What is your #1 biggest challenge related to finding new freelance design clients?

[patrics]

Hey there,
I've been browsing trough the older threads and found a lot of stuff regarding "how to get clients". There is great advice like "using good old paper cards and mailing", "ask your current clients for referrals", etc!

Currently I have no trouble getting new clients myself - but I am courious to hear what others find challenging in the process if you are looking for new clients on your own / or if you're approached by a potential client the first time.

What's your #1 challenge?

• For me it's "probing if the project is a real match" in terms of required skills, budget, timeframe, remote, etc. Often its time consuming to filter and reject the bad ones.

Looking forward do hear your personal thoughts and experiences!

Regards
Patric


-- Why am I asking this?
I recently talked about the topic with a few of my freelance "colleagues" from my network and we were curious what other freelancers do in this cases. So I decided to do an informal survey on the topic. I will be posting the summarized answers if there is interest for it.

 

[patrics]

Well, not too many people having challenges here ;-)


Btw. are you curious what other designers mentioned as their #1 challenge? In the last days I talked to quite a few of our "colleagues" out there...

For most freelance designers (who I talked to) it is absolutely no problem finding new leads and clients. Most get project offers from former clients who have been happy with their work in the past or from new people who have been referred by a former client... Lesson learned, word of mouth is king and everyone should be pro-actively facilitating that. Asking for referrals, staying in contact with "passive" clients, having a system for it...

Oh yeah, and most freelance designers avoid bidding for projects on online platforms like <<removed>>, <<removed>> and <<removed>> since they consider it bottom-feeding and they dont like to compete on $5 projects with overseas hourly rates. However some have success using those platforms as lead-gen tool - if they take the time to filter for the "good projects" only...

Still, what are the challenges? From my notes other designers find it challenging to:

- find the RIGHT KIND of projects
- filtering the offers for what projects will be a good match (skills & expectations) in the end.
- find the RIGHT KIND of clients (=people) who they are willing to work with in a good and healthy relationship (-> saving time without stressing about bad projects, working on stuff they are good at, beeing able to perform well and facilitating more word-of-mouth in the future...)
- juggle the TIMELINES of multiple projects and deadlines
- Getting the people on the other side to do the necessary work on time, deliver input, commit and work within deadlines too so they dont have to delay a new project or even work a nightshift because suddenly they all need the results tomorrow...
- switch between beeing a designer, doing the work and beeing a salesman and and a business on the other hand where they need to work "on the business" and "on themselves" to improve personally over time

---

I hope you got some value or interesting insights out of my "survey notes". I certainly did. My original goal was to learn what works for others and to validate if my idea has any value. So I learned what works for most designers: "word of mouth and referrals" and I also learned that my idea is probably not worth pursuing any further. At least in the current form of "delivering matching project offers instantly to designers via chat message and charging a monthly fee". My smoke-and-mirrors test landingpage http://uxstepbystep.com/product/design-project-stream/ did not "convert" to a purchase at all - however some at least clicked trough to the buy-button ;-)

One could argue I did not talk to enough designers, or I talked to the wrong ones, did not drive enough traffic, etc. That might be true.

In the end I had some fun working on the idea, connected to fellow designers, learned some stuff (fb ads, cold email outreach, daily struggles of freelance designers, etc.) but I will currently not move forward with the idea.

Who knows, If I let it sink in for a while some new angle or insight will occur and I will give it a shot again. But right now. I'll move on to other ideas and maybe find another actual problem which is worth solving as a side-project.

Kind Regards
Patric

 

[MrJoe10]

I agree with you regarding the freelance platforms. To compete over $5 projects can feel like bottom-feeding. Consider that you need to work 8 hours to create a good logo design. Your hourly rate will then be $0.63. That's not something you can live on. Of course there are some countries in the world where this hourly rate has a big value. What's important is to focus on quality. Let's say that you offer logo designs for $70, but the customers will in the end get high quality logos. Suited to their needs. In the offline world it's all about word of mouth. In the online world it's all about reviews. You need to get the reviews that tell that your logos stand out. You could also showcase your portfolio with the best designs that you have done. Why is this important? Because people will base their decision on the reviews first and foremost, and then on the portfolio. These are the secret ingredients for success. Regardless of what platform they are on.

Hopefully this can be a thriving discussion.

 

[hankscorpio]

Well, not too many people having challenges here ;-)

lots of text....

Who knows, If I let it sink in for a while some new angle or insight will occur and I will give it a shot again. But right now. I'll move on to other ideas and maybe find another actual problem which is worth solving as a side-project.

Kind Regards
Patric

Links to crowdsourcing sites will be removed - please do not post any - thanks.