Ask FreelanceSwitch: Repeat Clients and Increasing Your Workload
In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at repeat clients and increasing your workload. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.
Question 1
I often do ongoing design projects with repeat clients. With repeat clients is it best to have a contract for each project, or just a simple agreement with a list of deliverables?
Most of my clients are actually on-going projects, where I’ll come in and work on their blogs without a set end date. Asking them to sign a new contract every month just won’t work out particularly well. So I write the initial letter of agreement we use to set up a project to include my ongoing rates and to cover the long-term.
If we’re talking about a whole new project on top of what I’ve already agreed to do, I write out another letter of agreement. Letters of agreement work the same way as contracts and legally function as such. I do think it’s crucial to get each project in writing with the client’s signature on it. Having to sign something seems to remind most clients that they’re dealing with a professional. Of course, on top of that, if the worst happens and you need to go to court over non-payment, you have an agreement in writing — which counts for a lot.
Question 2
I’m looking to increase my freelance workload. Any practical advice on how to do that?
Marketing is almost always the answer to how to get more work as a freelancer. The more people out there that know you exist, the more likely you are are to get work. In particular, you might consider taking a look at exactly what type of projects you want to take on and think about who often has such work.
For instance, a copy writer who wants to land more work writing website content should consider going to as many web designers as she can and doing whatever it takes to make sure those web designers are recommending her to their clients. A graphic designer wanting to work with non-profits should be going to organizations that help non-profits (many counties or municipalities have such an organization) and offering to work with their members.
No matter who you are or what projects you want to work on, there’s probably a person or an organization with connections to multiple projects at once. Finding those key points where you can access many projects at once can make it easier to land more work, quickly.
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Great advice, as usual – especially finding the key org. or contact for multiple leads. I hadn’t really thought about that. Maximum exposure with the least expense of time and energy.
Another good question, though – if you’re steadily getting more work, and need to increase your rates, how do you let a repeat client know without burning a bridge?
Great points, Thursday! As with you, in my freelance practice, projects coming from repeat clients represent the largest portion of my work. It’s simply more practical and efficient to concentrate on existing clients to fill the bulk of the project roster, rather than continually hunting for new clients. While the later is certainly important to growing a practice, it’s significantly less costly to concentrate on our current clients.
The Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 Rule) shows off its clout here. For those unfamiliar, it states that, typically, a business will get 80% of its business from 20% of its clients/customers. These folks know us. They trust us with their projects and they know we’ll deliver the goods.
Plus, there’s the power of internal and external referrals. I have a great client who enjoys a rank in the Fortune 100. They’re huge and have loads of divisions. Building a solid relationship with my first contact, over time, resulting in gaining an additional five divisions as clients, not to mention the external referrals.
Alas, I digress. Having several clients within a company and juggling multiple projects can result in a contract quandary. If I drafted a formal agreement that covered every possibly contingency for each project, that’s would eat up a load of my time, my clients’ time and put a strain on deadlines. So, I have a general contract with each that addresses the broader aspects of our working relationship such as payment schedules, rights transfers and the likes. Individual project specifics are covered with a Letter of Agreement that also references the general contract. That seems to work pretty well. Everybody pretty much knows what to expect. We’re both contractually covered and projects can get underway much faster. We don’t need to do the meeting scheduling dance to review and negotiate a contract or wait for higher ups to approve things, in most cases.
As for marketing, your point, “… consider taking a look at exactly what type of projects you want to take on and think about who often has such work,” is spot on. Successful marketing and promotion should start with focusing on a niche that’s an inch wide and a mile deep. In other words, very specific and has enough prospects to be profitable. Plus, it gives one the opportunity to become the big fish in a small pond. That makes it easier to build your reputation and get known within that niche or, perhaps, a couple of niches.
For the prospect, solving a particular problem is similar to having chest pains. If you do, odds are you’re running to a well-known and respected Cardiologist, not a General Practitioner. Prospects want to know a freelancer has tacked a similar challenge, successfully, and understand their business and industry. It’s reassuring to them. Reassurance becomes a big deal when a freelancer works in a more subjective type of practice such as design, writing and other creative endeavors.
Focusing on a niche is also less expensive. With a bit of research, you’ll know whom the prospects are, where they hang out (both physically and virtually), which ones can afford you and the best ways reach them. That also makes qualifying prospects loads easier to ensure that they’re a good fit for a freelancer’s business.