There’s been a growing chorus of voices amongst the LinkedIn creative freelance community for months now, expressing anguish that the market “has dried up”. Work has all but disappeared, they suggest, and both end client companies and agencies seem to have virtually stopped using freelance creative talent.
Now I sympathise deeply with anyone whose work has slowed, or who’s struggling to hold things together. Of course I do.
But as a community of creative freelancers (and I include anyone who would place themself in that group – copywriter or designer, developer or illustrator etc) I think we owe it to ourselves to look in the mirror and ask some big questions.
Has the market truly dried up? Or have we, as freelancers, simply oversaturated and devalued it to the point where it no longer functions as it should?
Have we killed the goose that laid golden eggs for so very many years?
The over-saturation of the freelance market
Let’s begin with the creative elephant in the freelance coffee shop: the sheer number of freelance ‘everythings’ now in the market. The freelance economy has exploded over the past decade, driven by advances in technology, a shift in work culture, and the allure of the ‘digital nomad’ lifestyle as well as of good old economic independence. According to the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), the number of freelancers in the UK rose by 46% between 2008 and 2018. There’s no telling what’s happened since the 2020 pandemic on top of that changed everyone’s approach to work, but I’m betting the escalation increased alarmingly.
Now while growth in the freelance community could be presented as a positive trend, it’s also led to significant ove-rsaturation in many creative fields. The barrier to entry has never been lower – anyone with a laptop and an internet connection can set up shop as a freelance copywriter, designer, developer, social media manager, SEO or other digital creative. The result? A market flooded with millions of creative freelancers: far, far more than its demand can sustain.
The devaluation of creative freelance work.
But oversaturation is only part of the problem. The other, more insidious issue is the devaluation of freelance work. With so many freelancers vying for projects, competition has driven rates down to unsustainable levels so relentlessly that for many clients those are now perceived as ‘the going rate’, rather than as ridiculously low. Who’s leading the charge towards cheap? That’s not the seasoned professionals with years of experience, skill and deep understanding of marketing and business strategy. It’s the newcomers – the “latte and laptop” brigade – who, lacking experience and robust portfolios, undercut established freelancers day after day in their efforts to secure work.
Now everyone has an obligation to put food on the table. And everyone is free to charge as they see fit. But this section of the freelance community often charge rock-bottom rates, promising clients the ‘real deal’ for a fraction of the fee a seasoned professional would charge. Unfortunately, very often indeed, they fail to deliver. As clients tempted by cut price services often discover, it isn’t just about money—it’s about the quality of work, the understanding of client needs, and the ability to execute a project efficiently and effectively. When a client hires a freelancer who lacks the necessary skills and experience, they’re not just wasting money – they’re risking the success of their project.
The impact on the market.
I can’t overstate the impact of this over-saturation and devaluation on the freelance market. Clients, lured in by the promise of cheap resource, frequently find themselves burned by freelancers who can’t deliver. Projects get delayed, quality suffers, and they are left feeling frustrated and mistrustful of the entire freelance industry. The result, I suspect, is that both clients and agencies are pulling back to some extent from using freelancers at all, preferring to keep work in-house if they are an agency, or work with recognised and accountable agencies with proven track records if they are a client.
This isn’t just speculation. A study by Upwork and Freelancers Union shows that while the number of freelancers is increasing, the average income for freelancers has remained stagnant, and declined in some fields. This suggests that while more people are entering the freelance market, they’re not necessarily finding enough work to sustain themselves.
Time to turn up professionalism and value.
So, what do we do? How do we restore the freelance market to its former abundance? The answer lies in professionalism and value. Those of us who think of ourselves as experienced freelancers need to distinguish ourselves from the ‘noise’. We need to focus more than ever on delivering high-quality work, on time, and on budget. We need to demonstrate our value to clients, not just through tearful posts on LinkedIn, but through the value we deliver.
This means investing in professional development, staying up-to-date with industry trends, and continuously improving skills. It means setting fair and sustainable rates for our work, not being tempted to undercut ourselves in a race to the bottom, and learning to justify these rates credibly to clients, and to stand our ground when negotiating fees based on them. That means being able to educate the people we quote for and work with on the true value of professional freelance work – helping them to understand that in our sector as in any other… you get what you pay for.
Reclaiming the freelance market.
I don’t believe for a moment that the freelance market has dried up. It may have slowed over the last couple of years, but it’s not been my experience, nor that of many other experienced freelancers that I talk with regularly, that it’s dead, or even mortally wounded.
It has evolved, though, without question. It’s become more competitive, more challenging, and, yes, more saturated. That doesn’t mean there’s no work to be had, however. There is still a demand for high-quality, professional freelance work to fulfil project demands and supplement reduced payroll talent. It’s up to us… up to you… to meet that demand.
By focusing on professionalism, value, and quality we can reclaim the freelance market from those who have devalued it. That’s not being unkind to young or inexperienced freelancers, either. By restoring trust with our clients we can rebuild the reputation of the freelance community and ensure that there is plenty of good quality, properly remunerated work to go around, not only for those of us who already deliver a high degree of experience and skill, but also for those willing to put in the effort to upskill so as to join us and to build longterm freelance careers for themselves..
Work hasn’t dried up. But it’s time for us all, as a sector, to step up.
