Small Business Marketing Does Not Work for Freelancers
Walk in to any book store and you’ll see a whole shelf of books on marketing, many of which target small business owners and entrepreneurs.
There aren’t many that are written specifically for freelancers, though, but I’ve read quite a few of the small business books based on the idea that freelancing is just another kind of small business. But when it comes to marketing, freelancing isn’t entirely identical to any other type of small business.
How to Read the Mind of a Client in 3 Easy Steps
Apparently, I’m supposed to read my clients’ minds. I’m supposed to know exactly the style, content, and length of every project a client wants taken care of, typically on the basis of a one-line email.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only freelancer who is expected to offer telepathy as a form of client communication, either. Actually becoming telepathic isn’t particularly likely, but there are a few ways to get a better idea of what a client is actually thinking.
A Contract Clause With A Problem
I signed a contract with a new client last week. I read the contract closely and in general, I’m very comfortable with it. There’s only one clause I’m uncomfortable with — and, honestly, I worry about in most of the contracts I sign.
It’s the clause related to the governing law under which the contract can be disputed. These clauses can also be referred to as ‘choice of law’ or even be incorporated into dispute resolution.
3 Steps For Freelance Due Diligence
Before most companies will sign a contract, they complete their ‘due diligence’: they look into the company they’ll be working with, check out references and generally do everything they can to minimize risks that a project won’t be completed or they won’t get paid. Most companies will take a close look at freelancers they’re handing projects off to. So why don’t freelancers return the favor?
I know that I’ve been guilty of wanting to get right to work and accept projects as quickly as they came my way, and I’m not alone. But I’ve also gotten burned by a client who, if I had simply typed his name into a search engine, I never would have taken on. Even the simplest levels of due diligence can make a freelancer’s life go much smoother. The process doesn’t need to be particularly time-consuming, either. It can be a ten-minute process, especially when you’ve made it a part of your routine for taking on any new client.
5 Tips for College Freelancers
I’ve attended quite a few high school graduation parties over the past couple of weeks. During all those parties, I’ve gotten pulled aside several times by soon-to-be college freshmen who want to know if they can freelance while attending college. Considering I did exactly that, I think freelancing while in college can be a good way to bring in some money, as long as you are prepared to handle both your commitments to your studies and your commitments to your clients. There are a few steps you can take to make the whole situation easier, as well.
5 Passive Income Opportunities for Freelancers
When it comes to increasing our income, freelancers face a challenge. We’re used to trading our time for money — even if we charge a per project rate, rather than work for an hourly rate, we don’t get paid until we’ve put in a certain amount of time. But there are ways to make money without that direct connection between the number of hours we work and the amount we get paid. That sort of approach to making money is known as passive income — although passive income is a bit of a misnomer. It does take work to bring in money that way, although there is definitely potential to increase the ration of money to your time.
Freelancing in a Niche: 5 Ways to Market Your Services
Working with a specific niche can make a lot of sense for a freelancer. If a web designer gets a reputation for designing the best real estate websites in town, real estate agents may seek him out, rather than the other way around. It can be a little harder to get started in a niche than just focusing on getting as many clients as possible of any kind. At least when you’re starting out, you probably won’t even be able to work solely on the niche you prefer. However, there are certain ways that you can improve your access to prospective clients and market directly to them.
Cool in a Catastrophe: How to Tell Your Clients
I hate to be a pessimist, but sooner or later something is going to go wrong — and it’s going to affect your ability to complete a project. It’s happened to me more than once over the years: I’ve gotten sick, lost power and faced other situations that spelled disaster for whatever I was working on.
I still get a little worried when I think about how I’m going to have to tell a client something has gone wrong. I’ve done my best to make sure that I’m ahead on my work, that even a catastrophe can’t delay a project — but I’m also prepared to tell my clients when something goes wrong.
Belts and Suspenders: Backing Up Your Data
Last year, I was in the middle of a project with a graphic designer. She came to a meeting with the client and I completely distraught – she looked as if someone had died. She cried as she explained that her computer had died over the weekend, taking with it her work on this project and six years worth of other projects. She had a computer repair service working on retrieving all her data: they had charged her almost $2,000 and couldn’t guarantee that they would be able to restore anything.
$2,000 is pretty steep for retrieving data, admittedly, but my colleague was effectively at the mercy of any one who could even offer to get her data back for her in time for her project deadlines.
How to Finish Off Projects With a Bang
If you’ve devoted weeks or even months to a major project, you want to end it right. For some freelancers, a good end to a big project is an equally large check — but there are few extra steps you can take to use the last days of a project to your benefit.
You can take steps to find future work through this project, use it to promote yourself and to simply tie up some loose ends.
50 Simple Marketing Ideas All Freelancers Can Use
As a freelancer, you have a wide variety of marketing options available to you. Just which ones will bring you the clients you prefer to work with depends — it’s important to make sure that the methods you use allow you to reach the places prospective clients will be.
It’s worth considering a wide variety of options. For that, it’s useful to have a list of options to consult:
The Quick and Dirty Approach to Marketing
It’s pretty easy to slap together a website, print up a few business cards and declare your marketing efforts complete. But the fact of the matter is that a freelancer’s marketing is never done — if we want clients after our current projects are done, we have to do the marketing necessary to bring them in.
More than a few freelancers struggle with marketing themselves, though. In part, that’s due to the fact that marketing isn’t a big concern for a beginning freelancer. Other issues, like putting together a quality portfolio, take precedence and finding work isn’t as big of a deal as one might think. Between word-of-mouth clients — friends, family and past employers who need a project completed — and low-paying jobs off of Craigslist and other job boards, most starting freelancers can at least find a few projects to work on. But as you advance and want to focus on higher paying projects, marketing becomes crucial. Rather than trying to follow any of the sample marketing plans meant to reassure big business stakeholders, though, you can cut directly to a quick and dirty marketing strategy.
