If you want a satisfying and rewarding freelance career it’s really important to have clients that you enjoy working with – because there’s no point in leaving a tedious but secure full-time job to still be miserable at work! A great client is the best l thing that you can find and they’re actually not hard to come by as you might think. So now let’s focus on only having the good ones!
Here’s what you need to do:
1) Who Do I Want To Work With?
First, you need to know and understand what a good client means to you. Knowing what you want and don’t want will make finding them a whole lot easier.
I personally like to work with very organized clients. People who understand the business, who know exactly what they want, when they want it, how much they want to spend and what results they want to be delivered.
I love clients who understand the value of outsourcing treat me as a valued support partner. My goal is to help someone achieve their business objectives they have already set themselves and working with confused and micro managers disorients and confuses me, in a stressful kind of way.
After freelancing for a while you’ll get an idea of the types of people you like working with, but if you’ve never worked with a real-life client before, you could consider the different types of personalities you’ve worked alongside throughout your career and which ones you found easy or hard to work with...
2) You Do Not Have To Work With Everyone Who Wants Your Services…
This sounds bizarre especially if you are new or struggling to make that extra coin, but for your sanity you need to strategically and professionally position yourself where you can pick and chose your client. Which is your goal as you grow your business.
Now I’m fully aware that this probably won’t register with you as a beginner, but it will come full circle and make sense once you’ve been your own boss for a while.
Actually my experience is a bad client can destroy your business.
A client, who undermines your work and time, leads you to question your abilities and makes you constantly chase them for payment or information, makes you start to question whether you even want to work for yourself. Even doubt if it was all worth it.
And you need to avoid this at all costs.
3) Replicate
If you already have a client that you love working with then you just need to find more of the same. For example – I love working with Social Media Consultants and Content Writers so I research them and advertise in LinkedIn groups where it is easier to find them contact similar people saying who I work with, what tasks I do and what benefits my clients receive by getting me to work with them. I then point them to my previous work and pass on testimonials and sometimes I will even give a freebee test run.
The target prospect can now see that I work with people just like them and what tasks I can take off their hands. They can also see that I know my stuff by the industry-specific terminology I use plus they have evidence that I’m good at what I do.
So now you are clear of who you’re looking for and why you can go after them. And if you already have one great client then it will be pretty easy to get more of them.