Can you really have too much of a good thing? 

For a freelance writer, clients mean security. When you don’t have a guarantee of a steady paycheck, it’s all a numbers game. When individual clients aren’t paying you a full-time living, you need multiple clients. 

However, it’s always possible to have too much of anything. If you’re a full-time office worker, it’s fairly straightforward to determine if you’ve been given too much work to fit into your workday. Especially if you are assigned more work without being paid more! For your average freelancer, though, it can be hard to say you’ve got too much going on. Most freelancers have to work over a long period of time to build up enough clients to make a real living. And if you’re the type of person who gravitates toward freelancing, you likely find it gratifying to reach out for that extra gig to get that extra cash. 

Finding the perfect balance of work isn’t all about getting enough work. Even the most tenacious freelancer needs to make sure they aren’t spread too thin. 

You’re Working Overtime

How many hours a week are you working? 

If your work ebbs and flows throughout the year, and you have busy seasons you count on, are those busy seasons short and manageable? If you have a more stable schedule, are you getting your evenings and weekends off? 

One of the best reasons to get into freelancing is to make your own schedule. If you’d rather work on Saturdays and take Wednesdays off, you can do that! But if you aren’t getting much time off at all, it’s time to consider taking some things off your plate. 

If your schedule is overfilled with work, the first clients to go should, of course, be the ones who pay the least. You should judge that based on the amount of money you get for the gig divided by how many hours it takes you to finish. Be realistic here: don’t judge things by how long you’d like them to take; use the time you actually spend working. If the numbers don’t add up to an appropriate hourly wage, then it’s time to let that client go. 

They’re Fighting Over You

Writers work in pretty much every industry. That means working rhythms can vary widely. Sometimes you have flexible deadlines. And sometimes you have deadlines so far in the future that you have time to plan and work ahead. 

But some kinds of work, like creating social media copy, can only be done so far in advance. You have to be current and quick, and it’s not the kind of thing you can write up weeks in advance. 

This is the kind of work that’s very easy to overload yourself with. Depending on what kind of clients you have, you may actually get paid in shifts rather than by word count. Obviously it would be inappropriate for you to be working two shift gigs at once, but if you have too many of these, you might find yourself with less schedule flexibility than someone with a traditional office job. And even if it isn’t shift-based, too many clients relying on you for up-to-date, fast-turnaround work isn’t the kind of thing you want to multitask. 

Luckily for you, if you like this kind of writing work, and if a client is going to be that specific with your time, they should be paying you appropriately. Push those rates up high enough so that you can keep only the best-paying clients, then fill out the rest of your schedule with more flexible jobs. 

You Can’t Keep Track of Them

You did what you were supposed to do, and you just kept bringing in clients until you were making enough money. You sent out cold emails, you hunted through LinkedIn, you optimized your website, and you never said no.

The good news? You’re making money, and you aren’t being overworked. Hooray! The bad news? You have a multitude of little clients instead of a nice balance. You have a million deadlines to keep track of, and doing your taxes is a disaster every year. 

Not every client is going to have thousands of dollars of work for you every month. Especially if you’re new to freelancing. If a company is giving work out to a contractor, it’s because there’s usually not enough to justify hiring someone to do it in-house. 

But once you’ve figured out how to get enough clients to pay your bills, your next step is to balance your client list. Use those client-hunting skills to find something big, and let go of a couple of those smaller ones to make space for it. Ideally, you want a nice balance between bigger anchor clients, slightly lower-paying clients, and then a few of those smaller ones so you aren’t left high and dry if one of the bigger ones goes away. 

The Power of No 

When you’re a freelancer, you’re your own advocate. You have to stand up for yourself, and make your own choices to optimize your schedule. It can feel totally wrong to turn down work, but you’ll be setting yourself up for more future success if you do. 

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.