Nobody's Perfect: The Necessity of Freelancer Mistakes
Every content creator makes errors—that's a good thing
I remember the first time I made a big and common freelancing mistake.
I failed to get a deposit from the client. I did the work and sent it back to them. They vanished. I didn't get paid.
Judging from my conversations with other freelancers, this error is incredibly common. And it's not the only common mistake. Not clarifying things with clients, missing a deadline, and undercharging are all par for the course.
And the thing is, that's fine. I mean, not the fact you didn't get paid—that sucks. But it's fine that you made the mistake in the first place. That comes with some important caveats, though: Recognize your error. Learn from it. Put things in place so it doesn't happen again. Move on. No regrets.
I've seen content creators and freelancers beat themselves up and lose confidence over these mistakes, when it's something that we all do. I'm all for celebrating our successes, but we should celebrate our failures too, and use those as a foundation to build a stronger business in the future.
Here's why.
Running a freelance business is complex, you can't know everything
We're not just content creators. We're marketers, bookkeepers, administrators, relationship managers, tax filers, and more. It's a lot to take in and absorb. When we're short on time, it's easy to overlook certain things or jump to conclusions. No matter how much you read about successfully managing a business, there are always edge cases and unusual circumstances.
You can't always keep track of everything. Things will slip through the gaps. A deadline coming up sooner than you thought, an email you forgot to send, a last-minute request for changes. As we run our content creation businesses, we get better at anticipating what the problems might be—and put systems and approaches in place to solve them.
But, that experience comes through running your business. By making those mistakes. From suffering a little bit of unpleasantness and not allowing it to happen again. You can't anticipate everything that's going to happen—so a flexible, open approach to seeing mistakes and learning from them is essential to successful growth.
You have a unique approach, so mistakes help you tweak what you do
All of us approach content creation differently. Some are analytical and studied, others intuitive and loose. Some of us work first thing in the morning, others are doing work at 8 PM. Some use freelance platforms, others work directly with clients. There's no "one size fits all." The great thing about freelancing is that you get to set the rules on the who, where, what, when, why, and how of your work.
But, that freedom of choice gives us plenty of latitude to make mistakes! The great thing is, it's through those errors and that adversity that we improve things in a way that works for us. We strengthen our work through the challenges we face.
If something fails or goes wrong, you have the freedom to change it. Whether that's refining your approach, tweaking your process, building your skills, or something else. The important thing to remember: you're improving things for the way you do business. Those mistakes are yours to earn and learn from.
Freelancer mistakes are valuable because of the lessons learned
The only type of valueless mistake is one that you don't learn from. If you suffer an issue and say "That's fine" and do nothing, it's a wasted opportunity. But, if you make a mistake, understand the implications, identify the cause, and stop it from happening again, then you've just improved your business.
Here's how to learn from those mistakes and apply a fix.
Realize what the mistake actually was
The first thing you need to do is figure out your mistake. This helps you to define exactly what it is that you need to fix. Did a client fail to pay you? Did you miss a deadline? Was there a poor quality to your work? did you forget to follow up on an important project?
Understanding what went wrong with your freelancing is the first step toward fixing the problem.
Figure out the cause of the mistake
Next, we need to work out what the root cause of the mistake is. If you forgot to send an email, is it because you didn't look through your mailbox and see that you needed to follow up? If you delivered low-quality work, is it because you didn't check client requirements? If a client didn't pay you, is it because you didn't ask for a deposit?
You can go a step further here as well, and ask why the cause itself happened. For example, if you didn't ask for a deposit, was it because you didn't have the confidence to ask a client to pay ahead of time? If you missed a deadline, is that due to you being distracted by a hundred other things? Getting to the true root cause of an error is very helpful for solving it. There are plenty of techniques you can use, and they're all based on the concept of "root cause analysis."
Make fixes that deal with the root cause
You always want to fix the cause of your mistake, not its symptoms. So, once you've found the root cause, you can put a change in place. If you didn't follow up on an email, you might want to add a "follow-up flag" when an important email arrives. If you didn't have the confidence to ask for a deposit, you could look into a freelance escrow service. If your work quality was due to you being rushed, build in more time for the next project.
The important thing here is to take a practical step to improve things in the future. Now, it may not always be the right step. Even if it's not perfect, you have the flexibility to change things again. It's this mindset of "continual improvement" that will help you adapt your skills, technology, and approach to create a strong and resilient freelance business.
Check that the improvements stick
You're not done once you've put a fix in place. You need to make sure the fix is a good one and stops similar mistakes from happening again. Keep an eye on things, and if you see the problem arising again, try a different fix. Keep tweaking, until it's as you want it.
Prioritize the freelancing mistakes you fix
Because we can make almost any kind of mistake, it can be tricky to know what to focus on fixing first. Here's a suggested order that you might tackle things:
Legal, bookkeeping, accounting, tax, and compliance: These are the areas where you can run into penalties if you get stuff wrong. I'd always advise hiring professionals in this area who know how things work. They're much less likely to make mistakes than you are.
Getting paid and earning money: You need money to survive. I suggest working on your invoicing, client payments, rates, and similar areas.
Keeping existing clients happy: Happy clients are repeat clients. This means fixing any mistakes to do with client management, client communications, asking questions, the quality of your work, meeting deadlines, etc.
Attracting new clients: You always want to keep your freelance pipeline full. Fixing mistakes in this area is about getting your marketing right, looking for work, communicating with new clients, understanding their needs, and managing expectations.
Everything else: Finally, we have all the other stuff you need to do when running your freelance business. That might be administration, learning new skills, updating your portfolio, and all of the other things that go into being a successful content creator.
Don't regret your freelance mistakes, learn from them
Remember, mistakes are fine so long as they lead to action. Provided stuff is fixable in the future, there's nothing to regret. Keep improving, and you'll build a content creation business to be proud of.