A Malaysian digital marketer shares the reality of starting a solopreneur digital marketing business, citing bad clients as his reason for leaving the freelance life.
I recently left my job to run my own digital marketing business. At first, business was good, which is why I had the confidence to quit my job in the first place. However, in a few months, my clients started complaining. They started giving excuses, some even outright asked, “Why should I pay you to do something that I know how to do now?”
I am a Mass Communication graduate majoring in journalism.
I landed my first job as a copywriter, then gradually picked up graphic design, and video editing. The combination of skills I developed throughout my colourful career gravitated me towards jobs that focused on creating online content. Working closely with Digital Marketers allowed me to understand Google and Meta-analytics.
Later, I found a part-time second job as a digital marketer myself. Eventually, I ventured out to look for my clients and it was easy to find business, hence, I left my job because being self-employed felt more lucrative and fulfilling. The sunshine lasted a short while until the reality of risks in business hit hard like a storm.
I started to notice a pattern. A few months in, even if the marketing strategy worked, the clients wanted to reduce the production budget. Some asked to reduce the advertising budget.
Some delay payments, or suddenly decide to not follow our contractual agreement and only give half-payment, at the beginning of the month, and pay the rest at the end of the month.
Worse still, some of my clients requested to halt the ongoing marketing efforts or simply to discontinue.
Here’s the chat with a particular client who wanted me to design their Cafe Menu and then did not respond for a long time after passing them a design I’ve created using stock images since no real pictures were provided by the cafe:
This message of them being too busy to pay attention to their restaurant’s menu is repeated countless times.
First draft, which was already a complete redesign from the initial brief I was given. This design was rejected because “putting a huge picture makes it unclear as to what the dish is”. Instead a design template was drawn out and given by the client.
This was the design template given by the client in a Whatsapp message. However, this too was rejected. And the client finally agreed on the first design.
Not just for digital marketing contracts, but even for small, one-time jobs like menu design, I have a menu project that I started in August 2024 sitting on my desk. In three months, it’ll be one year since the client asked me to create a menu for their restaurant.
I expected the restaurant to give me a bigger project in the future, so I agreed to complete the entire menu for only RM 500. Out of this, the client paid a RM 100 deposit and one year later, they have yet to confirm the design and give me the rest of the money.
I went to the restaurant and called all the necessary people.
I keep hearing excuses, like “The boss is back in Pakistan, it will take a few days before he comes back.” Once the boss is back, the boss says, “Oh, you need to call the manager, because the dessert prices are wrong.”
Once I called the manager, the manager said, “Oh, this is a separate department, because dessert item prices depend on our dessert supplier, you need to call another guy in charge of that.” I call the other guy, and that guy says, “You need to call the boss.”
After bouncing me back and forth, I gave up.
I did not return to the restaurant. I last heard from another friend of mine, they are still using my design. They have a proper menu. They managed to save RM 400. The restaurant I speak of looks luxurious. I truly doubt they needed to save that RM 400. To this day, I am confused as to why they did that.
I took another menu project, where the restaurant said they will not pay until I completed the project to their satisfaction. I spoke to the owner, got the design brief and completed the design in a week.
To my surprise, the restaurant owner said he loves the design, and payment will be processed next Tuesday as that’s when their accounts department process payments, every Tuesday. I had four days, from Friday till the day I was supposed to get my money.
Unfortunately, on Tuesday, the owner suddenly gave some feedback for amendments. The series of ‘minor’ changes caused a ten-page simple menu to evolve into a twenty-one-page booklet which I did not agree to make for a measly RM600. At least I did manage to get my money in this deal, 6 Tuesdays later.
I have faced a lot of disrespect as a graphics designer, digital marketer and content creator.
Once, I was called for multiple meetings by one prospect. Each time, he was either too busy to meet with me, or too tired to focus on the strategy I was explaining to him when we finally met.
I was led on with the promise of a 6-month contract since October last year, only for the person to say, in March 2025, that they are not doing well lately, hence they don’t have the budget to do digital marketing. My response was, “The fact that you don’t have customers coming to your bar, is precisely why you need to invest in marketing.” My words fell on deaf ears.
Some clients demanded refunds for video projects I directed because they did not like the model.
This is even though they were the ones who selected the model after looking at her photos and videos.
Although it is silly to entertain such demands, as a desperate young business that needs all the clients it can get, I had no choice but to give the refund and reshoot the video as they promised future business. However, after the refund was done, the client did not call back, ghosted me, and now, yes they are running adverts with the videos I have made.
I do have clients who have kept their word, paid on time and benefitted from my services. But they are a diamond in the rough.
For the most part, I found business owners to be not reliable. I am not saying they cannot be trusted in other aspects of their business. I truly think this only happens when it comes to Digital Marketing as the business owners do not know the value of the service.
For menu or video projects, they know the value of the end product, however, they do not know the effort it takes to produce the said items. I was stuck with a good amount of bad apples, because I did not have the luxury of saying no.
Today, I see many young entrepreneurs starting Digital Marketing agencies.
My advice as someone who has faced the worst of the industry is for the next generation to find a job with a stable income stream, or to have enough savings before starting a Digital Marketing business.
This is a business that has a very low barrier to entry. However, your clients might take you for granted.
The bitter truth is, that despite the prevalence of digital marketing, the understanding of its importance, and the need to do it right is not obvious for most Malaysian business owners. You must educate your clients.
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Read also: https://inreallife.my/i-earn-rm15000-monthly-as-a-designer-after-teachers-said-id-have-no-future
I Earn RM15,000 Monthly as a Designer After Teachers Said I’d Have No Future
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