Challenges of working abroad for expat freelancers

Life as an expat can be a little tricky at the start: living in a totally new environment, having to make new friends, learning a different language and many others. If you are a freelancer, then getting settled will be even more challenging. Here are the reasons why.

The first challenge any expat will face is connecting with new people and friends, and starting to feel like home. However, most of the friends we make are from our work circles and office colleagues. As a freelance worker, you will not have an office environment to make new friends. Therefore, making new friends will be slightly more challenging and you can feel lonely sometimes. However, this is not a red flag that should stop you from being an expat freelancer. You can always make new friends from other environments besides the office. For an instance, you can participate in community gatherings and social events to meet new people.

Besides that, the language barrier will also be a hassle if you are an expat in a country that has a different primary language. Conversing with clients will be much more difficult and any client would prefer business with people that are easier to converse with. This is also not a huge problem that will stop you from being an expat freelancer. Just enroll in language courses and you will improve and be more confident in no time.

This is probably the most significant barrier any freelancer, especially an expat freelancer, would face. If you are starting your career as a freelancer in a new country, just like starting freelance work in any country, you will not have many clients to begin with. You will initiate small-scale and it will take a while for it to bloom. Until your freelance work reaches a stable point, you might encounter financial struggles and hitches. If you manage to soldier through the difficult start by finding a part-time job, you can overcome the initial struggle with ease.

Overall, just like any career, it will be difficult at first but everything will surely get better with time. Being an expat freelancer would mean you have to restart your freelance career, but it is only for a while. Besides, there are so many amazing things you can do as a freelance expat. As a freelancer, you can manage your schedule on your own and with that, you can find time to explore the new country and visit new places.

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