One question that haunts us all, especially if you are a freelancer, is how to find clients for our businesses? To answer this question I’ve researched and asked a few successful entrepreneurs and collected a few points to help you understand the process of getting more business from your clients. So let’s explore these tips:
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Off the Grapevine
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The most important aspect of freelancing is customer service, for your reputation blatantly depends on it. If yours is a satisfied customer, he will carry on your name forward, strewing it wherever he goes.
Of course, one has the fear of sounding too desperate if he flings himself at every opportunity that comes his way. I, too, had my fears (which are, by the way, not without their reasons). But I offed them by learning that I need to strike at the roots. You just have to incorporate some tactics to not come off as desperate and needy, and in fact, with the correct manoeuvrings, you can sound more like a good contact to keep: ask them about their work, and their online presence.
Join a non-profit or volunteer organization. They are always welcome to recommending your name to your destination sites, and additionally, this sparkles on your resume to read that you’ve worked with these aforementioned organizations, that you have devoted your time with them.
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Connect Away
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A personal recommendation works wonders, which is why your network must be as big as possible. Blogs and websites (like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) help you deliver your work to the masses and also interact with prospective clients. Connect with the big picture people, connect with those with helpful contacts, and connect all you can: all with a click of a mouse, and clever techniques.
Then there’s trade-shows, where you can expand your network, join circles, get more crowd and you can find the best place for yourself. Attend trade-shows that share your interest where you can talk up some people of interest. Knowledge, of course, has an upper hand if you have enough of it to keep your clients busy. In fact, you could do a little research about the vendors’ sites, and interact with those whose sites you can do your magic on. That’s how you spread yourself in places where you long to belong.
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Get out of The Box
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Consider the downs: what if you’re far from a major city? What if the trade-shows are far away and businesses are few? And you don’t have enough money to build your own website. Don’t worry, there’s always the web!
You remember that blog you go to? Offer to write for them in exchange of a link back to your site. That will spread your name (and website!) far and wide.
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How to Get Clients and Business
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In case you are only capable of writing codes or facing a writers block, then you should depend on your knowledge and in order to show your talent you should opt for free WordPress developing or Joomla template, or even an HTML template.
If you are working with a retail customer, then it is best to know if you are allowed to leave a few business cards at the reception. If you want to try something new, then get some pen made with your name and contact info, leave them at the counter. You can also check your grocery shop for a bulletin or message board and put up a flyer promoting your company or services.
The least you can do is be active on the internet or join some forums or online communities. You need to find those sites or communities where people are asking for advices in your area of knowledge and efficiency; you can help the members who are struggling with such problems. You can post comments on blogs that concern your area of knowledge. If you think that there are quite a few helpful sites which will influence people, and your site is one such according to you, then share a link and ask people to check it.
If you are not ready to do something creative, then you can always put all the significant information about you and the back link to your website in the signature of the email. The result will be whenever you are sending the mail to anyone he or she is getting all the information about you. You can also add back links to your site with the sites that you have already developed, and it is a good method.
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Courtesy calls
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If you are in want for work, yet you are not getting enough then, make it a point to use the telephone and email contacts. You can also try and find business opportunities in your locality. For the opportunities you can search for a website that is being used by the local companies and you can also try and find, if the sites are useful enough or they need any development or redesigning. When I started my business I was too scared to tell my client that his, her or their website is very badly designed.
I never used this strategy and I am not advising you to do that, but if you finally offer your services to them, you will be surprised to find out their relief and gratefulness towards you. The reason behind a badly designed website is the fact that, most of the people are too busy and they are quite happy with the web presence they have. They indeed tried their best, but that is not up to the mark. If you ask these people, they will mostly tell that, they are not experts in the subject and they could not find a good developer within their budget.
Make curtsey calls to your clients to find out if they need any service or not. You can also suggest adding something new to their sites, which you have learned recently. You can also tell them that their competitor’s site has something new to offer, but do not forget to mention that you can do better than that. You can also inquire if they need any ads or business cards made at the moment or not.
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About the author: Shaina
Shaina is the co-founder and Chief Editor of Websoulz. She is a full-time writer/designer. And has been writing articles and tutorials for the designer community. If you want to connect with her, simply follow her on twitter @websoulz
Websoulz is a fresh platform to discover new and exciting web and graphic designing tips, tricks, different techniques, awesome examples and practices. Designing is our passion and here on Websoulz we want to share it with all.
