So yous desire to start freelancing, huh?

Freelancing has become one of the biggest remote work trends in recent years, due to professionals working flexibly more ever and considering that at that place is more than to one'south career than what takes place at a full-time task in a physical office environment.

Both Dan and I accept gotten into freelancing, in a pretty wide diversity of unlike ways, encompassing all of the unlike unique skills we have in our skill sets.

Our freelancing has come in different flavors equally well, from long-term contracts, to freelancing remotely, or on site, or at a client'south office, or in one-off gigs. We've even balanced freelancing while working full-time.

Dare we say we've seen information technology all, when it comes to freelancing?

What nosotros like about freelancing in add-on to working total-time for our employers (as of right at present) is that it'south exciting. When yous land a freelance client, you can celebrate, because that small victory is yours.

One of the biggest challenges of freelancing, naturally, is finding those clients. Some freelancers make it look and then piece of cake. Some freelancers even manage to find clients in between their client projects.

For us, freelance clients take come up in a diversity of ways. We'll admit that some freelancing has "happened" to us. Some freelance clients accept come our ways when nosotros've least expected them. Other times, nosotros've tried hard to win a customer, and sometimes it hasn't come through.

So, what are all the ways we recommend in procuring freelance clients or finding clients, whether the difficult fashion or the easy fashion?

Permit'southward come across all the dissimilar ways in which you tin try to get new freelance clients and projects.

Network, network, network.

Networking is the first mode anybody volition tell y'all to become freelance clients.

"Are you networking enough?"

"Did yous effort networking?"

"How's your networking going?"

It's almost like everyone thinks networking is going to automatically get you a freelance client popping up out of nowhere.

The truth virtually networking is that information technology has to exist relevant and crafty.

For example, today I got a Slack message in one of the professional person communities I use for networking as a remote professional person. The individual sent me a "cold" Slack direct message, spelling out a iii-paragraph impersonal bulletin about existence a web developer and saying he was looking for work.

That's ane style not to do it. If I had all the fourth dimension in the world, and if I were connected in this line of piece of work (I happen to not be), I would be able to help. Instead, I accept no connectedness to him, and he sent me a random, impersonal message that had no place in the aims of the professional community.

There is a right way to network. To network as a freelancer and find your side by side client, connect with those in your industry, or those who have something in mutual. Or, start by asking effectually with friends and family you trust, if anyone knows an SEO analyst, videographer, graphic designer, sales consultant — you lot proper noun it — to help y'all out with some introductions.

Networking comes in many forms, from "networking" at conferences, or in your social networks, or on social media. There's no perfect place to kickoff, simply at that place's no bad place, either.

The joy about networking is that if you treat information technology like an art, or a hobby, it can become enjoyable. Consider networking a style of constantly being introduced to new people with varying talents and skill sets, who may exist able to help yous observe your side by side customer in some way, if you respectfully enquire the right questions.

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Join industry-specific Slack workspaces and mail about your services.

Like I mentioned in a higher place, at that place are lots of industry-specific Slack workspaces (communities). As I mention in my guide to networking remotely when you work from dwelling house, I'g a fellow member of complimentary Slack workspaces that range from massive women's professional networks, to marketing professional networks and full general 'remote worker' workspaces.

To find your next freelance customer in a Slack workspace, post in a relevant channel about yourself or your work. An example tin be as simple as, "Hey anybody, I'yard a growth marketer looking for my next awesome client. If anyone's in a similar space or has a connexion, I'd dearest to hear from you."

If y'all're polite and tactful in a cold intro post, yous may become some attending from others who are empathetic toward what you write. Later all, you won't be the starting time, or the last, to post such a message in a Slack aqueduct where most professionals have the same types of goals.

Become agile in remote work communities online.

There are lots of remote work communities online. Some are general, similar "Nosotros Work from Home!" and some are much more than specialized, similar maybe, "Social Media Marketers in the New York Metro Expanse" (as an example).

Remote work communities exist in Slack, and Facebook, and elsewhere. All you have to do is start Googling, and you may notice your adjacent online customs in which yous can get agile and first enjoying the types of content that others provide.

