Remote professionals: what helped you increase your income?

I’ve been researching challenges that remote professionals face when trying to grow their careers or increase their income.

From conversations so far, a few common problems keep coming up:

• not knowing which skills will actually increase income
• difficulty raising freelance rates or salary
• inconsistent client acquisition
• having many productivity tools but no clear system for long-term career growth

I’m curious about the experiences of people here.

For those working remotely (freelancers, developers, designers, consultants):

1. What has been the hardest part of increasing your income?
2. What tools or systems have actually helped you grow?
3. If you could design the perfect tool to help your career growth, what would it do?

I’m researching this space and would love to hear real experiences.