Tag: freelance
1. Inconsistent Income
Unless you are among the lucky few, life as a freelancer means inconsistent income. Some days are busy, others are quiet. Which is fine, unless the balance shifts too far in either direction. It’s tempting to work 80-hour weeks when the work’s there, as you need to be able to bridge those lean periods. Similarly, it can be tempting to take on projects you’re less keen on during quiet periods or even be ‘flexible’ on price to keep income flowing. Although that’s a slippery slope.
Whilst the relocation industry has always been seasonal – lots of moves during the big school holidays – there’s no denying that the typical expat profile has changed. Longterm assignments, with the entire family joining the assignee abroad, are becoming increasingly rare. People are more self-sufficient, using booking platforms to find temporary accommodation in areas they’ve Googled and deemed right for them.
This means that the kind of services required are also changing. Compounded by restricted budgets, the housing shortage, and stricter immigration regulations, files are taking more time yet are less profitable.
Perhaps it is time to update your service delivery model? Managing client expectations by setting boundaries and defining scopes not only helps you as a business, but helps your field agents plan their work too.
2. Extra-legal Benefits, or Lack Thereof
Whilst full and parttime staff members are able to claim benefits like travel allowances and a monthly office allowance from their employers, as freelancers we are expected to cover our own expenses. Caught a bout of the flu? There’s no such thing as sick pay. Best break out the Lemsip or lose the income. Same goes for holidays, pension plans, and more. It quickly adds up.
As a freelancer, your fees should cover not just the hours you spend working, but time off too. Then there’s the invoicing, the quarterly VAT declarations, marketing yourself via social media, attending networking events… All non-billables, but essential to creating a steady pipeline of incoming work.
Corporate budgets may be under pressure, but the trickle-down stops on the freelancer’s desk. Ask yourself, are the rates you pay your freelance contractors realistic? Truly? Could you make it work if that was your gross turnover?
Is there any way in which you can help share the burden of their day-to-day costs, additional to their hourly rate? Can they, for example, claim back the coffee and cake they treated the assignee to between viewing appointments? Perhaps that essential company training could be invoiceable? After all, hours spent with you are hours that cannot be spent with another (paying) client.
3. The Importance of Timely Payments
We cannot stress the importance of timely payments enough. Years ago, I stopped working for a well-known fashion group because of their – frankly outrageous – payment terms: 60 days after month’s end of invoice receipt. In other words, I’d send an invoice on the 1st of June, it would get booked in on June 30th, after which another 60 days passed before payment was approved.
This meant it was the end of August or even the beginning of September before I saw money for services rendered back in May. Moreover, this brought me into the next financial quarter, which meant I had to front the VAT in Q2. As you can imagine, it was not a nice situation to be in, and I exited stage left (as did others). Suffice to say, they folded in 2022. Keeping your cashflow afloat by pushing problems down the supply chain is no way of doing business. But I digress.
Thankfully, our freelancers report they are generally paid correctly and on time. But with some immigration files taking months to complete due to government delays, is there any way in which you might improve payment terms?
Perhaps certain dossiers can be split in two or three payments, with a 30% part-payment upon initiation, a further 30% midway through the process, with the final 40% paid upon completion. Regular payments are a great motivator and show you are sensitive to your freelancers’ concerns.
4. Part of the Team
Working for yourself can be lonely. Even if you are spending half your day on the road ferrying expats around or having endless Zoom meetings. There are no spontaneous Friday afterwork drinks because ‘the sun’s out’ and you’re more likely to find yourself talking to the cat than having those all-important watercooler chats that HR experts and the C-suite rave about.
So yes, it does sting a little when LinkedIn tells you the ‘entire’ team had an amazing time during the company’s latest teambuilding outing. An outing you weren’t included in as – despite how essential you keep getting told you are – you work for other agencies too, making you an outsider after all.
Easy to implement actions such as introducing a buddy-system – matching similar inhouse and external profiles – make onboarding new consultants easier and go a long way towards freelancers not feeling quite so alone. Similarly, creating a shared Teams or Slack channel, where agents and coordinators alike can share questions, concerns, and advice in an informal setting helps people bond and feel like part of the wider team.
5. The Buffer Zone
I simply stopped working for aforementioned client. I had enough other projects going on, thankfully. But it’s not easy standing up to the people who pay our bills. As freelancers we’re well-aware we wouldn’t be able to pull in the kind of big-name clients that a larger organisation can. And even if we did strike it lucky, we likely wouldn’t have enough clout to negotiate solid contracts and decent payment terms, let alone be able to deal with conflict. We’re wholly dependent on the goodwill of the companies we work for.
As little fish in the big pond, we feel safe swimming with you. We rely on you to give us quality briefings instead of wishy-washy instructions so we can help you shine. And we especially appreciate it when you have our back when it comes to issues such as managing assignee expectations. An open company culture, where constructive feedback is both given and welcomed, makes us feel supported when we need it most.
Much as relocation agencies are the buffer between the field agent and the big corporate client, there is no buffer between the freelancer and the relocation agency hiring them. This is where ABRA hopes to play a more active role as the professional industry body.
