As a freelancer, it is easy to get frustrated when your payment doesn’t arrive on time or you miss a deadline. Handling these management tasks while focusing on your core work can become increasingly impossible, especially when your business is growing.
One of the reasons this happens is that freelancers do not understand payment processing and how to handle it. On top of that, they struggle to manage their relationship with the client and bear significant losses over time.
Common Client Management Challenges Freelancers Face
Client management is often a major headache for freelancers, especially when they have to handle more than one. There are several aspects of client management that a freelancer has to look after, alongside project completion.
Freelancers often use a variety of tools to manage their business. They might use one for invoicing, another for tracking projects, a separate one for client communication, and spreadsheets to maintain records. While each tool serves a specific purpose in the overall workflow, having to switch between so many tools and managing them separately creates inefficiencies.
Your relationship with a client usually extends beyond a single project. Over time, you will do various projects with one client, with different deadlines, requirements, and payment terms. However, keeping track of all these previous details is often too difficult.
Common Payment Challenges Freelancers Face
Most freelancers depend entirely on their income from projects they complete. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for them to face payment issues in the form of delays, subpar invoicing, broken communication with clients, and more. It is estimated that 20% of freelancers face late payments and struggle with covering basic living costs as a result.
Payment tracking takes up hours and hours of your precious time every week. You have to stare at long spreadsheets just to know who has paid and who hasn’t. Clearly, this isn’t the most efficient way of managing or tracking payments.
What’s the Solution?
The solution lies in a comprehensive CRM system that manages client payments efficiently and helps freelancers focus on their work. These CRMs make getting paid easier than ever with their comprehensive set of features.
Instead of hiring a manager to track payments, you can use a tool like Brightenly. It lets you create clean and professional invoices within seconds – and with that, the inbuilt payment processing system automatically updates you regarding the status of those invoices on your dashboard.