Money is often one of the hardest things to deal with when you’re working for yourself or running a business. Whether it’s trying to get paid by clients, or its dealing with paying your subcontractors; I’ve been on both sides of this and it sucks, from whatever position you are in.

Being a freelancer or subcontractor and trying to get paid from a client is one of the least fun things to deal with, especially when invoices are overdue and you are constantly trying to get a hold of them. You did the work and all you want is for them to pay you. Its frustrating. You think, Why’d they hire me if they couldn’t pay, and don’t give me that crap about waiting for your client to pay you first. Really are you running your business on the edge like that? Is that extra couple thousand dollars really going to sink your business? 

Yes, all valid points and all too true…

I said to myself from day one that I didn’t want LooseKeys to be the business that says I can’t pay you till I get paid. I’d say I’ve done my best to live up to that… don’t think I’ve used that line on any freelancers yet. But holy crap does it take a long time to get paid especially from some larger companies. After working with some of these larger places you realize that sometimes checks are only written once a month and if your invoice wasn’t in at the right time you’re going to wait another 30 days. And sometimes projects linger on way longer than initially budgeted, with small changes happening for months before they are finished which means you don’t get paid on that project fully until a lot later than you had planned. Sometimes projects get killed or delayed part way though the process and you get left on the hook paying out of pocket for subcontractors. 

When those sort of hiccups happen it can put a strain on paying your sub-contractors, no matter how well you planned. And you find yourself, using the I’ll pay you when I get paid line because the bank account is low, you have to make payroll and those subcontractors get pushed to the side, even though they were critical in getting the job done. When this happens you’ll have the freelancer asking you where their money is while you’re trying to get the money from the company you were hired by so you can pay yourself and them. I’m sure your client is trying to get money from their clients too. It’s this big stress issue and when you’re stuck in the middle, it’s awful. 

As a result of being on both sides of this now I’ve learned to be a little more polite and forgiving when I’m waiting on payment. I hate getting those emails so I’m sure the client hates them too. I now understand that every company struggles every once in a while to get paid by clients. There are times when something goes wrong or they just forgot, so it’s good to check-in on an invoice but don’t hound people, it makes them not want to work with you down the line. 

Jealousy is a a tricky beast; it’s funny to think how happy you can be for someone else’s successes but still find a way to say something that cuts them down.

When you see talented people, you wish you were as good as them. But rather than improving yourself or focusing on your skills, you may say something that’s dismissive of what they’re doing and can create a resentment towards them that’s really ill focused.

I know even I’ve done it in the past and most of the time I don’t even really mean to do it. I’m typically amazed by how talented people are and I try to be supportive and cheer people on when given the opportunity. But every once in awhile I can be snarky and a mean comment just sort of happens and slips out.

Recently I had someone cut me and the work I do down. I knew when it happened and was sort of taken back but I just laughed it off. Inside I was thinking, so this is how you really feel about what I’m doing… I’ve come to the conclusion that if someone really wants to be jealous and make a snarky comment towards me than I have a feeling I’m doing something right. Haters Gonna Hate.

Just because someone is envious of you, disagrees with you or doesn’t like what you do, does not necessarily mean that their views are wrong and that you can’t learn anything from them. No one likes being told what they’re doing sucks or that their ideas are no good. At the same time, you don’t want a bunch of yes men hanging around you all the time saying how great you are. If everyone is just there saying how great you are then how are you going to get better? You need someone to give you feedback and to be critical of what you’re doing. I can’t make everyone happy but I want to be told if there is a way I could be doing something better or differently to make something look its best. I don’t know all the answers and I’m more then happy to take feedback, no matter how harsh it might be.

That’s why I always try to listen to the people who are criticizing what I’m doing. I might not agree, but I’m listening.

There are a lot of people out there that for no good reason, maybe jealousy or unhappiness who are out to get you, put you down or hold you back. There’s a fine line between feedback and hating. Sometimes you just have to try to sift through people’s envy and bad intentions toward you for the valuable criticism. The truth is, haters are good at pointing out our weaknesses precisely because they are being critical, unlike our supporters. As much as we don’t want to admit it, sometimes the haters are right.

Take the criticisms where you can but don’t let it knock you down, come back stronger and better.