10 Tips for Getting More Personal Interaction as a Freelancer
Having the ability to work from home rather than in a traditional office setting was probably one of the major attractions to freelancing for most of us. However, working solo from home can be a real challenge due to the lack of personal interaction. Although the peace and quiet of working alone is a great benefit, there are times when most of us would prefer to be around more people. If this is ever the case with you, here are ten things you can do to get more interaction as a freelancer.
1. Localize Your Business
One of the primary reasons many freelancers lack personal interaction is because clients can come from all over the world. Most freelancers have the ability to do work for clients regardless of where they live, and as a result, the local aspect of the business is often overlooked.
If you’re looking for more personal interaction, one of the best things you can do is adjust your strategy to focus more of your efforts on getting local clients. With local clients you’ll be able to meet face-to-face with no distance and time zone challenges.
2. Go to Local Networking Events
Most likely there are some networking events in your local area that are hosted by a chamber of commerce or some other organization. These are great events to attend if you’re interested in meeting other professionals in your area. Many freelancers don’t take advantage of these opportunities to find potential clients and make contacts with professionals in various fields.
3. Collaborate on Projects
Depending on the scope of a project, it may be more effective to work with other freelancers. Collaborating is a potential solution to getting more personal interaction and it can also help you to build a stronger network that may lead to more opportunities in the future.
4. Use Skype Calls or Video Conferences Instead of Email
Email is a great means of communication, but it obviously lacks the personal touch of most other forms of communication. For simple tasks email is perfectly appropriate, but most of us have situations where calls or video conferences will also be justified. In these situations, try taking advantage of the technology that’s available and get more interaction with clients or other contacts.
5. Get Outside the Office
Instead of just working from your home office, try working from a local library or a coffee shop for a few hours. Sometimes just being around other people, even if you’re not involved in much conversation, can help you to feel better than staying inside at home all day. You may even find that a change of pace like this can have a positive impact on your productivity as well.
6. Add a Consulting Service
Many freelancers have skills that may be valuable in the form of a consulting service. While you may not be interested in doing the bulk of your work as a consultant, even just taking the occasional job here and there will give you more chances to work closely with others, and it can be an alternate source of income as well.
7. Attend Conferences and Seminars
In most industries there are plenty of interesting conferences that you could attend if you want to learn some new things and get to meet others in your field. Being in or near a major city helps, but there may be others within driving distance even if you’re in smaller towns.
8. Go to the Gym
Those of us who sit in front of a computer all day need to get some physical exercise, and going to the gym is also another opportunity to get personal interaction. Whether you go to exercise on your own, with a partner, or as part of a class, it can be a big improvement to just staying inside the office.
9. Get Involved in Recreational Sports
In addition to going to the gym, or as a substitution for going to the gym, why not consider joining a recreation sports team? In most areas there are plenty of opportunities to play a variety of sports at a number of different levels of competition. Team sports are excellent for making friends, enjoying working with others, and improving leadership skills.
10. Share Office Space
If you work out of a home office, consider leasing an office and sharing the space with other freelancers or small businesses. You may find that the costs are pretty reasonable this way, plus you’ll have much more interaction throughout your day. If you’re looking for potential officemates you can post a classified ad in a local newspaper or a local website.
How About You?
Do you ever struggle with the lack of personal interaction involved with your work? If so, do you have any tips for the rest of us?
Leave a Comment
My favorite thing? Scheduling meetings with clients. Unlike the networking groups, which can burn up a lot of time and money, meeting with clients can lead to paying work. And that’s what we’re in business to do, right?
I live in downtown (France) so I can be around people very quickly and I can go very quickly either to stores or café. Sometimes, just seeing people around you make you feel better and more “alive”.
Steven, nice tips and I agree that sometimes we all have to think beyond our shell. It not only improves skills, experiences but also better relationships with clients. From my experience, clients prefer personalized service no matter they have to pay a little more for that.
Thanks for nice article.
Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com
Steven,
Thanks for the tips… I totally agree with getting out from behind the computer and interacting with others, not to mention seeing the sun
I believe that the more “Human” interaction the better (at least initially), it can help open up a more comfortable communication process with clients. A personal touch can go a long way.
thanks again for some great tips
~ Aaron I
Getting outside the office sounds like a very good idea. If only I knew where to go in this small town. I’ll make a list and add the point to investigate places to go…
Sharing office space is also to my liking. Another point on my list…
Perhaps a no brainer, but share plenty of information on your site about yourself – link to blogs, social networking spots, let people know you’re an individual. Pictures are great, as well as sharing personal philosophies. I don’t think I’d hire anyone without knowing what they looked like.
Meeting with prospects in person is a good idea in theory, but this summer, I found that a lot of my time was spent getting dressed or going to and from a client meeting, and then the project we discussed wouldn’t materialize or it would get stalled or they’d decide to use someone in-house. So now I’m more discriminating about who I’ll meet with, because travel time and small talk can eat up half your day if you’re not careful.
Recently I did a copywriting project on-site, and it worked out really well because I could discuss edits wtih the designers or sit in on strategy meetings. I realize that many freelancers don’t want to give up the autonomy of working from home, but working on-site with the right company can be a nice change. In small doses, of course.
Martha,
I agree.
