Is there actually a darker side of Freelancing? If I talk sarcastic, Yes! There is a darker side of Freelancing. The amazing fact is that you cannot do about the darker side of Freelancing. No one takes you seriously! Not even your family members. For all those who know you, you’re just a useless brat who is always messed up doing useless stuff on your computer/laptop depending on the machine you own. They are right from their perspective as your body language doesn’t tell them that you’re working.

Off course, why would they trust you when you’ll be lying on your bed all day with the keyboard in your lap or you’ll be cuddled on the couch with your laptop in an angle that doesn’t show off that you’re working.:-). You would constantly be reminded with this: people who work don’t have such a lame routine. And trust me, no matter how much you try to make them believe that this is the charm of Freelancing, they’ll still be of the point of view that you’re doing nothing but wasting your time with the computer.

Another issue that you might have to justify to them is your payment schedules. What I have learnt in all my Freelancing career is that there is no payment schedules while you’re working for a client. What I mean to say here is that clients are usually paying you on time and for most of them time, you will have to send them numerous reminders to pay you for the work they’ve done. The latest features in all the Freelancing sites such as FreeLancer, Elance and oDesk have changed this trend to a great extent but you still have to remind them to release the escrow they’ve placed against the project that you’re doing with them.

Your family and friends keep telling you this that your client has run away with your money while all your client wants is time to check if you handed over to him the right piece of work or just useless stuff. Clients are justified with their delays for most of the time but you can never explain this to those around you.

I cannot think of any other darker element in Freelancing as I have a real tough exam scheduled for tomorrow. “Object Oriented Analysis and Design”: the name itself is quite horrible.