Author: Kara Copple

As you can probably guess, this is being written from a stifling UK office, on the #hottestdayoftheyear with plug-in fans spinning and windows ajar.

There was you thinking students spent their whole time nursing absinthe hangovers with two day-old pizza and playing video games to avoid looming deadlines. Well, shame on you!

At one stage, the mere utterance of the word ‘freelance’ was enough to make anybody look at you in absolute dismay and wonder if you had a professional death wish.

Difficult clients and tricky customers can be a right royal pain in the you-know-what but everyone has ‘em and in the world of business, they’re near on impossible to avoid.

We’re living in a time where freelancing is booming. That means opportunity, but also competition, and only freelancers who start with eyes wide open, aware of the potential pitfalls, will survive and thrive.

Freelancing is supposed to be the flagship of working freedom. Across the globe millions of fully employed workers are crouched over desks in dimly lit offices, fantasizing about what it would be like to be a freelancer.

You may drive a battered fifteen-year-old Fiesta that sounds like Ivor the Engine when you push it over 60mph, but you’re no different than a Formula One driver – at least when it comes to tax, fines and HMRC.

Milton Friedman, the American economist famously once said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” If you’re venturing into the freelance world, you need to have this outlook for any new clients that come your way.

Firstly, why’s social media so important to freelancers? The connected world has changed – and continues to change – our perception of what constitutes good customer service.

“I have no use for bodyguards,” said Elvis Presley, “but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.”