Brandon,
Very true. I think it just helps people to relate to us more on a personal level. I guess I shouldn’t say too much about that though because I don’t have a picture of myself on my website.
Susan,
That’s a good point. You have to draw a line and use some discretion otherwise you’ll waste a lot of time.
What a sense of publishing the same useless advises, tips that are different only with verbiage and author, but have same idea?
Every freelancer know what he doing. Those who are not – they aren’t the freelancers. So lets call all these tips and advises not ” Advise for freelancer”, but “Advise for those who wan’t to be a freelancer”
Aleh,
I think you are giving freelancers way too much credit. Not every one us has every single aspect of our professional lives figured out to the point where we don’t need any more advice.
In regards to interacting with other people, it’s really not my strong suit. If it wasn’t for my wife, I don’t think I’d speak four sentences in the course of a month, and all of that would be talking to clients. That’s one of the reasons that freelancing has worked out pretty well for me. I almost never have to deal with any face to face interaction with anyone.
It’s funny how in freelancing personality traits that normally require medication actually work to your advantage.
I liked the point – go to gym – totally agree that You need to think about Your health too, not only business.. Actually it’s hard to automate the process, I guess it just comes with time.
This is a vey nice post, it has inspired me alot and taught me new ways to make work easier. I think this was a good read.
Reading advises won’t help you to reach specific heights in freelancing if you don’t have the skills for it. If you have – you will do this yourself, without relying on somebody’s else vision of the long road to success – and will do this much faster by finding own way.
N.B: I don’t have anything against authors writing the same things, but i wonder if this site is going to publish something more interesting and of different topics rather than advises many of us already tired of
I could not agree more. It may be good to get out of the home office, and take a walk, go to the gym or whatever…but in my experience the time spent meeting potential clients is *most* often wasted.
Your experience may be different, of course, but I have all but given up that practice.
These are all good points. It’s something I’m sure most freelancers struggle with. I for one have to get away from my computer and do something active when I’m not focused on work. It’s so easy to become overly involved with your internet life (social networking), and not do enough real people networking. Just hanging out with friends and completely forgetting about work is a great way to balance it all out. That and exercise.
But one thing I do need to do is more business networking, going to conferences and such. Hopefully this will inspire me to do so.
I think one of the best ways to get more interaction as a freelancer is to embrace what makes our work so great… by NOT WORKING!
Take the day off!
I know that is very hard for some of us – but to be able to just go outside and see what is going on in the neighborhood, maybe take some pictures, talk to strangers, that sort of thing!
Go on an adventure and find some inspiration in the outside world
Adam Scott Paul
Freelance Interactive Creative
anewidentity.net
6,9, and 10 are huge.
I started going to the local YMCA just to get out of the house and have got several regular clients from it.
Adding a consulting service has increased my income and decreased my amount of time spent doing support emails.
The office sharing things is something Im really excited about trying once I move back to the states.
As a home-based freelance media developer, I see maybe 4 people face-to-face all week, and two of them are my wife… This fall, I started teaching a class at New England School of Communications — something I’ve never done before… Not only does it get me in front of people again, it also helps me hone my public speaking/presentation skills, and I’ve made a bunch more professional contacts from among the faculty. Doing something outside your comfort zone is a HUGE boost to one’s creativity!
In Portland, OR, there are a couple of really cool office space rentals in town. Basically, it’s like a gym membership, but for a cubicle. It’s certainly where to be if you want an “office” feel and to basically just have people around. They try really hard to have group activities like pot-lucks, game nights, knitting sessions, tech conferences, etc. Look for these types of place in your locale. They’re also super-awesome for getting stuff done. You can’t do laundry while you’re at the office.
Souk:
http://www.soukllc.com/
Cube Space:
http://www.cubespacepdx.com
I liked this post a lot. My mom does a lot of entrepenurial stuff so she’s always going to conferences and such [actually, I come from a family of entrepenuers]. I should get her to take me to a couple. As for the gym thing, I’ve been wanting to add some muscle [fast metabolism makes itkinda difficult though] and exercise in general makes you feel better. I think you left out the most important thing fron the article: Fresh air. =D
I have found this issue to be one of the most difficult aspects of becoming a freelancer. I have mentioned this in another post, but getting regular part-time work in a studio (if possible) is a great way to keep that work/social interaction going, but sstill allowing you freedom to source your own projects and clients.
I totally agree with Brandon’s comment. I recently had a client contact me through my site and say she felt more comfortable even inquiring because she knew more about me. She like the fact that I included other hobbies, like snowboarding, she said it makes you real.
You want your client to feel like they are dealing with and being treated like a human, even if you never meet face-to-face.
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It is definitely important to keep those relationships alive when you are in a unbreakable relationship with your computer 8-14 hours a day. All of my clients are local so every week I have meetings with new and old clients at their office, starbucks, nearby restaurants and so on.
There are also a lot of small business owners meetings every month, just check with your local chamber of commerce and get involved, you will meet new clients, and create future connections.
http://www.alldigitalmedia.com
Yeah, I totally understand the feeling of being isolated. I am a big athletic guy and I joined the church soccer team and I also try and do work in different place, I think I might try going to some different restaurants, coffee shops and stuff, might help. I am also interested in going to events, but that will happen when I have the money to do that.