The problem with freelancing
(and how to escape it)

The dream is simple: work when you want, choose projects you love, and make a comfortable living doing what you’re good at.

But the reality hits fast. Clients come and go, projects dry up without warning, and one slow month can wipe out everything you made the month before. You say yes to whatever work comes your way, because saying no means no income. And before you know it, you’re working nights, weekends, and early mornings just to keep up. You wanted freedom, but somehow, you’ve built yourself another job.

If you’ve ever felt trapped in the feast-or-famine cycle, constantly chasing clients while feeling undervalued, you’re not alone. Freelancing is not broken, but it is flawed. The way most designers approach it makes financial stability impossible. The problem isn’t that you’re not talented enough or that clients don’t see your value. The problem is the business model itself.

Freelancers sell their time. That’s the core issue.

When you sell time, you create an artificial limit on your income. You can’t work more than 24 hours in a day, and you can’t magically convince clients to pay double for the same service overnight. You become stuck in a pricing war, where clients compare your hourly rate to the cheapest alternative. They don’t care how skilled you are, they just see a number and make a decision.

Compare that to productized services. Instead of selling time, you sell results. Instead of starting from scratch with every new client, you follow a repeatable process that delivers the same high-value outcome. You stop being just a designer and start being a business owner.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you’re a UX designer. As a freelancer, you charge by the hour or project. A client comes to you, says their onboarding flow isn’t working, and asks you to “improve their UX.” What happens next? You give them a proposal. They push back on price. You adjust. You start the project, but they don’t have clear goals. They request endless revisions. Eventually, you get paid and move on, only to start from scratch with the next client.

Now, imagine instead that you productized your service. You offer “The 3-Day UX Fix”, where you audit a startup’s onboarding flow and provide 10 high-impact recommendations that increase user activation. You charge a flat $1,500. Clients know exactly what they’re getting. You follow the same efficient process each time, refining it with every new project. No negotiations, no custom proposals, no chasing late invoices. Just predictable income.

This shift — from freelancer to productized service provider — is what separates designers who hustle for every dollar from those who build scalable income. Freelancing isn’t bad. It’s just inherently limiting. If you’re fine with that, keep doing what you’re doing. But if you want to break free from unstable income, burnout, and constantly hunting for the next gig, it’s time to rethink your approach.

The rest of this handbook will show you exactly how to do that. In the next chapter, we’ll figure out what your productized service should be—one that clients actually want to buy.