A freelance designer I know was lamenting the loss of her ‘bread and butter’ client. “That’s my mortgage money,” she said, clearly surprised by this turn of events.

Anyone who’s ever been to a networking event knows that most of the responses to “and what do you do?” wind up sounding a lot like: “I do statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for other companies.” Huh?

If you’re a fan of the TV show Friends, you may recognize that as Chandler Bing’s job description. You may also remember that no one could remember what Chandler Bing’s job was. No wonder.

I recently met a couple of freelancers at an event at my co-working space. Both of them are among the fortunate – solopreneurs in interesting fields who make a good living. Instead of seeming happy and satisfied, however, they were stressed.

I recently went out with a friend in another industry who regularly hires consultants as part of her work. She told me that she no longer sees a mutual friend of ours who is also a consultant. Why? Because each time they spent time together, he would “pitch” her.

I recently attended an industry event and saw a man ask a freelancer how her business was going. She responded with “Okay, but it could be better…” in a tone that suggested that “okay” meant “pretty bleak”.

I have an industry friend who is forever running off to client or prospect meetings at times that are terribly inconvenient for her. One time she ran an event until 11:00pm and then had to leave at 6:00am for a client breakfast. Another time, she was cutting a vacation short to fly out the next morning for an out-of-town meeting.