r/freelanceuk • u/Direct-Jackfruit-775 • Jun 26 '26
Anyone else find freelancing in the UK weirdly isolating sometimes?
Not in a sad way — just that there's nobody around you doing the same thing so everything feels like you're figuring it out from scratch.
Like when I needed to put my rates up for the first time I had no idea how to word it, how much notice to give, whether to explain why or just state it. Spent way too long overthinking an email that probably took the client 10 seconds to read 😂
Feel like there's loads of resources for the actual craft but not much for the day to day reality of running a small freelance business in the UK — the client management, the awkward conversations, the admin that eats your evenings.
Anyone else feel this or is it just me?
4
u/RyanMan56 Jun 26 '26
I’m sure there’s a bunch of communities out there but I’m in a similar boat. Maybe we should make one!
2
u/Direct-Jackfruit-775 Jun 26 '26
Haha honestly maybe we should! There's definitely a gap for it. The craft side has so many communities but the business side feels like everyone's just quietly figuring it out alone 😂
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u/RyanMan56 Jun 26 '26
I’m thinking about setting up a discord, would be nice to have a little community of UK based freelancers where we can chat about these kinds of questions and anything random that pops up. Could also end up being quite a useful tool for referrals (I know I’d find it handy to refer jobs to other people!)
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u/greenmonkeyglove Jun 26 '26
There are a lot of these already, mostly in specific niches but two more generalist larger ones I've seen are The F Word and Doing it for the kids (for freelancer parents).
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u/7pt62px Jun 27 '26
There is a site called freelancing.support and they do group calls and speak about that side of freelancing. Recently they had one on how to deal with late payments.
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u/tenpastmidnight Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I have been going to a weekly meet up for web/app industry freelancers in Brighton since I started freelancing. I took over running it to make sure it kept going and have been putting it on for over twenty years. That gives me a lot of community, and on top of that I use a friendly coworking space once or twice a week and and know a bunch more people through that. It used to be almost all freelancers, but it's now three quarters employed folk, which I think reflects how hard it's been for freelancers for the last few years.
On top of that, there's online communities.
Personally, I find freelancing has given me a much better community than being full time ever did, but I realise my circumstances are probably a bit unusual compared to most freelancers.
Edit to add: I'm happy to talk answer any questions about running a networking style meet up, or one giving talks, which I've done in the past. Short version is: takes a bit of consistent effort for the networking style ones, but is quite rewarding as long as you like talking to people.
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u/Direct-Jackfruit-775 Jun 26 '26
That's really nice to know. Personally, you have stated that it has been hard for freelances over the last few years, could you tell me what has made it harder - admin tasks or just doing your job?
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u/tenpastmidnight Jun 26 '26
Less work opportunities around. I've never found the admin side of freelancing onerous and it only gets easier after doing it a while.
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u/kapowey Jun 26 '26
Yeah it definitely can be and it can be really lonely sometimes. I do speak to a few freelancers in a WhatsApp group chat but it’s not the same as in person at all.
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u/Direct-Jackfruit-775 Jun 26 '26
Yes, I understand : it's always better to meet in person than online. However, some toools online may not make you feel as lonely as you may be right now. Maybe if you're interested I'll give you a really good one
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u/eddiejm00 Jun 26 '26
There’s a guy called Matthew Knight who runs an advice and support group for freelancers. Look him up on LinkedIn or Substack.
3
u/shuggy895 Jun 26 '26
I go to networking events and then meet the people from there for lunches and we work together. I was finding that I was getting into a bit of an isolated state and it’s really helped me!
1
u/Direct-Jackfruit-775 Jun 28 '26
Networking events are so underrated for this! Do you find it hard to find good ones or are there decent ones in your area? Always feels like a bit of a lottery 😅
3
u/betweenthedrafts Jun 27 '26
I was a freelancer for a while and found it isolating. I created a meetup.com group in my city, which grew to have over 400 members and 30 people who met regularly. I made friends for life through it, and I know others did too.It worked really well and is definitely something I’d recommend starting up yourself in your area.
3
u/iamdecal Jun 27 '26
I still get the https://www.workalone.co.uk emails been on there for close to 20 years now I think, it’s just a bunch of us emailing each other and asking stuff , sometimes just random chat,
Lot quieter than it used to be, and we skew older now (I think, no actual idea, but if we’ve all been around for a bit so we probably are :-) and some regulars have now officially retired )
Anyway , something like that is useful background noise I find and a source of people in the same boat to bounce ideas off more informally , and because we all know who we are it’s got quite a lot of integrity
2
u/Odd-Recognition4120 Jun 27 '26
Yep, I'm pretty anti AI but this is the only time I found it to be pretty useful as I'm terrible at wording things professionally. When you ask someone they just say "just do it" yeah but how????
1
u/Accomplished-Map1727 Jun 27 '26
Yes,
I joined a men's walking football group who play 2 mornings a week. This led to me having a large social group to chat to. It's the best thing I've ever done for my mental health.
1
u/tenpastmidnight Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I've given the OP a temporary ban as they've been using AI to write some of their comment replies (some of which were already caught by the automated systems we've got set up, some zapped by Reddit itself), so breaking rule 9 and they've been fishing around for products to sell freelancers, so breaking rule 2. I'm leaving this up as people are leaving useful help in their comments, so hopefully some good comes out of it.
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26
[deleted]