Freelancing is a big ocean of opportunities! But, you need to dive into the right zone to come out successful. People have seen the potential of a freelancing career and have quit their long-time jobs to get into it. There is definitely something commendable in this career option! Good pay-outs and ease of work are just a few of the many benefits of it. But to date, there are certain freelancers or beginners who are struggling to get their freelance clients.
It is not because you are not skilled; it is because you are not guided about the right path to pick. Therefore, this article explains to you how to get freelance clients by following certain steps.
Perfect Ways for Getting your First Freelancing Client
Here are the ways that you need to adapt or implement for getting the first project or client. It might seem like rocket science at first, but it is not! Follow the steps below to know how to find clients as a freelancer.
1. Recognize your Skills as Service
The skills that you add to your resume should be brought to life. You need to make sure that your skills are somehow useful to the world. If not, then develop some skills that actually will stand out in this real world. Moreover, craft that skill to do it in a professional way and explain its perks to the clients while putting up your sales pitch.
Some of the possible skills that you can acquire are:
- Graphic Design
- Web Development
- Data Analysis
- Content Writing
- Digital Marketing, and others.
As a freelancer, you can offer endless services with such skills like providing content writing services, building websites, product marketing, and others. However, it is important to come out of that hobby perspective into the mindset of professional work output.
2. Identify your Client Market
Freelancing is not a successful career without clients! And for that, you need to look for the ideal market where you can approach a project. In the previous step, you would have picked your niche for sure. Now, it is time to target the client market with it.
If you are a web developer, then your possible client market will be fitness hubs, local stores, hotels, institutes, and others. In case you are into data analysis, then you can approach data-driven organizations or start-ups. For content writing and other such services, you can approach almost every business that is selling or advertising online.
Make sure you do not approach a franchise brand or MNC to look for your first freelance project. The best thing you could do here is to go for an individually owned business, especially for a complete web development project. Strategic choice-making for the client market can help you climb the ladder of success in freelancing.
3. Prepare a Strong Portfolio
The next thing you should do is prepare a portfolio and get your work samples ready to add to it. Once you are aware of your skills and targeted clients, it is now important for you to get your website ready. If you are a beginner and want to save a few bucks before running a website, then go for Upwork, LinkedIn, and other such platforms to prepare one.
People will trust to hand you over their project by judging your credibility. Therefore, portfolio websites can be the best bet for you to gain the trust of your clients. Tell your professional story over it, and you might just get more attention for your freelancing career.
A portfolio website is not your resume! A portfolio website should have your services listed over it, infused with work samples for the reference of clients. You can write blogs over it to let people learn about how your services are important for organizations. Put in general blogs to help clients gain knowledge while they seek to hire you for their projects.
4. Increase your OutReach
Now, it is time you start your freelance business. You need to sell your services to the clients, and for that, you need to put up your pitch to them. However, for that, you need to look for clients to make a sales pitch. Go to your LinkedIn profile and search for potential clients to put up your sales pitch. This works for most of the freelancing careers!
If not that, you can use different freelancing websites or platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork to find clients and propose your services to them. Apart from these two commonly used steps, you can also use Google AdWords to advertise your offerings and get possible leads.
Conclusion
In this way, you will be ready to take on your first project from your freelance clients. Make sure you deliver quality work on your first project to ensure that you get more work from the same client the next time.