Ways to Secure More Freelance Work
It can be really scary when you are first starting out on your own. You’ve quit your job and decided to take the leap into financial and employment independence. You no longer cater to a boss, you work your own hours, and you don’t have to work when you don’t want to. This is all great, but you still have to pay the bills. Finding ways to secure more freelance work can be tough when you are wet behind the ears. Here are some easy ways that you can secure more freelance work, and keep your bank account full.
Start a Newsletter(Long Term)
I know this sounds strange, but this strategy has worked for several people and help them to secure more freelance work. Here’s how the strategy works. You start several social media accounts and look for for other designers and business owners that you can connect with. This may take some time, but it is well worth the investment. Set up a good website and offer a few good basic tips for free (keep it limited so they still need to come to you for the good stuff). Over time you will build a mailing list and gain a decent amount of subscribers. This helps you in several ways:
1. It helps you to build up a client base to market to. It can be hard to be heard by interested potential clients, but social media and email campaigns can really help you to be heard by the right people.
2. Word of mouth travels fast. Having a newsletter that is sent out regularly shows you are consistent and here to stay. After seeing and reading your newsletter weekly or bi-weekly with interesting tips, when someone needs your type of services, readers of your newsletter will most likely recommend you. (It keeps you on your clients’ minds.)
3. You can send promotions via email, so you can inform everyone of new services at once.
4. Email newsletters are free. You can start a forever free account with Mailchimp and get 2000 subscribers and up to 12,000 emails per month for free. That means you can send 2000 potential clients up to 6 emails per month for free. If you ever exceed 2000 you will have to start paying, though, but by that time you should be making more than enough money to pay for their services.
5. You can share testimonials of other clients to further convince people to use your services. Testimonials are a great ay to secure more freelance work, because it shows that you have satisfied customers. People hate to be the first one to try something out, but if you have a proven track record, then you won’t have any problem getting more work.
This may be something that builds up over time, but building a regular following for free is an excellent way to get into business for little to no cost and build a list of interested clients.
Get Involved in Local Business Events
The best way to get involved with businesses is to meet other business owners. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but this is a great opportunity to network, get sign-ups for your email list, and to distribute those beautifully designed business cards. This is a fast-track method to help you secure more freelance work. This is your chance to talk to other businesses and find out what their needs are. It gives you a lot of insight into the local business scene, and it is your time to really shine.
Advertise in a Local Business Journal or Magazine
This is one of those ideas that usually has a high ROI (Return on Investment). It may cost a few hundred dollars to advertise in one of these publications, but you are paying for the ability to get directly in front of premium customers. The readers of these journals are usually people who own businesses, or they are interested in making their businesses better. Advertising here also says that you are serious about building a quality business. Make sure that your ad is beautiful and well designed, and you should get plenty of good leads.
Get Listed in Local Directories
This one depends on your region, but I have gotten a lot of leads from directories. The best ones are those who get interested customers and then charge you a couple of dollars to send a pitch to the client. This is your chance to be heard by someone who is definitely looking to get something done. Take the time to send a quality pitch to them, acknowledge your needs and appeal specifically to their needs and what they mentioned in their brief, and you will be much more likely to land a new gig. A few dollars worth of an investment could end up making you hundreds, even thousands. There are tons of lead sites that ask for a small fee to pitch to clients, but if you’re genuine, and offer a quality response, this is an inexpensive way to secure more freelance work.
Network With Other Services
This is a good strategy, because many times those who you network with will send work your way, as long as you do the same for them. Let’s say that you are a freelance website designer, and you network with a professional writer. If you are great at building websites, but they are better at writing copy that really sells, then you charge for your services, and recommend your partner for professional writing. Next time, when your partner is working on writing the copy for a client, they will refer their client to you for design services. This is a great one for getting great business, and it works well, because you get business from other people’s clients. Other examples would be if you are a front-end designer, and you could partner with a back end developer. They create the great functionality, and you design the beautiful front end, which is a killer combination. You’ll be surprised at how fast your business will grow when you have the right mix of partners. This will secure more freelance work for you over and over again.
Conclusion
Finding ways to secure more freelance work can be scary at first, but if you implement a few of the tips that I mentioned above, you can expect steady business over time. It may take a while to build, but each one is a solid business strategy to help you secure more freelance work, so that you can have a steady stream of income.
Do you have any tips to help secure more freelance work? If so, feel free to share your tips in the comments section below.
