What does it feel like to be your own boss as a freelancer?
Good, satisfying, and downright scary, right?
You feel good because, for the first time, you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck and telling you what to do. You call the shots now. It is satisfying because you work at your own pace and have the freedom to live the life you want.
Now to the scary part.
You call the shots means that you are in charge. It also means your freelance work is responsible for keeping the lights on. You are your own sales and marketing team, which means it is your job to find and retain clients to make more money. Fail at this, and there will be no cash flow. Without hourly projects and long-term projects bringing in a sustainable cash flow, you can wave all the other perks goodbye.
As a solo freelancer, you now rely on your own expertise and healthy client relationships. You either get it right with client acquisition and retention or go back to job hunting and slaving out of a cramped office as a full-time employee.
Client hunting is one of a few administrative tasks most freelancers never really prepare for. However, in terms of business development, it is one of the harsh realities that you must face. It is a skill set you will need to master, and you cannot make excuses for not handling it with vigor.
Why client hunting is a freelancer’s nightmare
Maintaining a healthy list of potential clients is part and parcel of the freelance industry, or any business, for that matter. Committing quality time and resources to client hunting is what sets a rookie apart from other freelancers with multiple clients. However, spending too much valuable time on client acquisition and not enough on actual projects can spell certain doom for new freelancers.
Client hunting can be a rough experience, especially for newbies. The competition is stiff, and you must devise new communication strategies to improve your game.
As a freelancer, whether new or experienced, you’re probably familiar with one or more of the following sides of client hunting—if not all of them:
Cold-calling marathons
‘Beep beep’ comes the sound from the other end of the phone. There goes another seemingly promising project. Yet another person is dashing your dreams. No doubt you loathe getting hung up on, but not as much as the calls that leave you discouraged by another harsh-sounding rejection.
Perhaps one of your least favorite things to do is cold-calling a bunch of employers or sending out unsolicited emails to businesses hoping to land new clients. Prospects are bombarded with similar calls and emails daily, making your chances even slimmer.
While cold calling could fetch you a few clients, it is not a sustainable model for business growth. You cannot run your solo freelancer business on the assumption that prospects will give you positive feedback whenever you cold call, as this is a recipe for failure.
Uncomfortable networking events
Unless you fancy dressing up and making small talk with strangers to start conversations, networking might be complex. But what choice do you have? You are a freelancer, and part of your options for getting new clients is to network as much as possible.
Joining freelance marketplaces
How often do you have to enter stiff competition on online marketplaces such as freelance job sites? Most new freelancers go down this route. Website after website, scrolling through the smaller projects because the bigger jobs are taken already. Remember, you are up against a long list of experienced solo freelancers, and your online portfolio just doesn’t stack up right now. With several years more experience under their belts, skill sets that vary, and a proven track record, it’s easy to get disheartened.
Repeated requests for referrals
Finding clients for your freelance business is not a one-off task. It is, in fact, a never-ending cycle. Current clients can become previous clients in the blink of an eye. Taking on a new client’s project and managing your job list is part of being a freelancer.
In this quest to find your first or next client, you will likely try to get family and friends roped in. Before long, you become that family member or friend that always brings up work at every family gathering and social event. Not your idea of being a professional freelancer, right? But hey, you can’t help it—the bills are piling up, and you need to maintain a continuous workflow so that money keeps coming in.
Asking family and friends for referrals is not such a bad thing. The only downside is that you risk sounding like a broken record trying to inform people of your skills and previous projects that you can happily replicate for them
Your prospective clients are searching for you
Read that again.
It may be hard to believe, but your prospective clients are searching for you too.
Think of it as a two-way street. You have a service to offer, and you are on the lookout for clients who need your services.
In the same way, your prospects have needs and are on the lookout for a solo freelancer that offers the best available services to meet those needs. Given the arduous vetting process and endless freelancer searches, you just might be the right person for the job. You just need to be in the right place at the right time.
So if your prospects are looking to hire freelancers like you, why do you have to work so hard for them to find you?
Well, who says you have to?
The secret is to position yourself to make it easier for businesses to find you without the hassle of a vetting process. By finding an outsourcing agency that has mastered client-freelancer pairing, your services are now on display for all potential employers to see.
Outsourcing companies
Most freelancers should be able to cross certain things off your checklist. A creative workspace (check), an online portfolio (check), a support system (check), and an informative website (maybe). One thing that is always hard to cross off the list is a stable and constant source of new clients that pay. And that is a real challenge.
Finding clients doesn’t have to be a tedious chore that takes up most of your time.
The missing piece? A done-for-you client sourcing agency that takes the load off your shoulders. A preferred freelancer program is like gold dust for employers too. They don’t want to waste time deciding on the best solo freelancer. They just want the job done by the best person!
What is a reputable outsourcing company?
Quickly Hire is an outsourcing company designed to help solo freelancers access clients to ensure they have enough work to keep them busy all year round. At the same time, they make it easy for businesses to hire freelancers without all of the associated headaches.
With Quickly Hire, you can forget cold calling, networking, or highly competitive freelance job sites. Client hunting is 100% done for you.
It’s time to regain your freedom. Hurry now and apply to join the Quickly Hire network.
