The Importance of Socializing for Freelancers
I had a client meeting last week with a new prospect. As I put on my khaki pants, blouse and boots—my “dressy” outfit—I groaned at the thought of meeting the guy. Sure, I want to develop my business more. Network. Get more clients and all that jazz. But at the time, it just seemed like so much work. I’m so accustomed to being holed up in my home office alone.
“Why can’t this dude just be like everyone else and give me a call and look at my work online?” I grumbled to my husband. He, on the other hand, deals with people in person every day, and wishes he didn’t have to. The grass is always greener, isn’t it?
But after listening to myself, I realized that I get behind the computer for so long and forget the value of a face-to-face meeting. That kind of forced interaction can seem like a chore unless you exercise the social muscle every now and then. Not only is it good to meet clients to do business, but it’s good to interact with others.
So I did. And it went great. After a successful discussion and an almost 100% secured client, I left Starbucks elated—not only because I had a great cup of tea, either. I was glowing because talking to someone felt so good. Not having a cubicle or a corporate cafeteria at my disposal anymore, I sometimes don’t remember how much I loved the contact that came with a full-time corporate job.
I had forgotten how valuable meeting a prospective or existing client is. That feeling of getting out there was great. It was so easy for me to talk and present myself, I wondered why I even labeled myself a homebody to begin with. I was a natural at face-to-face consultations, I thought to myself. Why didn’t I do them more?
As a copywriter, most of my work is conducted over the computer or phone. Every few months I have to get in my car and am happy to write off the gasoline cost to get to a client. Afterwards, I always have this energized feeling and the yearning to go on more consults. The other part of a good client meeting is that feeling that you’re generating the business. Because some of my work comes from job boards on the Internet, the act of submitting my resume and getting the gig can be a little dry. In other words, sometimes it’s cool to “work it” a little more for a gig.
After returning home, charged up and excited to be out of yoga pants, T-shirts and flip-flops, I realized how important socializing is. Even if it’s not work related, it’s vital to get out sometimes. Here are some tips to help you get un-holed up and get out there.
Set up more meetings in person. Have the advantage of a client nearby? Pick your favorite coffeehouse or go to their office. In my opinion, having a latte is better then melting under fluorescent light, but it may do you good to see an office—it reminds you how cool it was to break out of one. (For freelancers who work full-time in an office, I recommend the coffeehouse.) Point is, “selling yourself” in a consultation gives you great practice and should always be practiced.
Take a break—outside. I’m a big believer in fresh air. So whether it’s warm or cool out, take a short walk. Better yet, bring your laptop into the sun if you have to work. I’m kind of lucky to have a cat that always wants to hang out in the backyard. I feel unproductive if I just watch her, so I bring out the computer and start working on my latest project. I get nice breezes and find it really breaks up the day. While it’s not the most interactive tip (unless I talk to a neighbor or say “hi” to a stranger on a walk) getting outside helps.
Make appointments—with friends. Just as you would set up a time to have dinner with a pal, why not hang out with a buddy who is home during the day? I have a few acquaintances that have weekdays off. Others are home with the kids. It’s a great way to get out of the house. Meet up somewhere or just go to their house (or have them over to yours) to socialize.
Make friends—even online. I must admit—as I’ve gotten older, I have lost touch with plenty of buddies. That’s why I love the Internet. Even when I’m too busy to get out—or just don’t feel like it—I have interaction daily with online pals via blogs, forums and IM. It’s a great way to connect with people that live on their computers as much as I do. In most cases, my online friends are always on if I need to blab!
Take the afternoon off. Yes, I said it. No matter what you do with that time, I find that I am more prone to talk to others during the day. If I give myself the night off, I rarely want to go out. That’s why getting some morning work done, and then taking the afternoon off, helps. I work some evenings anyway, so when work allots it, I work a morning and night. Heck, some days I just work mornings!
Skip the email. When it comes to work, it’s sometimes nice to talk on the phone. Again, I’m not a big phone person, but I do sometimes make an extra effort to pick up the phone and call a client every now and then. Email can take a long time to go through and you’re not guaranteed a quick answer if you need it. Taking the extra two minutes to ask my client how they are and get the answer I need on a project question keeps me visible to the client. I rarely call just to gab, though—I know my clients are busy and I want to appear the same way. But there’s nothing wrong with touching base via phone rather than email. It gives me the human touch, if you will.
Human, as I am sometimes not. As I need to be reminded to be.
So whether or not it’s for work or just to talk to another living thing, it’s vital to get out sometimes. After all, your office will always be there waiting for you with the splendor of a filled inbox and packed voicemail. Let it wait for a while.
