What’s the most underrated skill every freelancer should have?

[Kesha]

In the quest to become a successful Freelancer, mastering your craft is only half the battle. To truly be successful in this game, you have to wear many hats and master a variety of skills. 

From budgeting to make sure your finances and taxes are on point, to mastering top-tier patience to work with difficult clients, the list of necessary skills goes on. You might even find yourself needing to morph into a salesperson in order to close deals and win clients effortlessly.

What do you think? What are some essential skills freelancers need to thrive?

[katakatica]

9 minutes ago, Kesha said:

In the quest to become a successful Freelancer, mastering your craft is only half the battle. To truly be successful in this game, you have to wear many hats and master a variety of skills. 

From budgeting to make sure your finances and taxes are on point, to mastering top-tier patience to work with difficult clients, the list of necessary skills goes on. You might even find yourself needing to morph into a salesperson in order to close deals and win clients effortlessly.

What do you think? What are some essential skills freelancers need to thrive?

I think I've written a post on this before but being able to do our own research is vital. I think some people in general these days don't know how to process (and source) information that's longer than a tweet (or TikTok video) so being able to be the one who CAN can be helpful. 

On the flipside, being able to convey this information in a way that will be understood is a skill in itself as well. 

For example, AI-anhanced texts with many flourishes and fancy words can be fun to read but they can also end up being too long. 

Some people nowadays don't have the patience (or time) to read so knowing how to communicate efficiently with them is important. 

Edited December 14, 2024 by katakatica

[mandyzines]

I think it would be the skill of carving out time for your personal life--and by that I mean away from a screen, out in fresh air, and with people you love. It's really easy to get caught up in the hustle and deplete yourself.

[ataul_haq]

You’ve made an excellent point—freelancing requires more than just technical expertise. In my opinion, the most underrated skill every freelancer should have is emotional intelligence.

Why? Because freelancing is all about people—understanding clients' needs, handling feedback gracefully, and building long-term relationships. Emotional intelligence helps you navigate difficult conversations, set boundaries and leave a positive impression, even when things don’t go as planned.

[kaveri_rangappa]

I will speak from just starting out as a freelancer - the most important skill is to master the art of patience as getting the first client is always a challenge and then building your credibility as a freelancer. So, I will note that it takes a whole lot of personal determination and focus to stay in the game before you build your clientele. I am sure all the experience freelancer who was once in my boat would agree with this POV. 

[lenasemenkova]

The client management side of it all is often overlooked. 

In the corporate world, in creative professions especially, you’d often get assigned a client whisperer who’d translate the most belligerent demands into human. Your job will be strictly limited to your area of expertise. With freelancing, you have to do both. You have to sift through pages of unproductive conversations, useless references, and corrupted source files, get insulted along the way, and then *still* maintain focus and get inspiration from somewhere to get the job done. 

[Kesha]

On 12/14/2024 at 2:00 PM, mandyzines said:

I think it would be the skill of carving out time for your personal life--and by that I mean away from a screen, out in fresh air, and with people you love. It's really easy to get caught up in the hustle and deplete yourself.

This is the one! And though it may seem counterintuitive, stepping away from work to nurture things in your personal life can actually end up having a positive residual impact on your work performance, too. 

[Kesha]

On 12/14/2024 at 2:28 PM, ataul_haq said:

You’ve made an excellent point—freelancing requires more than just technical expertise. In my opinion, the most underrated skill every freelancer should have is emotional intelligence.

Why? Because freelancing is all about people—understanding clients' needs, handling feedback gracefully, and building long-term relationships. Emotional intelligence helps you navigate difficult conversations, set boundaries and leave a positive impression, even when things don’t go as planned.

That's a great point! It reminds me of a quote that says, "Business is all about people." It's a great reminder that the better you become at stewarding people well, the more your business will prosper.

[Kesha]

On 12/14/2024 at 6:00 PM, kaveri_rangappa said:

I will speak from just starting out as a freelancer - the most important skill is to master the art of patience as getting the first client is always a challenge and then building your credibility as a freelancer. So, I will note that it takes a whole lot of personal determination and focus to stay in the game before you build your clientele. I am sure all the experience freelancer who was once in my boat would agree with this POV. 

Yes! Some may approach freelancing as a get-rich-quick scheme and get discouraged when things don't happen as quickly as they want them to. But things worth having take time and those who stay consistent and always learning, they will see success in due time. 

[Kesha]

On 12/15/2024 at 5:54 AM, lenasemenkova said:

The client management side of it all is often overlooked. 

In the corporate world, in creative professions especially, you’d often get assigned a client whisperer who’d translate the most belligerent demands into human. Your job will be strictly limited to your area of expertise. With freelancing, you have to do both. You have to sift through pages of unproductive conversations, useless references, and corrupted source files, get insulted along the way, and then *still* maintain focus and get inspiration from somewhere to get the job done. 

Yup! Definitely a required skill for those who want to make it far. In your experience, are there any tips you've picked up along the way that helps you effectively manage your clients?

[Kesha]

On 12/14/2024 at 10:15 AM, katakatica said:

I think I've written a post on this before but being able to do our own research is vital. I think some people in general these days don't know how to process (and source) information that's longer than a tweet (or TikTok video) so being able to be the one who CAN can be helpful. 

Most definitely! It goes back to what was said about needing patience because I think, in addition to not knowing how to source information, a lot of it may be due to not having the patience required to research. I know I've been guilty of being overly eager to start a new quest, watching one TikTok video, and then feeling like I now know everything there is to know. It doesn't always end well for me. 😅

[collinsconsult]

Communication and Time Management skills. 

[imagination7413]

Nearly all communication on Fiverr is written, and reading comprehension is severely underrated, as is writing ability without digital assistance. 

Now, I will absolutely use the squiggly red line to check my spelling, and the word prediction is super nice for typing faster on small devices with tiny touchscreen keyboards with no tactile feedback, and I will absolutely use Google to check online dictionaries for definitions. HOWEVER! We cannot rely on technology to 'translate'. 

The ability to transfer the words in one's head into words someone else will understand in the way intended is already difficult enough with audio and visual cues, and removing spoken words and body language only makes communication more difficult. Thus, 'translation' between brain to mouth to written word is only one step, because then the 'translation' must be taken up by a second person and understood in the way person one intended. Interpretation. 

(Sidenote: three-cueing is a failed experiment and I pity the children harmed by the practice.)

A person can absolutely be fluent in a spoken language, and be completely illiterate in that language's written form. Computers are limited, and the human factor WILL mess them up.

And all the above is just 'translation' in a single language.

I am a native English speaker and writer. I am not, however, ignorant of the existence of linguistic quirks. Language to language translation isn't one-to-one, and there is cultural nuance, and definitely an art to the additional aspect of localization. Every language has colloquialisms, slang, and idioms, and those don't translate easily.

The global aspect to online freelancing requires an adaptive mindset and willingness to be flexible within one's morals and ethics, which in turn requires self-awareness. There will be culture shock, there will be challenges to what is considered expected norms, there will be humbling.

"It is not possible to learn what you think you already know." (transl. Greek, attrib. Epictetus) 

[olajuwon3276]

The skill of comprehension

[Kesha]

13 hours ago, olajuwon3276 said:

The skill of comprehension

🤣 Yea, no seller can get too far without that!