from Hacker News

Ask HN: Freelancers what are the top 3 problems preventing your business growth?

by timjahn on 1/13/15, 5:02 PM with 8 comments

• by i0nutzb on 1/13/15, 5:18 PM

  I only have one problem: comfort.

  Once you start to earn a certain amount of money, you are comfortable enough to not push further so hard. I mean, sure, an extra 50k/year would be nice, but not really necessary, considering that for extra money I should search for new clients and/or take more projects, sleep less and so on.

  The alternative would be to hire some help, but then you are not a freelancer anymore.

• by lsiunsuex on 1/13/15, 5:10 PM

  1 - finding new work when I'm available for it - when it rains, it pours. Sometimes I have to much work, sometimes nothing for weeks.

  2 - Inconsistent pay times. I freelance primarily for a company. Sometimes I get half down, sometimes payment is late. This is probably me being lazy, but I'm expected to get the work done by a certain day; I in turn, expect to get paid by a certain day.

  3 - Lack of benefits. I haven't pulled the trigger on freelancing full time because I don't buy into the health care for everyone thing in the USA yet and having a day job that pays me on time and provides me full medical / dental / vision is nice to have. Plus; my wife works nights so may as well earn some extra cash and not watch tv / play video games all night.

• by mxstbr on 1/13/15, 5:10 PM

  Getting clients, getting clients, getting clients. I just started out, and with 0 work to show, nobodies going to hire you.

• by orky56 on 1/16/15, 6:40 AM

  Having the stability to chase higher quality clients without sacrificing the steady ones I have.

• by gee_totes on 1/13/15, 7:20 PM

  1) Getting quality clients 2) Not having demo videos of the web apps I've built 3) Not having enough business intel to build a solid deal pipeline

• by v_ignatyev on 1/15/15, 1:39 AM

  I have only one problem: freelance is not a business.