We all get stressed. I get stressed, you get stressed, even my five-year-old daughter gets stressed. It’s part of being human. Being a freelancer adds a whole new kind of stress that’s not present in a regular job. You don’t just have to worry about work, but also how your employer’s going to pay and even whether they will pay.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you know that not getting paid can be a real concern for freelancers. Getting paid late isn’t much better.

One thing I like about oDesk is their payment guarantee. If you put the hours in and log them properly through their system they guarantee you’ll get paid. Unfortunately not every freelance job is done hourly or through oDesk for that matter. Even some sites that guarantee payment don’t guarantee that you’ll get it at a specific time. Consider Getafreelancer; they only guarantee that it will be processed sometime during a specified two-day period.  And because they take their share from the provider’s account not the buyer’s it’s a site where you can use alternate payment methods.

We’ve already discussed PayPal and the problems that can come from relying on non-guaranteed methods of payment.

So, now that we know the problem, what can we do about it?

Diversify

I know, I can hear you all saying “but Dave, last time you told us to specialize and today you’re telling us to diversify?  What gives?”

Trust me, it’s not a contradiction.  You can still diversify if you specialize, and in fact I recommend it.  When I’m saying diversify I mean you shouldn’t rely solely on a single client.  My brother’s an engineer and the one thing I know about engineering is that if everything relies on a single component, that’s the one that’s going to break.  So what you want to do is get a number of jobs, all with guaranteed payments.  That way if payment on one is delayed you have the others to fall back on.

You’ll relieve a lot of stress right there.

Know what you can do, and what you can’t

If there’s a delay or problem with getting paid you need to know what your options are:  whether it’s contacting the site, or the buyer, you should know the options and use them.  But once you’re done, you’re done.  Stop worrying about the things you can’t do and move on.

You won’t get the money any quicker by worrying about it.  Things don’t work that way.  Accept that you’ve done what you can and move on to the next task.  Sitting and worrying won’t earn you any money, and working will make the time pass faster.

Get Active

The late great Warren Zevon recorded a song called “Hit Somebody,” and while I can’t say that violence is the best solution to stress, physical activity is a good one.  Get up, move around, go for a walk or a run.  Do something physical and it will help anchor you in the here and now.  Worry and stress are future-related, you’re thinking about what will or might happen, not what is happening.

Get a stress ball.  Pick up one of those wonderful little squeezable balls or other toys and keep it on your desk.  They really do help.

All these ideas have one thing in common.  You have to accept the stress, deal with it and move on.  As a freelancer you don’t have time to obsess over stress.

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