Seven Days of Freelancing Tips
Posted July 9, 2010 in Getting Started, Productivity 34 Comments »
How quickly can you improve your freelancing business?
As freelancers, we tend to think that improving our business is a huge effort that will eat up tons of time that we could be using to work on paid projects for clients. As a result, a lot of things that we should do to help ourselves and improve our freelancing business never get done.
It’s true that if you set out to do every single thing (or even most things) that you could possibly do to improve your business at once it could take quite a long time. But, I’m a big believer in breaking things down into small, manageable chunks.
So, how quickly can you improve your freelancing business?
Can you spend a few minutes to an hour on improvements every day for a week? In this post, I’ll list seven simple tips to help you improve your freelancing business. These tasks will be manageable because you can do one task each day.
A Week’s Worth of Freelancing Tips
The best way to use these tips is to spread them out over a week. (Of course, if you’re really in a hurry you can try to do all of this at once–but, I don’t recommend it.)
Here are the tips:
- Day One: Look at your website/blog/portfolio through your client’s eyes. Like most freelancers, you probably maintain a web presence. At a minimum, you probably have a blog or a portfolio. Good for you! As we get busy, it’s really easy to ignore our website, even though it’s the first contact many clients have with us. Take time today to review your web presence. Does your portfolio still represent your best work? Is the contact information on your site current? Are there broken links? Take the time today to update your site(s).
- Day Two: Contact old clients. Repeat business is one of the most common ways for freelancers to get new projects. However, many freelancers are hesitant to contact former clients. As long as you don’t overdo it and aren’t too pushy, most clients are okay with you checking in with them several times a year. Contacting old clients reminds them of your services and may also result in additional work for you. Send a friendly email to your inactive clients today.
- Day Three: Invest in yourself. What do you need to improve your skills? Is it a course? An e-book such as Freelance Folder’s Unlimited Freelancer? Part of being a freelancer is spending the time and money to keep your skills current. Take the time today to evaluate the best resources (free and otherwise) for your needs and select one for yourself.
- Day Four: Ask your current client for a referral or testimonial. Chances are that you’re in the middle of project right now, or have just completed one. Is your client satisfied with your work? If you’re pretty sure that you’ve done a good job, why not close out the project by asking your client for a referral and/or a testimonial that you can include on your website?
- Day Five: Write up some standard letters. Freelancers often receive the same kinds of email inquiries over and over again. If you’re taking the time to write email responses from scratch each time that you receive one of these inquiries you may be wasting time. Today, create one or more boilerplate letters that you can customize according to the circumstances.
- Day Six: Catch up on your bookkeeping tasks. Are you up to date on your bookkeeping tasks? For many freelancers bookkeeping tends to fall by the wayside when they are busy. However, the further behind you get on your bookkeeping the harder it will be for you to catch up when you finally do get the time to work on it. Take some time today to bring your bookkeeping up to date.
- Day Seven: Update your social media presence. Are you putting your best face forward in social media, or do your social media accounts reflect an earlier you? Many freelancers have legacy social media accounts that predate their freelancing business. Take the time today to review all social media accounts that your clients could possibly be able to access. Remove anything that might be misinterpreted. Update your contact information and your gravatar, if needed.
- Bonus tip: Start that dream project for yourself today. Have you been putting off a personal project that has long-term income potential to focus on client work? If you have, you’re not alone. Most freelancers have dream projects that they never start. Today, arrange your schedule so that you spend a half hour to an hour every day on your dream project until it is complete.
What Do You Think?
What additional tips could you add to your daily schedule to improve your freelancing business?
Share your ideas in the comments.
(Did you use this week of tips? I’d love to hear how it went for you. Share in the comments.)
Image by bortescristian
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 19 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts
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34 Comments
Jordan Walker
July 9th, 2010 at 8:47 amIn addition to the productive tips, make sure to reward yourself.
Shevonne
July 9th, 2010 at 8:49 amGreat tips to revamp your freelance career! I bookmarked it.
Branded social tv
July 9th, 2010 at 10:07 amI love freelancing work because you get to see tons of different websites and business models
Laura Spencer
July 9th, 2010 at 10:31 amJordan Walker–Good addition!
Shevonne–I’m glad you liked it.
Keep the comments coming. What tips would you add for the eighth and ninth days?
Clervius
July 9th, 2010 at 11:01 amI like these. The only thing though… they seem to be geared at somebody who isn’t as busy, or probably just one of those weeks when you don’t have much to do. I really like them though, so much that I’m going to divide them up for just my free days.
I don’t want to come off like I’m too busy because of the level of clients I have so let me make it clear that I am a student and I work full time… so Freelancing is a side thing that I do. but these are GREAT tips.
Michelle Mista
July 9th, 2010 at 11:54 amAwesome tips! I think I’ve got a plan for next week. I’ll be reporting back in.
Ameet
July 9th, 2010 at 12:55 pm8th day simply take a day off, switch off ur mobile and disconnect urself from the world
9th day start as if u r going to freelance for the first time
nice tips but its difficult to find 7 straight days for personal stuffs
Laura Spencer
July 9th, 2010 at 3:18 pmClervius, Michelle Mista, and Ameet–I’m so glad that you found these tips useful. I can’t wait to hear how it worked out for you. (Clervius, I think you have the right idea. You don’t have to use seven consecutive days, although you’ll get the most impact that way.)
S Emerson
July 9th, 2010 at 4:28 pmThanks for the reminder that we need to work on these things even when busy to keep the work flowing in.
