Thinking of going freelance...

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bungle1977

Member
Howdi
After my two rather disastrous debacles I am now considering the freelance option. I am a little anxious and was wondering if anyone here has some useful tips. My biggest concern is getting my first clients and keeping them. I have some work that I can put on my website but I feel there isn't enough to get attention. How can I give myself a better impression?
Hope you can help. Thank you :help:
 
Evidence a strong portfolio and also there are freelancer sites where you can make bids for projects. You'll need to satisfy yourself with low pay at first until you become more established. Always keep focused on high levels of customer service. I always think that going the extra mile for a client and getting recommended is a far cheaper sales strategy than paying for adverts.
 
I have built up a list of great clients (mainly US based) that I've built a relationship with. I haven't done a website yet and am wondering if I need to just yet. I bidded for a job on freelancer.co.uk. What do you think of crowdsourcing?
 
If we knew the magic to get new clients we'd be millionaires!

Recommendation is best, then try all the others (leaflets, mail, email, website, networking, phone-calls, adverts) and remember it takes around 7 'marketing touches' to get a new client. You have to develop a thick skin and not take rejection personally. Work out what makes you different to all the other designers out there - or what you offer that's extra.
 
bungle1977 said:
I have built up a list of great clients (mainly US based) that I've built a relationship with. I haven't done a website yet and am wondering if I need to just yet. I bidded for a job on freelancer.co.uk. What do you think of crowdsourcing?
Click to expand...

YES, get a website right now. You don't have to pay for anything extravagant, just sign up for one on Behance so that you have some way of showing you work to someone that doesn't require sending them a PDF. You can also look into something like Cargo, register your own domain name for about £6 a year and point it to your portfolio there.

Also, stay away from spec work and crowdsourcing sites. It's easy to think you'll win everything you enter cos you're a pro but the truth is you'll spend hours, sometimes days on a design only to find you're not receiving a penny from it. Plus, you give up the copyrights on pretty much everything you submit to those competitions (which you should never do without a contract and considerable compensation), so even if you're design is the 'winner', the 'client' can just walk away with your design and not pay you anything. The only winners from those sites are the parasites running them.

Rather than spending time on a project you're not guaranteed to get paid for, use that time instead to do something productive like making new contacts, or working on your marketing.
 
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