We are all up to date with the perks of freelancing – I mean we did write about them after all. But cut a long story short, you get to be your own boss and control your own income #Winning! And as sweet as that is, there a few traps if you like that some fall into that can make a freelancing life a short-lived affair, a fairy tale if you will. I mean you can’t do eff all and expect to make it rain.

Here are a few things we think you need to put on your radar to make sure you can last the distance and juggle freelance life with well, everything else.

The ability to prioritise.

When the sun is shining or the kids are running around like they’ve just discovered sugar for the first time, it can be easy to want to slink away and just forget work for a bit. But you really need to think to yourself whether this is the best time to skive off or whether knuckling down and churning through it is best. There will be times of course that you just pack up and let it be, and times you already know you can’t work because you’ve got something on, but prioritisation is the key. Remember, you can’t earn money if you’re not working.

The need to set some specific working times.

One the back of looking at prioritisation, you might want to give yourself some set working times. These can be hard-line or they could be guidelines that change week to week, but setting aside that time gives you a bit of structure and routine that a lot of people need. Obviously the beauty of being a freelancer is that you can get up and go for a walk, go pick up the kids whenever or pop out for a coffee but least you know in the back of your head when you should be working each day.

The want to get out and find work.

Now there will be some of you that simply don’t need to go out and find extra work. You’re that good that they come to you and you’re too chocka anyway to take on any new clients. But the majority can always do with a bit more. But clients don’t appear out of thin air, you will need to go find them. So don’t sit and wait, get up and market yourself, search for new clients, pitch new work to existing clients – whatever it is, show your worth and win those jobs. This can be hard of course when you want to actually spend time working not finding work, but this is also the reality of being a freelancer.

The desire to not get behind on admin.

We’ve talked about admin before, and we all know that it’s a necessary evil. But make sure you stay on top of it, and even designate times to do it. If you don’t send invoices, you can’t get paid, if you don’t pay the tax man, you’ll be hit with even more bills, and if you’re filing is non-existent you’ll waste even more time mucking about trying to find stuff then you will actually doing the task at hand. You can get help from experts of course, but it does come at a cost and they can’t do it all. You run your own business after all so make sure you are managing it properly.