How To Stop Scrambling For Clients And Get A Steady Stream Of Paying Gigs
Posted October 14, 2008 in Business, How-To, Marketing 14 Comments »
Freelancing can be your ticket to freedom — but it can also be a terrifying ride if you have a hard time getting a steady stream of clients.
There’s good news, though — it doesn’t have to be that way. By taking a look at the “big picture” for your freelancing venture, you can position yourself to have more business than you can handle even in today’s tough economy. So let’s put “scrambling for clients” behind you and dive into a few strategies that put you back in control of your freelancing future.
Smart Strategies For Landing More Billable Hours
- Don’t look desperate. Every freelancer knows the stomach-knotting tension that hits when business is tight — but you don’t want to communicate that to your clients. When you seem overly anxious to lock down business, it’s easy to get taken advantage of by clients from hell who abuse your time (which could be better spent building your business). Put your game face on when you’re interacting with clients and show them you believe in yourself.
- ABC – “Always Be Closing.” Securing more business from existing customers tends to be easier than finding new ones. While you work with every client, always be on the lookout for creative ways to add additional services or expand the scope of your current services. You don’t have to be a pushy salesperson about it – just keep your eyes open for additional ways to add value, and help your clients see how giving you the extra work is a benefit to them.
- Focus on Referrals. Word-of-mouth is simply the most effective form of advertising, and if you aren’t making it a top priority, you’re practically begging for some “scramble time.” Don’t just hope for client referrals — make it something that naturally happens with each client by using key referral generation strategies that make clients want to pass your name along. When you visualize each client as a source of referrals (and not just money), you change the way you do business for the better.
- Build your brand. If you’re “just another freelancer” in the eyes of the world, why should people be knocking down your door for business? Work on building your brand instead by asking yourself the three big branding questions that help communicate to prospects why they should become lifelong customers. A solid brand is the magnet that brings clients in month after month — make sure to do it right.
- Command the spotlight. The world is always waiting to discover the next big name – and that name could be yours. Do things that get people talking about you and you’ll be amazed at how more business starts coming to you. Guest post, get interviewed or try some of these 35 ways to get noticed and experience how a little bit of spotlight can take a whole lot of work out of drumming up new business.
What Are Your Top Tips For Pulling In New Business?
These five tips alone could change the way you finish up the year – but you can help take it a step further. Post a comment with your favorite strategy for bringing in new business (and browse the current comments for a few gems that can help your business grow as well). The economy may be trending downwards, but this can still shape up to be your best year ever. See you in the comments.
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Image by Shereen M
About the author: Dave Navarro is a business productivity coach who loves showing freelancers how to make more money and have more time for themselves. Get more of the good stuff at Rock Your Day or follow Dave on Twitter.
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14 Comments
Brandon Cox
October 14th, 2008 at 3:24 pmGet to know the local community – its business and political leaders especially. All of my steady and ongoing clients are local. I can meet with them, see them and discuss things across a table. They will usually pay me more for that face-to-face contact than they would spend on a better-known remote agency.
Colin Wright
October 14th, 2008 at 7:30 pmI find that being multi-talented and reliable is a HUGE boon for my clients. Seldom to I take on a new client without hearing about their last 5-10 designers that were just terrible. Most of their complaints tend to revolve around reliability, and generally either not being able to get into contact with their designer, or waiting forever for a project to get done.
Simply being as good as you can be and making your client’s priorities your priority works wonders (and it’s cheap!).
Aretha Gaskin: The Virtual Legal Assistant
October 15th, 2008 at 9:12 amI agree with both of the comments above and this article is a terrific reminder to keep doing what I’m doing. Always let existing clients know you are taking new clients. If you’ve delivered great service, they will not just want to help you but their colleagues as well. And, of course, online social networking continues to be important…
Assault
October 15th, 2008 at 12:27 pmWe’ve found that by keeping in contact with old clients and sending them an email occasionally outside the realms of your business relationship reminds them that you’re there and we’ve had it happen several times where they get us in contact with someone else who may benefit from our services that they may not have remembered about before.
Post on other people’s blogs and email other professionals who are in the same industry, but maybe specialize in something else. We’ve gotten good press and friends just from sending out a quick email to someone’s work we were a fan of!
Jumping Dog Design
October 15th, 2008 at 8:28 pmGood work – it’s all about marketing. Design skills will never take the place of marketing skills.
alex kitchin
October 16th, 2008 at 9:56 amgreat article. i found a similar one on networking and gaining new business clients and contacts. hope someone else finds it of use too.
http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/2008/08/13/casual_networking_for_freelancers_and_contractors/
alex
Sean
October 18th, 2008 at 11:12 pmThanks for a useful article and good links.
J.T. Shaver
October 21st, 2008 at 3:04 amVery helpful article. Being relatively new to independent graphic design these are surely things to keep in mind.
Shaver Design – Print, Identity, and Web Design.
Miss Sweet- Graphic Logo Designer
June 10th, 2009 at 9:04 amA good way to keep the clients flowing in is to share your business and what it’s all about to your family and friends- let them have a hand in spreading the word about your company. The fact of the matter is that before you can build a business people must first know you’re in business.
Great post Dave.
Carlosmax
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:19 amThanks for the information!
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