As we prepare for our first dedicated freelance event, we look forward to finding out more about our freelance members’ most pressing concerns and how we, as an association, can help contribute towards better industry standards for all.
Interested in joining the relocation industry? Or already active, but not yet an ABRA member? Find out more about why you should join our network.
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This summer, we decided to delve into the good, the bad, and the can-be-improved-upons by way of an informal survey. Almost half of our freelance members responded, offering an excellent snapshot into life as a freelance field agent.
Life as a Freelance Field Consultant
The lion’s share of you have been freelancing for at least 8 years, with eight out of ten doing so on a full-time basis. Most of you (57.1%) have between 2 and 5 relocation agencies as regular clients, with 35.7% working for just one or two client companies. Only one of you works for more than five client companies at present.
You enjoy the freedom and flexibility of freelance life (73.3%) and discovering different company cultures (26.7%). However, 13.3% would have liked to work for a particular relocation company but were unable to find a FT/PT position. You also report that field work tends to be on a freelance basis anyway. Overall, you enjoy working as a freelancer (71.4%) though you admit there’s room for improvement (28.6%).
How Business is Going
How many assignments you handle per year varies greatly as files range from smaller tasks such as basic move-in-move-out support to the full range of relocation services. With respondents declaring everything from 15 to 100 assignments per year, business is vastly different for each consultant.
The one thing you all agree on is that business is not booming. Where 23.1% of you report the workload is more or less the same as in previous years, the rest of you are concerned about the lack of business. From less transferees requesting relocation services to less extensive support packages for expats, there is less money to be made overall. Compounded by the housing shortage, assignments are taking more of your time whilst fees do not adequately reflect the cost of providing your services.
A Solid Growth Industry
Does this mean all is lost and it’s time to start exploring other fields of business if you want to make a solid living? Not at all: recent industry research indicates that the global corporate relocation service market is valued at some US $20.22 bn in 2025 and expected to reach US $32.47 bn over the next seven years. Note that the marketing agency did not survey all industry players, which means the actual economic value of the relocation service industry is many times higher.
Europe is the second largest market for corporate relocations, accounting for over 25.2% of global market share in 2025. Belgium may well have dropped four places in IMD’s annual World Talent Ranking, we still hold a very respectable 16th position globally. This means relocation services will continue to be needed, even if our government does need to start making more of an effort if we want to remain competitive in the global war for talent.
Part of the Team
Although you, as field agents, are the face of the relocation company, less than half of you (40%) feel sufficiently valued by your client companies. There is much room for improvement especially when it comes to inclusion, with just over one in four (26.7%) of you feeling like a real part of the team. The rest of you feel like an outsider, some, or all of the time.
As freelancers, you often work for relocators without being introduced to the rest of the team or even knowing who does what in the office. A staggering 80% of you don’t receive regular training from your client companies. And when you do, it often focuses on things like new IT-tools, rather than practical information such as navigating town hall registration processes.
Company Training
Although 66.7% of you do receive (some) training via your client companies, you all agree that more training is welcome. Everything from immigration updates to the latest in rental law, best practices, and other practical advice is gratefully received. However, as training and travel time are not reimbursed, you have a strong preference for online trainings.
Additionally, you are interested in finding out how you can improve your own business as a freelancer. How to get started in relocation, how to gain more clients, insights into conflict resolution, and so on. When it comes to training, you see a proactive role for ABRA as well as for relocation companies.
What’s Going Right
Although it depends on the company, you all value the quality of the briefings you receive, their transparent communication style, and any client feedback they share with you. Similarly, the trainings you do receive are much appreciated. Above all, you are grateful when they have your back in case of problematic files or difficult clients.
With some files taking months to complete due to processing delays, and with invoices only being paid the next calendar month, timely payments are a key concern. A certain level of flexibility by the relocation company would be much appreciated, especially considering it’s difficult to charge late payment fees. Thankfully, most of you report that invoices are paid correctly and on time.
What Could Be Better
The biggest bugbears for freelancers are time and money. From time consuming meetings to unscheduled lunches with assignees, field agency comes with a financial burden that cannot always be passed on to the relocation agency you are working for.
Suggestions range from asking end clients to increase their budget to introducing packages that bundle services together at a reasonable price. You’d also appreciate being given a certain level of autonomy, especially the more experienced of you. Overall, you don’t always feel sufficiently appreciated or remunerated. Though again, it depends on the company.
ABRA’s First Freelancer Event
This has been an exceptionally interesting exercise for ABRA: although many of our member meetings address topics that (we feel) should interest all our members, we recognise that attending our events doesn’t always align with freelancers’ concerns about unpaid travel time to locations around the country.
That said, all respondents expressed an interest in getting to know other freelancers and having the opportunity to discuss common concerns. And so, we’re looking forward to organising our very first dedicated freelancer event towards the end of the year.
We’re currently exploring venues and finetuning format, but are aiming for October/November 2025, so if you’re an ABRA Freelance Member, be sure to keep an eye on your inbox!
Not an ABRA member yet? Discover the benefits of membership….
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