Should Freelance Marketplaces Help Clients and Freelancers Build Long-Term Working Relationships?

Whatever freelance platforms do is supposed to benefit both freelancers and clients. One of these things is definitely to make sure both parties have a long-term and fruitful professional relationship.

Do you feel that the available freelance marketplaces aren't doing enough for you?

There are some things freelance websites CAN and CANNOT do.

For example, the primary purpose of any freelance platform is to provide you with a safe and efficient working environment. Now, if you want a freelance website to “intervene,” then you are endangering the very essence of the freelance industry. How?

I’m talking about one the most basic economic principles - laissez-faire, which applies to freelancers too.

In economy, laissez-faire (the French term for "to be left alone") means that the government lets you do your business. There's no state interventionism unless absolutely necessary. In freelance, your "government" (a website you're working on) should also let you do your work with a client the best you can. There's no need to "intervene" unless you and your client end up in a dispute.

As a freelancer, you are fully independent and entirely on your own. Meaning, don’t expect that someone has an obligation to help or guide you all the time. You are free to ask and require technical support, but the business support is something completely different.

If you have some technical difficulties or payment processing issues, then feel free to blame a freelance marketplace you’re working on. However, if you are having problems building and maintaining a long-term relationship with your clients, then there’s no other to blame than yourself.

I don’t judge and I don’t have any intention to criticize my fellow freelancers. I’m just saying that you should have realistic expectations in terms what you can ask from your freelance platform. You should expect and get a business opportunity, including a safe and efficient working environment. That's all. Nothing more and nothing less.

Be careful what you wish for. The moment you ask that your freelance marketplace plays a greater role is the moment you will get another client.

There are no clients and freelancers - we are all goLancers!

One of the most important reasons for me to sign up on goLance can be found on their official Twitter account:

We connect the world’s brightest minds to build a truly global workplace. Hire Better and Work Smarter. No clients or freelancers: We’re all goLancers.

As someone who has spent almost a decade as a freelancer working on thousands of projects and with hundreds of clients, I can tell you it's important and refreshing to get an unbiased treatment.

The client isn't and can't be always right. As far as freelancers are concerned, just image what JFK would have said, if he were to be a freelancer:

Ask not what your freelance marketplace can do for you, ask what you can do for your freelance marketplace.