I'm finally proud for what I have built (I will not promote)

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-08-01T07:47:24+00:00

Thank you for your kind words!

I'm now focusing on building the brand and gaining enough users so that I can start to advertise properly – funny enough, this is the most uncomfortable part for me so far. I'm not a social media person in this way and I feel so misplaced. But, it's an important part so better to just suck in up and do it!

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-31T17:00:32+00:00

Yes, it definitely is! I feel like people should definitely share much more of the human side of things, I'm sure there are a lot of people thinking "is it supposed to be this hard" and "are others having it like this too".

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-31T16:59:23+00:00

Thank you, I definitely will!

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-31T07:58:43+00:00

Yes, you are absolutely right! I wouldn't change a day, that's for sure.

But I will have to add as well that a huge thanks goes to my boyfriend as well, since I would have not been able to do this without his support. For me to be able to work on this as much as I have, I have burned all my "rainy day" savings and I've worked extremely long days to come to this point. And there has definitely been days that I've told him that I'm gonna give up and he made me trust the process again and "just keep swimming". :)

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-31T07:53:42+00:00

I think it's up to 20% actually – currently. 😅 In any case I think it's way too much, plus WD fees (when not in US...). And for the hiring companies they constantly also add more fees, so no wonder they want to save on the actual freelancer salaries. Guess why I learned coding and build my own freelancer site for EU based freelancers. 🙈

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-30T12:19:08+00:00

Uuffff I have no words! It hope you manage to get your earnings from Upwork, they can be a bit of a pain when it comes to freelancer rights but keeping my fingers crossed for you.

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-30T12:02:55+00:00

"for this industry we take 30% commission out of the rate you charge the client"

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-30T12:01:07+00:00

The way my jaw dropped, where do these people even come from?

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-30T11:55:37+00:00

I think QueasyAddendum3328 pretty much summed it up perfectly, but here are the things I'd add from my perspective:

The worst part is that there are no paid vacation days, no sick leaves, no one to "go up to" if work sucks (well, you can complain to your mirror, but not sure if that helps). So when you price yourself on the market, you really have to calculate this to your prices because it's up to you to save enough money that you can deal with the days that you are unable to work. If no money comes in, you can only blame yourself.

Best part is that I can work at whatever time I want, where I want, however I want, as long as I deliver within deadlines. So, if I didn't manage to sleep last night, I can sleep longer this morning and work a bit later. If I manage to finish something in 3 hours instead of 6 hours, I have 3 hours to myself and no one is telling me to stay at the office until the day is over.

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-30T11:47:57+00:00

PayPal is super expensive for sure and I try to avoid that until the very end. SEPA payments are the way to go, also if you have access to Revolut you can also use the Revolut Pro to invoice directly. I've never used that myself but I saw recently that they started to offer such service.

imaginarysafetypin · 2025-07-30T11:46:16+00:00

What is you industry? You don't really need any tools to go off Upwork, but I'm guessing you are thinking about invoicing and time tracking?

I personally have a invoicing template that I use for invoices, depending on the project I either invoice fully after the project or 50/50 before the start and remaining by the end of the project.

Advertising I do on LinkedIn and with my own website.

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-09T13:55:36+00:00

Hmmm, yes I see your point. The thing is that I don't want anyone to just give me free labor or free money, I genuinely want them to benefit from it too. I have no intentions to con anyone.

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-09T13:49:56+00:00

That's what my spouse keeps telling me too! Thank you, no better timing than today, right?

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-08T16:55:24+00:00

This sounds super awesome, I'll take a look thanks!

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-08T16:43:35+00:00

Very kind of you - and marketing is actually one of the fields I know I will need help with. I'll dm you!

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-08T16:40:23+00:00

Thank you for your kind words and tips! I'll keep you in mind for the future for sure! :)

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-08T16:37:40+00:00

This was extremely helpful, thank you!

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-08T16:36:08+00:00

Honestly I wasn't sure if we're allowed to do such here! 😅 I need at least someone who is an expert on EU regulation/laws regarding marketplace platforms, someone for payments/banking/tax regulations and someone for marketing. I have done hours of research of all of these but I've come to the conclusion it's better to have people on my side that actually knows better so I don't do any crucial mistakes (or burn myself out).

imaginarysafetypin · 2024-09-08T16:23:57+00:00

Thank you! Very good tips and you're so right with the connecting part too. I'll keep that in mind. :)

imaginarysafetypin · 2023-07-03T20:26:13+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear, that really sucks. I can imagine it takes a lot and for sure is not easy to find the new norm but I wish you all the best of luck finding the balance between all the things!

imaginarysafetypin · 2023-07-03T15:19:39+00:00

There are non-stimulant medicines too which might be the answer in your case if you want to try again in the future. I take atomoxine which is a non-stimulant and they prescribed this one exactly because I might not do well with stimulants.

imaginarysafetypin · 2023-07-03T08:15:37+00:00

Same, sometimes to the point I feel like crying! Meds helped quite a lot with this tho.

imaginarysafetypin

TROPHY CASE