A Guide to Juggling Multiple Freelance Clients

By Issa Mirandilla. in Freelance. Updated on February 5, 2024.

As a freelancer, the freedom to work with as many or as few clients as you desire is yours. Although more clients usually mean more income and thus, better financial stability, it’s wise to balance the number of clients to prevent fatigue and burnout.

Overloading yourself with work in pursuit of earnings is understandable but risky. Remember, feeling tired is normal occasionally, but given that your income heavily relies on your productivity, frequent downtimes are a luxury you can’t afford.

If you’re encountering difficulties managing your workload, and reducing your client list isn’t feasible, or if you’re thinking about taking on another project, these strategies might be just what you need.

Know Yourself

Before delving into the tools and techniques for effective multitasking, it’s crucial to consider a key factor: you, the freelancer. Your unique mix of strengths and weaknesses plays a pivotal role in how well you can handle multiple clients.

Your personal traits directly influence your capacity to manage various projects simultaneously. For instance, if you’re naturally a quick worker or good at multitasking, managing 10 clients could be feasible. However, if you’re prone to working at a slower pace, experience health issues often, or struggle with stress, opting for fewer, lighter, or more lucrative projects might be ideal for you.

Be Clear On The Project Details Per Client

Now that you know yourself, it’s time to get to know your clients and what they expect from you. You can do this by asking questions related to the project, such as:

What Is My Expected Output?

Often, your expected output may not be the same as that of your client’s. If you’re a writer, for instance, you may think that filling your client’s website with five 1,000-word blog posts is better than your client’s proposal of 10 500-word posts. Discuss and iron out these concerns before anything else.

Read Also: How to Work Better with Clients

What Are My Responsibilities?

Make sure you know exactly what tasks you’re expected to perform, and to what extent. Otherwise, you’ll easily fall victim to “scope creep”, or a situation where you end up taking on more work than you signed up for – and not getting commensurate compensation for it!

How Long Is The Project Going To Take?

Some freelance projects take a few months to wrap up. Others may turn into ongoing relationships that last for years. Ask your client whether s/he has an estimated project timeframe, and if there’s a possibility that the project may be extended.

How Often Are You Expected To Communicate With/Update The Client?

If you’re lucky, your client will trust you enough to leave you to your own devices. Otherwise, set a regular schedule for meetings and updates (e.g. 30 minutes every Friday at 8 AM in your client’s timezone).

What’s The Payment System?

PayPal may be the most convenient payment option if you and your client are literally continents apart, but your client may prefer other services. Also, discuss with your client whether you prefer to be paid upfront or by the end of the project. (Hint: For your protection, it’s best if you receive at least partial payment upfront.)

Once you’ve covered all bases, decide whether you want to accept the project, given your current workload, financial needs, career goals, values, and personality. If it’s a “Yes”, create a contract tailored to each client. A contract ensures that the project’s terms and conditions are clear to all parties, and will save you plenty of headaches should any problems arise in the future.

Be Professional

After considering the details mentioned above, it should be easier to create a schedule. Keep in mind that each of your clients expects you to do your work to the best of your ability, so make sure you give enough time for each project – with reasonable allowance for emergencies.

In case emergencies do happen (e.g. sickness, accidents, hardware failure), inform your affected clients as soon as possible. As long as you’ve already proven to them that you are a trustworthy, reliable, and skilled professional who’s serious about overcoming a temporary setback, they should understand. (If they don’t, wrap up the project as soon and as well as you can, and let them go – nicely! – without giving them any indication that you want to work with them again.)

If one project begins to conflict with another for any reason (e.g. one client springs last-minute revisions on you, forcing you to abandon a project with another client), decide which project you will do first, and which one will be temporarily left in the back burner. For the latter, you may be forced to ask for deadline extensions, as the case may be. (Don’t overdo it, though!)

Use Project/Time Management Apps

This one is debatable, as pointed out here, since the tools are only as good as the people who use them. However, if you’re the type of person who prefers to concentrate on your multiple projects rather than think too much about details like the number of work hours logged, these sort of tools can be handy.

Conclusion

There’s no groundbreaking secret to juggling multiple clients, really. It’s a matter of knowing what you can and can’t do, having and sticking to clear-cut goals, being prepared for the worst, and thinking about things as thoroughly as you can.