Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

Can I ask a favour to you brave souls? We need more Freelance Money Diaries to share a diverse range of incomes/revenues/money management tips from fellow freelancers.

One of my biggest missions this year is to bring more transparency to freelance rates and pay (something I feel is uuuuuber important in the current messy landscape).

You can share anonymously and it doesn't matter how much you earn AT ALL. In fact, the more diverse, the better! Here's a link to the form to fill out.

Forever grateful to you all 🙏

P.S. This week on Instagram, I shared my March revenue and expenses. Check it out here. And don't forget to give me a follow for regular tips and tricks!

Here's what I've been up to this week work-wise:

👉 I refreshed 3 pieces for Shopify

👉 I ran a mentoring session

👉 I worked on a marketplace listing for a client

👉 I did more outreach, LinkedIn posts, and a newsletter for a client

👉 I helped present April's The Future of Freelance Forum

👉 I hosted an AMA as part of The Empowered Freelancer summit

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~22

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~4

💰 Total revenue this week: £2,225

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Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

I posted something on LinkedIn the other day that felt v v vulnerable. I actually almost deleted approx 2 mins after posting.

But I didn't. And I'm glad.

​Here's what I wrote:

Over 100 likes and 80+ comments later, I think it's safe to say I'm not alone.

This isn't another story about everything falling apart (we see way too much of that on LinkedIn, right?!). The work is there, but the getting of the work seems to be a totally different story these days.

Everything just feels HARDER right now, and I mean that in the most specific, granular, day-to-day sense.

It's harder to secure contracts, taking longer to get briefs, clients are going back and forth, new projects get ripped out from under us.

In isolation, each one of these things isn't massively catastrophic... some might say it's simply part of running a business. But the accumulation of it all, the damn COMPOUNDING, is it's own special kind of exhausting.

Look, I'll be real honest here.

The tiredness I'm feeling now isn't just about the market. A lot of it is the compounded cost of the years that came before it.

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, I worked HARD. Really hard.

But there's a bill that comes due for that kind of sustained output and I think I'm paying it now.

The cruel irony of freelance life is that there's no official mechanism to just... stop. We feel like we can't take our foot off the gas, so we keep grinding away into oblivion.

And we end up feeling... exhausted? Resentful? Flat?! It doesn't feel like the traditional sense of burnout, but it doesn't feel great either.

The response to my LinkedIn post reminded me of something I sometimes forget: we are not navigating this alone, even when it feels that way.

People in the comments talked about going through exactly the same thing... watching projects fall away after months of groundwork, feeling the creeping sense that the rules have changed, etc etc.

Several people spoke about doing everything "right" and still finding it harder than it's ever been. Others mentioned the guilt of not being able to muster the same enthusiasm that used to feel pretty effortless.

A few people pushed back, gently, and offered a different frame: maybe this friction is the market recalibrating. And I can see it.

I've been doing this for 13 years now and I've seen my fair share of ups and downs. I've made it through every time. Things have always worked out.

This is not a doom and gloom post.

Yes, things feel a bit like slogging uphill through a threatening avalanche of sticky toffee, but this is a good time to reflect and... yes, recalibrate.

Being a freelancer is a special kind of isolating. We don't have colleagues to vent to, and a lot of employed folk simply don't understand the struggle of wearing many, many hats and juggling it ALL at ONCE?!

So, think of this as a note to say it's all gonna be okay.

In fact, after posting that statement on LinkedIn, I emailed a few clients, made a few new connections, and landed a ton of work for May. So, I guess the inertia sometimes leads to action. Or, it did in my case. This time.

However you're feeling about the market right now, you are definitely not alone. If you're feel like you're working just as hard but getting half as far, it's not you, it's the system at the mo. And it will change. It always does.

But for now, let's take a walk, touch some trees, breathe some fresh air, and relish the fact we get to do this at all.

We need more Freelance Money Diaries entries! I'm forever grateful to anyone who shares their finances with us (you can do it totally anonymously!).

Click the button below to do yours!

As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

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