Bruce
July 9th, 2010 at 10:13 pm“why close out the project” Hmm? Do you mean “why not close out the project”?
Behzad
July 10th, 2010 at 7:41 amGreat tips. To me there are three main activities and they come in this order. 1) Client work 2) Marketing 3) Improvement of my business.
Ben Davidson
July 10th, 2010 at 9:05 amI always believe in being honest. Look at your work or how you work, is there anyway you could have done better or improved upon. Taking a look as if you were the client or a competitor, would someone else suggest improvements or doing things in a different way.
We often don’t like to be honest or self critical, but if your going to succeed you have to be able to take critical comments as well as compliments.
Good article.
Rakesh Solanki
July 10th, 2010 at 9:45 amI did lots of mistakes during freelance writing when i started. Thanks for tips.
milosh
July 10th, 2010 at 10:13 amwhile contacting your old clients, sending some of your recent works helps a lot too
what i found being useful is having friday as a non-working day. it’s not that i don’t work fridays. i do. but it’s when i take care of financials/bookkeeping, organizing work for the upcoming week (briefing subcontractors and alike) as well as more social media stuff.
after you send them email, get the damn phone and give them a call.
sending out interesting links and articles is great too. it reminds them of your presence and they really appreciate your understanding of their business and industry. if you send something of non-business nature, make sure it fails in your client’s personal interests area. business is a lot about relationships you build. companies, countries and even industries change. relationships usually tend to stay here for a while.
business_management_guru
July 10th, 2010 at 8:35 pmJust wanted to say I really liked the site. You have really put a lot of time into your posts and it is just great
Stephanie
July 10th, 2010 at 9:14 pmThese are awesome tips! Helpful reminders actually. I’m planning on doing the bonus tip come Monday, tomorrow so good luck to me! :D
Solomon
July 10th, 2010 at 10:25 pmI really liked the post, it set me thinking. I’m guilty of neglecting my web presence, and need to do so much on it – create a new website et etc.
I recently started calling my old clients and telling them how we worked on a particular project. I remind them how few more things would give them a better appeal and image, and sure help their business flourish.
It did work. I got back some work, and they may refer me to some clients, even if they didn’t have any at hand at the moment.
I suggest… we better use some TEXTING (sms) that’s a quick way to tell them.
Send them some inspiring quotes and say good morning/evening and wish them good luck.
I also appreciate if someone sends me a thought. Some thoughts (quotes) did work when I was down.
Wonderful post, you really brought out the minds of a freelancer.. thank you very much!
Saravana Kumar
July 11th, 2010 at 11:20 amThanks for the tips, It will be more helpful for budding freelancer’s like me.
Liz
July 12th, 2010 at 12:14 amI love tips for Day 1 & 2. I get so caught up with my day to day work that I never stop to take the time to think how customer view my website. It’s the first point of contact that my customers will have with my business, and I better make it easy to use. I’ve disregarded other company’s website simply because I couldn’t find what i needed.
For bookkeeping, I use Billing Boss (http://www.billingboss.com) for my online invoicing because it’s free and it’s much easier to use than other applications. I usually can create my invoices/quotes when I need them and not until the end of the month, because I don’t have to go through pages and pages of other unnecessary accounting related items. Plus I use their advanced payment solution which cuts down my time from chasing non-payments. Users can pay me online when they receive the invoice through email.
Full Disclosure: This author has been compensated by Sage. I am their Social Media Consultant but I was using their product well before they contracted me. They found me when I sent them an email giving suggestions about Billing Boss!
LloydBurrell
July 12th, 2010 at 10:43 amHi,
good tips. Another good idea is to keep your profiles consistent to your activities and your activities (including price, structure and way to approach things) consistent over time. It’s very important for a client to have the confidence of getting a product similar to the one he got last time. With this ever-changing internet marketing, keeping consistency to a high level is difficult, but not unachievable. But once you get there, your paths are open.
Lloyd Burrell
Publisher
http://www.officedeskreviews.com
LloydBurrell
July 12th, 2010 at 10:44 amHi,
good tips. Another good idea is to keep your profiles consistent to your activities and your activities (including price, structure and way to approach things) consistent over time. It’s very important for a client to have the confidence of getting a product similar to the one he got last time. With this ever-changing internet marketing, keeping consistency to a high level is difficult, but not unachievable. But once you get there, your paths are open.
Lloyd Burrell
Publisher
officedeskreviews.com
Florante
July 12th, 2010 at 11:19 pmThanks Laura!
As expected another ton of great insights that’s really worth trying. There are two things that I’d really like to do this week, the Bonus tip and Day 2. And probably throw in Day 4 if time permits me to have a quick chat with my clients.
Cheers!
Florante
Issa
July 13th, 2010 at 8:11 amI LOVE your bonus tip, thanks. Sometimes, when times are slow – it reminds you of unfinished projects you want to do for yourself. It is through following your dream that spawn the birth of thought leaders on the World Wide Web. Without passion for what you do, you’re simply – doomed.
Matthew Carson
July 15th, 2010 at 12:44 pmDay 3 tip: I use lynda.com to keep up to date on software. Its pretty cheap ($25/month), and it help with clients that want to work at their office on their computer/software.
Freelance
July 19th, 2010 at 4:38 amAgain nice one from Laura Spencer..
Its really appreciable tips.
I need to improve myself in Meeting old clients. Improving communication etc.
its good if we do some home work on this facts before we apply directly.
Jared Redick
July 24th, 2010 at 3:59 amThanks, Laura. I just calendared each tip multiple times across the coming weeks. Maybe they’ll become habit!
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