Are you a freelancer struggling with finding new clients? Maybe you are thinking about leaving your day job but fearing the outcome? I’ve been a freelance website content writer for some time and I believe there’s plenty of fish in the sea. This is why I am willing to share some tricks with those freelance writers, solo-owners, and small businesses looking to get more clients. If you are into freelancing, feel free to check out my blog about the benefits of competing as a freelancer in the big market.
We all know somebody or we have been that somebody who constantly switches between freelancing and working at a new agency. I’ve done this… Many people are getting bored by traditional employment and decide to go freelance. Not so many succeed at getting new clients as freelancers and most of them go back to the same traditional employment scheme due to the fact they are having a difficult time getting new clients or at least profitable ones. The same cycle tends to repeat every few years. Come on, let’s face it – we have all seen that!
Overcome the fear with strategic thinking!
Transform that wishful thinking into strategies
First of all, make sure your income is sufficient before quitting your day job. Figure out the minimum amount of money you need to make the week, month, year… It is simple math. If you get two clients and spend two hours a week, you can bring at least four more to bill 30 hours per week. It is really simple math.
Think as your clients!
There is a specific reason why clients go to freelancers and solo consultants instead of huge agencies. Being a freelance website content writer has taught me to think like my potential clients. I realized that…
There are simply clients that are not meant for large corporations.
Those clients who prefer the solo consultants are looking for direct access and communication with the person actually doing the work. Also, do not forget that every potential client is interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. You should have the following things in mind:
- Understand their project without spending too much time on it.
- Their expectations of how quickly you are going to deliver results.
- Are they willing to pay you what you are actually worth?
New Client Acquisition Channels
Now that your sales mindset is on a whole new level, you need to explore the strategies you should leverage in order to build a consulting practice to a base good enough for a stress-free lifestyle starting with the questions and eventually think about growth.
- Ask your circle of professional referrals if they know anybody looking for your services
- Ask your friends and family the same thing
- Ask the local agencies to see if they need help on a contract basis.
While these three seem obvious, I will give you a fourth, long-term investment option:
Teaching others to do what you do!
While you maintain a few accounts and you are happy with the numbers, think about teaching others your secrets. This usually leads to loyal clients staying with you in the longer run. Just think about it, while your client’s business might go down at any moment and they will obviously not need your services anymore, somebody new in the game will always have questions. If your methods are convenient enough, you will definitely end up with happy, long-term clients, paying to learn your secrets.
Target your audience
Make sure you produce content that will interest your ideal audience targeting the market’s problems, and thus become a leader in that specific niche. This will give you a strong referral network of people. In order to maintain that strong referral network, you need to do something like speaking engagements in front of that audience.
Think about leveling up
While some people prefer to work with large clients, some prefer to keep that small and local business. Once you have overcome the whole “getting clients as a freelancer” fear you should think about what you need. Do you need more clients, are you actually happy with maintaining the current number or you have the courage to level up? Not that keeping those small businesses is a bad thing or makes you a bad business owner, but making progress by increasing the numbers is definitely something good for you.
If you are going for that expansion, your strategies should change.
- You need strategic partnerships
- Make the respectful figure of a dynamic founder
- Your own advertising of your services online
My advice – take the risk! Look where it got me!
I’d been looking for that expansion for quite some time and now I found fellow website content writers who agreed to form a team together. This has got to be the greatest content writing team, and namely the 411Writers team. I wish you the same and why not a successful partnership?