These communities can exist helpful places to postal service that yous're free for work, and they also might be places (like the Slack workspaces mentioned above) to answer to others who may write, "Hi, is anyone a Javascript Developer? I demand help from someone qualified before the weekend."

Mention to family that you program to offer freelance services.

I decided to start a new line of business this yr after offer my services informally in one case, and winning my first client in a women's professional community in Slack.

From there, I started offering my services toward anyone who posted that they might demand them, even if it was merely tangential. I started building a customer base.

After 6 months of my concern, I finally mentioned to my parents what I had been upwardly to. When yous offer services, whether remote or on-site, expanding to a network like that of your parents' can exist helpful because their connections are in a different generation and may assist y'all expand.

Then far, I haven't gotten any new clients for this specific business organization from my parents or firsthand family unit, but it's not to say that it couldn't happen tomorrow!

Anybody will tell you to start a social media account to publicize your freelance services. While it'due south non guaranteed that yous'll land a freelance client from social media, having that type of portfolio will help.

You may be asking, what if my service is not art? What if my services aren't fifty-fifty visual? How can I conceptualize a virtual service, the production of which is not tangible?

It's true. Starting an Instagram for a pocket-size business requires some creativity. If your business has some type of tangential visual, offset using photos of computers or people working, if y'all're a web developer. If you lot offer wellness consultations, or maybe nutrition services, get for photos of food that tell a story.

Call back to e'er credit photographers or artists, past tagging their accounts and by using their profile name, or "handle," in the caption to provide a photo credit.

Use relevant 'hashtags,' and do your own research on other larger players in the field to run across which types of social media routes they've taken. Encounter how they've created visuals for their services, or how their social media has changed over time as their services changed scope.

If you need some inspiration, check out all these NYC bloggers and influencers to follow, whose work may provide some ideas for visual themes.

Don't stop there, though; check out our friend Ariela Kader, who turns trash into art, and teaches most information technology in schools, and our friends Alex and Ryan utilise social media to promote their fitness business organization and accept had not bad success in that space.

Want to specifically engage with your followers on Instagram or other social platforms? Don't miss our guide to engaging with your followers that we wrote for increasing your audiences.

Ship out a cold e-mail to friends, asking them to forwards your freelance biz.

Fifty-fifty if your friends work in different industries (for example, nosotros have friends in lots of different industries!), give a shout by email that you lot've started a business.

I did this only the other week. I hadn't talked much most i of my new side businesses that I've been working on since March, and then when I broke the news to a group of friends via email, they were delighted to hear.

Word of oral fissure can exist one of the most powerful tools, because you know your friends, but you lot never can truly know all your friends' friends. One time someone overhears the demand for a freelancer — a photographer, a graphic designer, an SEO expert, a social media manager — YOU may be the freelancer who comes to mind.

In that location's nothing incorrect with posting an ad on Craigslist, which can be a powerful tool in linking people, and usually for a small sum of money.

If you've always listed a couch or a cycle on Craigslist, you may have a fair thought of how it works. What you may not take used is the "Jobs" department of Craigslist, where anyone can mail a job request (that you could answer), or, postal service an ad for your own services, seeking clients.

Tell past clients to refer you on, and offering a referral bonus.

After the first year of starting our photography business Halfhalfphoto, we reached out to all our past clients, saying we were set and available to volume clients in the new year's day.

While not every unmarried client replied, some did, and said they'd exist glad to either spread the give-and-take proactively, or recommend u.s. when a friend mentioned they were looking for a photographer.

As a favor to any by client who refers you onward, offer a referral bonus! This can either be a gift in the mail, or a credit toward a time to come purchase of your services. It's a nice way to say thanks.

It may be difficult to picture freelancers having Also much work, simply it tin can happen. If you lot air current upward with ii 20-hour-a-week contracts, putting your commitments at 40 hours per week, you may be ready to turn down other odd jobs that come in so that you lot have some gratuitous time to yourself.

