How to be sorted as a freelancer?

Spoiler alert — you can't.

I never knew I’d be doing what I am if I look back 9 years in the past.

But why’d I even look back if I’m so sorted in my career?

Well, that’s the point — I’m not, and no one ever is.

Though I’ll never pursue legal practice as a lawyer, I ensured I kept my options open by clearing the BAR exam and completing LLM, just in case.

Upscaling my way through content writing and marketing, getting high-paying gigs and clients, or having a bunch of followers on a platform — nothing meant that I’d have nothing to worry about after a certain point in my journey.

Despite being in and around the content scene, I’ve had very much to do with the freelancing industry, and it’s a no-brainer how unpredictable it is.

Even if my journey looks like this -

2016 - First commercial writing gig

2017 - Started freelance content writing

2018 - Got a part-time content writing job

2019 - Elected as a lead editor at the college

2020 - Graduated and continued content writing

2021 - Took up my first full-time content writing job

2022 - Got a content marketing job & new clients

2023 - Left my job and registered my company

2024 - Launched my newsletter on Substack

The story could look like this -

2016 - Took up a paid writing internship for passion

2017 - Took up freelancing assignments for money

2018 - Worked part-time during college for money

2019 - Halted part-time job for college internship

2020 - Left part-time job due to internal politics

2021 - Joined full-time to be financially stable

2022 - A client went bankrupt and shut down

2023 - Lost my client due to internal politics

2024 - Lost a new client and found another 

You see, no one is sorted or even remotely at a place where they don’t have things to worry about in their career. 

Of course, you can be as humble and down-to-earth as you can be to avert most of the impact that the bad times have on you.

But nothing helps as much as accepting the reality around you.

If you’re losing clients before finding new ones, or if you’ve been unable to find a new client for months, your mind will naturally wander to places it hasn’t visited before.

These are dark places where self-doubts roam the streets as locals, and we, as tourists, get to know them better.

But when you start accepting your reality, for every minor setback or major downfall, year over year, you learn to discover the thrill of pulling up your socks and getting back the financial glory that you’ve repeatedly lost and found throughout your journey.

Obviously, this comes as an unavoidable part of freelancing, and more so with a newly launched business.

But here’s the thing — you can never stop overthinking about why you lost a high-paying client when the reasons either involve prejudiced people from the in-house teams holding an undue influence over the operations or involve your personal life decisions influencing and driving distraction in something you’ve focused on so dearly so far.

As I’ve always said, you can and must have backup options, whether for income streams or as career options, for instance, switching back to your academic domain or simply keeping the teaching profession ready if things go south.

But no amount of safe-play tactics or philosophical mindset can ever erase the regret of losing something you had gained or achieved through years of effort and hard work.

So what could help in the end?

Rather, what helps me deal with such mishaps and continue to put in effort without being affected or consumed by the shortcomings?

Stay subscribed to find out :)