Employment Challenges

So we’ve covered finances, time management and paperwork… How fun, right? The thing is that if you change your mindset, plan ahead and take all these tasks into your weekly routines, they’ll all seem much easier to overcome.

If you still feel insecure about freelancing, check out this post about those fears which you might be having, and which may be stopping you to make that change you always wanted!