Not all freelancers must take also much work on their plates, but for those who do, they may be delighted to pass off work to freelancers in demand, or freelancers only 'starting out.'

Use our guide to networking when you work remotely to observe out the best means to network and arrive affect with other freelancers. This is the first way to connect, and make it known that you have time for new freelance clients, and are willing and able to assistance out other professionals in a similar space.

Join freelance gig websites like Upwork or Fiverr.

While in that location are lots of work from home chore boards out there for freelancers, ii are more well-known than others for catering specifically to freelancers. These two are UpWork and Fiverr, and they might be where you discover your side by side freelance client.

Now, don't become us wrong, because we haven't used these websites much; withal, in that location are some freelancers who have probably been swearing by them for a few years at present.

To larn more about UpWork and Fiverr, bank check out our guide to online tools, where you lot'll see details about how these ii sites function, kind of in opposite methods.

In brusque, Upwork allows freelancers to submit proposals to clients, and Fiverr allows clients to purchase freelancers' services at the rates at which they list them. They can both get super competitive, so it's worth reading more from experts who have had success on each.

Try a subscription to a flexible job website like FlexJobs.

A website like FlexJobs vets all job postings from clients and companies, which makes it a bit of a unlike experience than Craigslist, where posts are varied and non 'vetted' by a dedicated team.

This is why FlexJobs requires a membership. The good news is, you can get a membership to try it out for as lilliputian equally one calendar week, and they usually accept sales, similar 30-fifty% off the regular membership price. Information technology tin be a steal, for sometimes equally little every bit $3.50, which is way less than a dollar a day for those vii days.

At present, more than ever, FlexJobs lists flexible, remote and work-from-habitation jobs for freelancers, so there should be a practiced variety of a selection later yous endeavor out that membership.

Make yourself an awesome website to showcase your services.

Fifty-fifty if you're starting out, or even if you're withal to get your outset client, make yourself a website!

It's funny, and information technology's true: people trust services that take good websites. In fact, if you were a successful freelancer with no website to support your services, people would find that difficult to believe. A website is similar a resume in this regard, and it's even better because you can laissez passer it around, post information technology on social media, send it out via email, text or Slack, and information technology lives on forever (equally long as you pay for your domain).

But wait! Does your website demand an upgrade? Read our blogging advice to learn more than nearly creating a website for yourself.

First a blog on your small business organization or freelance business website.

It'due south ane thing to have a website for your small business or freelancer company, but the next footstep is to kickoff a whole blog!

What's a web log? Well, in curt, information technology's a part of your website where you tin can speak in your voice, and either detail how you've institute success lately, or you tin can provide advice about what has worked for you in your field. Maybe you can lend some great advice to other professionals. Maybe y'all tin do a run-down of a prized instance study.

A blog also allows for more than SEO so that y'all tin can bring traffic to your blog, and nosotros discuss this in our listing of what to practise in betwixt freelance clients, mainly speaking to working on your business website.

Form a client-sharing coalition with a colleague in the space.

Information technology may accept time, but subsequently you lot discover that one dependable fellow freelancer in the aforementioned "space," whether it be pattern, compages, fiscal consulting, nutrition or you lot-name-it, talk about starting a client-sharing coalition.

This can be a way for yous to accept a way into a new client network. If your freelancer coalition colleague wants to take holiday, they can hand off a client to you during the week they're abroad.

In the same way, sometimes it tin can be useful to have on clients as a duo. One of you can be the client contact, and the other can handle the dirty piece of work; or, depending on your industry, yous tin perform the work in tandem, if the client job is sizable. It all depends on your situation, simply it's worth because!

Talk to by coworkers and mention your search for new clients.

At present with LinkedIn and other ways to stay connected while working remotely, it's easier than ever to reach out to a coworker from a past task or gig and say something like,

Hi! Hope you're well. I wanted to let you know I started a freelance concern doing XYZ, and if you know anyone in the marketplace for a XYZ-er, experience complimentary to share my info! Thanks so much.

Sometimes it'due south the briefest messages that will exercise the trick, and before you lot know it, your old coworker may pass on your proper name to your hereafter freelance client.

