Freelancers are the virtual ambassadors of their countries in a global freelance market place. They represent their countries through their work. But, freelancers in any market place have to deal with a lot of problems in the beginning because of their nature of work.

Freelancers are one of the most important working forces of a country. Especially when it comes to bringing money to the total revenue of a country. It is estimated in a report that Pakistani freelancers generate a calculated amount of $0.5 billion entirely from freelancing.

A lot of internal and external problems are faced by Pakistani freelancers, working with different time zones , limited withdrawal methods and many others. If you are looking to begin a freelancing career, you should keep in mind that these obstacles you will have to counter. So be ready!

Different working time zones.

Being a Pakistani freelancer can mean that you miss out on a large number of international clients, owing to the difference in time zones. Your Monday morning is late Sunday night in the U.S. and your Friday evening is their morning.

Most of the clients that a freelancer deals with are from all over the world. So the nature of the job gives an opportunity to work with different time zones and it also allows freelancers to experience different cultures sets around the world. But you will also have to compromise on timings.

Tip: To counter this issue, first of all figure out which types( nationality) of clients  come to your niche. Try to set your routine and working hours according to their time zones and enjoy your career.

Different forms of currencies:

Since the freelance marketplace is an ocean of different personalities and nationalities, there is a chance that you will be dealing with many multiple currencies. 

According to fiverr.com data base centres, USD is a widely accepted transaction currency in many of the Freelance marketplace. 

Tip: before withdrawing money from the freelance marketplace, know exchange rates of different currencies on a daily basis.

Unprofessional clients:

There are clients who might Demand too much work with very little pay in return, or clients who might not pay on time and there are even some clients who do not pay on and vanish the orders just after they are completed. Dealing with those types of clients leaves you with a beta test and makes you wonder why I do Freelancing? when the work is and being valued.

Lack of proper communication: 

Clients on freelance marketplace open give regular orders to freelancers they have worked with before. But a lot of freelancers of Pakistan don't know about how to convince clients, how to deal professionally with them.This leads clients to move away from freelancers.Unfortunately a   lot of freelancers in Pakistan don't pay attention to their soft skills, business communication skills and business development skills.

Tip: Groom yourself by improving communication and language skills that are required to discuss a project. Also, don’t skim through a multitude of project descriptions. Thoroughly go through each client’s requirements prior to sending any response. You can also use free Grammar checking tools like Grammarly and it will check for any grammatical mistakes or typos as you type a Proposal/email.

Setting the right price:

It is hard to set the right price on Niche as a beginner. Most freelancers don't know about the concept of hourly price.The result is that they work harder, even if they are ready  to do a 100 dollar job for 20 dollars.

Tip:If you want to get a good price for your niche, first become a Fake Client and post a project that matches your skill.  Then see how freelancers are growing on it. Visit their profile and get an idea.

Payment issues:

Pakistan is ranked as 4th most popular country for freelancing. Despite this  Pakistani freelancing community has competitively less payment options as compared to other global freelancers 

Unfortunately there is no existence of the popular payment method PayPal in Pakistan due to which freelancers rely on third party payment methods like MoneyGram and Pioneer.

Payoneer can be said as the most reliable source of payment withdrawal method because of its payoneer  master cards (which is also used for payment purposes). But early to 2020, FCA ordered a freeze all Payoneer mastercards due to taxation issues.