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There is a flip side to it as well – clients who can meet face to face want to do so much more often than needed – this can turn into a huge waste of time. Telling them no you are busy (working on their project!) can make them feel offended.
In past 9 years we have met exactly 1 client IRL and thats because most of them by choice are almost half a world away!
The one we do meet IRL also lives across an ocean but is a gem of an gentleman
Yeah I miss the face to face personal meetings. I’m working as a freelance web designer in Japan and don’t speak Japanese, so none of my social networking really amounts to bring in new clients. Even if I build trust through personal relationships with other designers and small business owners, there’s always the language barrier. It is possible to struggle through small jobs. But definitely a show-stopper for big jobs.
So in my case a lot of my clients, and other developers that I work with, are people from other countries. People that I’ve never meet or spoken to. But still manage to survive and bring in a decent income.
The only drawback to this is that it can suddenly consume a lot of your time. Meeting and greeting clients is great and when they decide to take you to a professional game during the playoffs, it’s even better. But if you constantly give into their every whim, you’re going to get so caught up you’ll run out of time for yourself.
Master the art of saying “no”, then the art of socializing.
I agree, meeting face to face can be tricky, either it takes much of your time if you’re not careful (organized perhaps) or you try to get the best out of the meeting with your client, or just by meeting with a friend for lunch, etc.
In my case, some clients just want to meet in person for the first time, then the rest of the project will be via phone or email, so I do try to get as much as I can when I meet them in person.
Yesterday most of my day went into responding emails and working on the requests clients asked for, then I realized it was a bad thing to do, the more you do this the more they’ll think you have time for them as soon as they ask you for something, which can be as bad as when you get caught up in too many meetings as Ravi mentioned.
Thanks for article and tips!
This article could have been written by me! i moan and groan when i have to go to a meeting, and question why they can’t just email me what they want/need… but once i go, it’s usually for the best. if someone is willing to drive somewhere to meet with you, the odds are pretty high that they’ve researched your work and want to work with you. they just want to get a feel for you. at least, that’s how it works in my case.
great article. glad to see others feel/act the same way.
oh, and a great way to guarantee getting out from behind your desk and talking to people…. get a dog. he makes you go outside at least 3x a day
I have a few clients that love to meet face to face, and I find myself avoiding weekly meetings just so they can explain in an hour how they feel about a certain aspect, what they could explain in one simple email. One client that I’m working with now, has been strictly email based communication, and it’s been awesome.
It really comes down to the personality and likes of the client. If you need to please a client by meeting with them and discussing the project, then I try to make myself available.
It is important to remember to get out of the house.. I started the day with my email then on to projects and then I look up and its 8pm..eat.. work… and bed. I would wonder where the day would go… but I ultimately have to set aside some time to motivate out of the house… which inturn made me more productive!! Yay for fresh air.
I prefer email, but lately I discovered it’s critical to get out and socialize. I recently agreed to share an office space just so I can collaborate and remove myself from the isolation of a home office.
Also, meeting new clients in person, in the beginning, helps speed up the development of a new relationship.
I do agree with Tarique Sani about clients talking to much and wasting time, so you need to keep these people in check and let them know you have another commitment. Establish an ending time for your meetings.
Personally, I prefer face-to-face conversations a lot more, but I totally agree that it might end up ‘wasting’ a lot of time.
Something that nobody can deny though, is that these kind of social contacts are good for you. A computer screen cannot compete with that.
I definitely agree that it’s very important for freelancers to get out regularly. It’s possible to overdo it – but working at home can be very isolating and getting out and putting faces to names is really important to establshing long term relationships with clients. And why not take advantage of your flexible schedule while working at home to grab lunch with a friend? Go out to their work area and eat with them… definitely worth doing regularly.
I’ve noticed that I get a little hoarse after long meetings these days because working from home, I just talk less than I ever did in an office environment so the old windpipes aren’t used to the workout. Nothing horrendous, but something that I noticed. I could talk to my cat all day, but I find meeting clients and friends out provides more interesting conversation.
Great post! As a fellow freelancer working from a home office I know exactly how daunting this can be. There will be days when I do good to step out into the back yard for a little while. However, I have come to love getting out and making the “rounds” with my clients. Even if it’s something as simple as stopping by for a quick visit while you’re already out running errands or to picking up a disc or material for a project. Yes, they could just as easily email or snail mail it to me, but it is good to have some face time with them if you haven’t seen them in a while.
Of course you do have to be careful not to let this happen to often because if your out having meetings that means you’re not working! I also try to meet up with friends once a week or at least every other week for lunch, it helps me get out of the house and unplug from work for about an hour. Usually by the time I get home I feel refreshed and ready to get back to work.