Are you transitioning from full-time to freelance? Read our list of tiptop tips for what to consider during this big time of change.

Postal service a flyer in a coffee shop, or gym, or public library.

This may sound old school simply like the business card thought, but how many times have you looked up from a h2o fountain and seen one of those flyers where there are stubs to accept someone's phone number?

That may audio like a affair of the 90s, but the paper flyer is non expressionless. In fact, coffee shops nevertheless allow flyers, especially really neighborhoody/indie ones, and local libraries usually welcome flyers on a bulletin lath as well. It might be that your next client is weeding through the flyers and comes across your proper name and your website! Who's to say?

Reply to postings in the #job or #gig channels of professional communities.

Your side by side freelance client could be as simple as the person posting a job description or lead in a Slack community or Facebook grouping. Both of these ways are truly excellent hacks for networking that sum up how we've gotten freelance clients in the final few years.

Even if something doesn't work out, information technology pays to keep in impact. I've had clients reach out with a need, and and so the demand dissolves. I've as well had clients reply to my pitches, and accept me up on hiring me, sometimes for ane-off jobs that last several months to a twelvemonth.

If you have the time, saying "yes" and being flexible and available piece of work wonders when yous're starting out as a freelancer.

Join a coworking space, and chat upwards other professionals in the kitchen.

Join a coworking space, if in that location'southward i nearby! To learn what a coworking space is, see our guide that answers this question: "What is a coworking space?" and see how freelancers benefit from using coworking spaces.

Coworking spaces can be corking places for networking as a remote worker or digital nomads.

Even if you're based in 1 place (that'southward fine, likewise!), joining a coworking space tin introduce you to completely new professionals in your area, and you never truly know if the guy or girl next to you grabbing coffee in the kitchen is looking for a freelancer with your exact skill set up.

That could be your next freelance client.

Arrive touch with manufacture experts to come across how they've gotten clients.

Typically, asking professional freelancers in your field to chat with you will never exist a bad thing. In fact, through networking remotely from dwelling house, I've been asked to requite informational interviews about how I got my start in writing, blogging and social media content. I was flattered, rather than bothered!

The same goes for anyone who would like to talk to a veteran in the industry virtually how they got their clients. They volition probably be delighted to tell you all nigh their freelance journey in getting clients and keeping them.

Call back: freelancing is one of the hottest trends in remote piece of work right at present, because it's such a value-add to anyone who already works full-time or is developing their ain business. Information technology can be really heady!

Brand business cards, and don't be afraid to manus them out.

Maybe it seems old schoolhouse, but every time someone takes a business organisation card out of their wallet, they're reminded of the person who gave it to them.

I can't even brainstorm to count the times I've taken an old business organisation card out of my wallet, saying, "Who gave me this…?" and then I wind up Googling the individual whose menu it is. Then, I'm reminded of their proper noun, face up and service, whether a freelance business or company.

Having something on physical paper isn't for everyone, but you can certainly get creative with information technology. For example, we've given out minor photos of ours, printed on cardstock, and it'due south a peachy way to give someone a 'souvenir' of our brand that they tin even hang on a fridge.

Attend industry conferences, even virtual conferences, to 'get out there.'

Even though industry conferences are becoming virtual, it doesn't mean you lot won't meet anyone new who may take your freelance business to new heights.

Conferences tin be a funny affair: they're similar a big mashup of people from all sorts of levels in a particular industry, and you never know who you'll strike upwards a conversation with by passing a berth or chatting in a speed networking session.

I attended the New York Times Travel Show, one of the coolest and largest travel industry conferences, and I was able to strike upward some new contacts in new means. It pays to be assertive!

I traded business cards with tourism representatives, writers, bloggers and others; I even had the courage to walk upwardly to session speakers subsequently to introduce myself and compliment their talks upward on the stages.

You never know if your presence at an industry conference will lead to your side by side freelance customer. All you have to do is try, and it'll exist win-win either fashion because you had a new blazon of feel and put your best foot frontward.

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Final updated on March 5th, 2022