My freelance lessons series looks at the lessons, best practises, and rules that I have learnt during my first four months as a freelancer. Part 2 of the series looks at clients and marketing.
Which clients?
- Clients are not born equal. Find the great ones and hold onto them as if your life depended on it.
- Projects are not born equal. Clients come with different expectations, based on what they do and the nature of the project. For example a 1k hobby website for a musician is not the same as a 1k job on an e-commerce store. The e-commerce client will expect a faster turnaround and will be on the end of the phone within minutes if anything goes wrong. An e-commerce store also comes with liability considerations. Factor this in when quoting and taking on clients and projects.
- Work for companies over individuals. Individuals have less money and the project is less urgent to them. This means low budget, slow builds which is bad for your cash flow. Companies have higher budgets and usually have a lot of ongoing work which is better for you long term.
- Work for people in your industry. Technical communication is easy and it is a great way to work within a team, a welcome change for a freelancer. It also places you one step removed from the end client which can be liberating. I do web development for a web agency who handle the end client, and it has lead to a steady stream of stress free work.
Client relationships
Finding and building a good working relationship with a client takes time.- Aim to cultivate clients relationships that last. One offs jobs are inefficient.
- It takes a lot more effort to pick up a new client than maintain an existing one.
- Keeping clients happy is pretty simple. Under promise, over deliver. Never break a promise. Never promise anything you can’t meet. Basic business advice takes you a long way.
- Communication is key. Explain potential issues to the client before starting project. Tell them when you are planning to start. Give them updates. Tell them if something goes wrong. Never leave them in the lurch. When something goes wrong not communicating is the worse thing you can do.
- Be honest. Clients will respect you.
- A client base of 5 good/great clients can easily sustain a single freelancer nicely. Once you get going you can afford to be picky.
Marketing and social networks
- Running a blog is time consuming but can lead to work. I have picked up a good regular client and a few projects from the modest traffic this blog receives. However I have sunk a lot of hours writing it. Had this blog solely been about marketing myself I would be disappointed with the results. My readers would also be disappointed because blogs which are primarily a marketing tool are obvious and seldom compelling. I write a blog because I enjoy writing and producing content. Any business that comes off the back of it is a bonus.
Social marketing and self branding are not free. It takes considerable time to build up a personal brand and time is money. Don’t underestimate this.- Use social networks as a way to connect with others in your field to improve your knowledge but don’t expect you clients to be following your clever code hacks.
- The best advertising for a freelancer is good old word of mouth. Be undeniably good.