Face time only turns into a time sinkhole if you let it.
Either the time is considered Sales/Marketing (and therefore important to my bottom line, assuming I have a decent conversion rate) or it’s a Work Session (and the time is charged to the client).
All my clients have the option to work with me via email/im/phone, or in person, and my rates reflect my “overhead” for each method. Some clients just prefer the face-to-face method and are willing to pay for it (so who am I to turn down the extra money?).
Kristen, I hear you! I freaked out a few weeks because I client arranged to chat with me over the phone. I got really edgy for a while there – well, he wanted to call at 7pm on a Friday, and I was really wanting to watch The Adventure of English on SBS. Anyway, like you, I did feel pretty good once it was over. It certainly is nice to feel that you are dealing with a real human. It’s a far more rich experience, talking face-to-face or over the phone, and you can glean a lot more about a person’s character and opinions, which is helpful, particularly when you are starting out on a project.
I agree with you about getting out of the house, too. I’ve been busy lately, and have held off from my usual exercise routine. On Friday, I just took the afternoon off after reading some encouraging comments on the FSW forum and went for a run. It made a huge difference to my sanity: I should definitely make it a rule to get out, I think!
Thanks,
Mandy
Meetings are my favorite. As I’m just really starting my freelance life (just had my one year anniversary), I have one consistent client that I’ve worked with. I love our meetings. I love the friendship that’s come from it.
Like others have said, the one problem I’ve had has been my client wants to talk and talk and talk. She is the artistic director of a theater project that’s beginning it’s second year. We meet for milestones to talk about the pr role-out, etc. I really look forward to them. The meetings help keep me on track, too.
Thanks for the great post.
ZM
You must have a better laptop than me. If I take mine out into the sun, I can’t see the screen.
My perfect workday was in Greece. I was on Thassos Island for a week. I had the sea in front of me. I was sitting in an armchair with my Toshiba laptop on my knees. Wi-Fi connection was very good and I did a lot of work living my dream – sun, sea, beach, cocktail and fast internet connection.
Yes, we have to get out more. Work is not everything. Life is happening out there! And it is happening right now, not after you finish the current project!
))
Totally agree. Just recently I went to an event and boy it was good to meet people and future clients. Best advertising we have ever done
There is not a question… some clients can take a lot of time. But we, as a nation, are losing our face to face interaction and social skills. While it may work to have a client email a description of what they want, we all know that emails can be misinterpreted and cause confusion and a breakdown in communication. The more we avoid clients and potential clients and stay in our offices, tethered to our computers, the more we lose opportunities that organically arise out of the face to face conversation. The connection we make in person serves the business relationship well.
Thanks for your candor.
Susan RoAne
Another great article as usual. I don’t think anything can compare to having a successful meeting with a client and really conversing and talking about the current/future projects together, it does really energize you and get you excited about working together. As a web/graphic design freelancer most of my work is with international clients so most of my communication is email and phone based, so its always nice to meet with a local client.
Holed up in an office all day is not creatively inspiring so i take a break whenever i feel i need to really, it can be anything from making a cup of tea/coffee to reading a magazine, i also find taking a few minutes to read my favourite blogs or take a whiz through my rss feeds revitalises me and im ready to get back into the work!
Like your entry but must point out, since you’re a writer, that when referring to people use who and not that. People aren’t a that. It’s often used incorrectly. Ugh. See your sentence below.
It’s a great way to connect with people that live on their computers as much as I do.
this is article rocks, this is nice very good article
You might be interested in a piece I did as a guest blogger for another site all about face to face versus electronic to electronic interactions. Ironically, I’ve never met the guy who runs the other blog, although we chat frequently on Skype etc.
http://www.blahblahtech.com/2007/11/face-beats-phone-beats-im-beats-email.html
db
I’m right there with you! I always dread putting on one of my two professional outfits and meeting a client, but after I do, I feel energized! You don’t realize how draining it is sitting at a desk all day until you get out!
I think from the client’s perspective, because there still are so many people not completely comfortable with the internet (or hiring someone who works from home) it is reassuring for you to meet them in person, proving that you are real and not a slob. The online portfolio only serves to back that up.
Now I want to take my laptop out to work today!
Susan Payton
Egg Marketing & Public Relations
The Marketing Eggspert Blog
I am just starting my own photography business and with this whole “online” scene we forget that face-to-face can seal the deal. I need to practice on meeting potential clients in person and generating great communications skills.
Great article! As a self-declared introspective hermit, your article reassured me pursuing full-time freelancing is the career for me!