It's official. Freelancing is on fire. More people and companies are hiring freelancers than ever before and there is a genuine opportunity for talented individuals to earn a living or generate extra income from their skills and passion. However, there's a problem and it's a big one that not enough platforms are talking about. One in five freelancers fail within their first year of business and 60% are forced to close their doors within 5 years. A worrying statistic and one that badly needs addressing. We delve deeper to find out what is going wrong and how we can fix it?

In the 5th century BC, Sun Tzu wrote the Art of War. Those very rules are still used today for a range of purposes. Welcome to the freelance edition. If you’re trying to win in a world where TikTok trends move faster than your deadlines and everyone thinks they’re the next Steve Jobs (but with a ring light), then here’s your cheat sheet. Ten rules. One ruthless vibe. Let’s go.

I jumped on the Tinder bandwagon a while back. Albeit a bit reluctantly, I should add.  As someone who had the phrase ‘don’t talk to strangers’ drilled into me from the time I could talk, the idea of dating strangers I’d met online seemed a bit dodgy. So, I put off downloading the app for ages. 

This is the year of the freelancer, with around 5.1 million people in the UK now classifying themselves as self-employed. As such, competition is steep and it has never been more important to stand out from the crowd to find work in the industry.

Fiverr has launched Fiverr GO, a couplet of new tools comprising an AI assistant aimed at helping reduce the number of non-billable hours for creators by facilitating negotiations with clients on their behalf, and an AI generator tool that allows clients to emulate the work of creators for a fee. This is a pretty big deal as Fiverr represents a significant maypole in the freelancing world, with over 4.2 million active buyers and a huge database of freelancers (the actual figure is unknown).

It’s February, and you know what that means: if you’re anything like me, you’ve already started dropping those New Year’s resolutions. It turns out I’m not the only one. According to research by Dr. Michelle Rozen, 94% of those who made resolutions will have abandoned their goals within two months. Likewise, February is the month British folks would most like to skip as 45% feel unmotivated (that, and the weather is terrible!). I suspect the two are connected.

Freelancing is sky-rocketing. More people and companies are hiring freelancers than ever before and there is a real opportunity for talented individuals to earn a living or generate extra income from their skills and passion.  It’s not just the financial rewards either. Many are interested in freelancing for more control and flexibility in their lives. Some choose to run a business to improve their work-life balance and be their own boss. The benefits are endless and yet a large proportion of new freelancers struggle to earn enough to make it past the first year of business.

Pricing. It’s the most common question we get, and there’s no simple answer. How much you charge, or more importantly, how much you get paid, depends on a range of factors: your level of expertise, the equipment you have (or don’t have), where you live, who you know, the sector your client operates in, your ability to sell yourself, and much more. To help you navigate this, we’ve put together a Freelance Pricing Guide for 2025, which you can use to figure out how to get the best rate for your services.