How to find your first customers

The question “Where to look for clients?” - the most popular among beginning freelancers. Previously, I answered it like this: “Decide exactly what kind of clients you need, and it will become clear where to look for them.” So-so answer, isn't it? After all, how does a beginner know what kind of clients he needs? He should at least find some. So I dug deeper and began to answer differently.

There is no need to actively look for clients. Clients themselves invest a lot of effort in finding performers. It’s better to make sure that during their searches they come to us. How to do this? Make yourself known as loudly as possible in those places where the average client usually begins his search. If he asks his friends for recommendations, it means that one of them must know about our existence. And if he uses an Internet search, our name should appear next to the name of the service.

Before there were more orders than I could handle, I had to tell others about myself, write dozens of articles about the profession, speak at public events several times, teach, create my own website and constantly add “wood to the fire” by actively communicating in professional communities and periodically reminding existing clients about myself.

Now about each of these points in more detail.

Tell others about yourself. If you ask an experienced freelancer to share the story of where he found his first client, the story will most likely begin with the words: “An acquaintance placed an order.” But no one would have placed any orders if the freelancer had not first told his friends what exactly he was doing and what he needed to do. When going freelance, it is important to be able to formulate a request. “Please help me find orders in such and such an area.” Anyone who hears it may pass by, but if he really has the opportunity to help, then a direct request will be much more effective than hints.

Compare two phrases: “By the way, I started doing freelance design. If anything, keep it in mind." “I started doing freelance design and am looking for orders. Please recommend me to those who may be interested in my services, if it’s easy for you.” How do you like this addition: “I will not only be very grateful for your help, but I will also be ready to share a small percentage of the completed order”? And if this request is also accompanied by a link to a page with a detailed story about the freelancer, his services and prices...

First, you can turn to family and friends for help, then to friends and acquaintances. And then contact people with whom the freelancer studied at schools and universities, former colleagues and just casual acquaintances who are easy to contact.

At first I was ashamed to ask for help. I was proud of my independence from others and preferred to cope on my own. However, it is impossible to hide problems from loved ones. I periodically shared with them my worries that I was sitting without clients and didn’t understand what to do, and at some point I noticed that these conversations each time led to the appearance of new customers based on recommendations. Friends were not ashamed to ask for me. Then why should I be ashamed?

Create profiles on social networks. Accounts on social networks provide access to a much larger number of people than in the first method. An interesting comment in the professional community can attract attention to the author. And his profile may contain a story about what he does and an invitation to apply for a service.

At the same time, it is not at all necessary to turn your profile into an advertising page. Just add a few touches:

1. Create a post describing your services and inviting you to place an order. Pin this post to the top of the page (if such a function is available on the social network) and gradually supplement it with answers to frequently asked questions from clients;
2. Make sure that your profile contains your real first and last name and not a pseudonym. This will demonstrate to visitors that the author of the profile is not afraid to show his true face, which means he is not hiding from anyone and his conscience is clear;
3. Post your current photo. It is advisable to smile or otherwise encourage people to communicate, and not scare them away;
4. Make sure that private messages are open to everyone and that commenting on posts is enabled.

A potential client, having visited the profile of such a freelancer, will find out what he does, how to contact him for a service, and will also appreciate his openness and willingness to cooperate.

The more profiles a freelancer has in different social networks designed in this way, the higher his chance of attracting attention and attracting a client.

Make a website. A potential client will be much more willing to contact a person who has his own website. Especially when the service is related to information technology. After all, such a freelancer has figured out domain registration, paying for hosting, interacting with developers (or even did everything himself). This experience is worthy of respect.

Over time, you can fill the site with articles that will be indexed by search engines and attract even more potential clients. You can create landing pages for individual services and eventually link them together using links. You can use forms to collect applications and not lose clients who are embarrassed to write or call first. You can talk in detail about the process of providing services, pricing, and demonstrate your portfolio more clearly than any specialized platform can do.

Creating a website takes time and money, so this method is used either by those freelancers who already feel quite well financially and can pay for the services of developers, or by those who are directly related to the creation of websites and can do most of the work themselves. I myself belong to the second category.

Write articles on professional topics. An article written and published once will serve the author faithfully for a long time. Unlike webinars or live presentations, an article “can’t be cut out with an axe.” If it is good, it will go viral. One successful article can provide clients for several years to come. Some of my articles on Habré and on the Projectorate blog were viewed by tens of thousands of people (https://habr.com/ru/post/205450/). For many clients, familiarity with these texts was the first step on the path to ordering.

Often freelancers begin to object when they hear a recommendation to write articles. Like, they don’t know how. And what to write about at the very beginning of the journey, when you yourself can’t really understand anything yet. Yes, write about this! Share your first successes and failures, talk about how you asked friends to help attract your first orders and what came of it. About how they designed their communities. About new clients. At first, such stories will look like diary entries. And after some time, with experience and practice, it will be possible to write more serious things with your own conclusions.

Writing is a learned skill, not something that requires a unique talent. Many people have found it difficult since school. But today it is not difficult to get books that teach writing. Reading, regular practice and feedback from readers will help you develop the ability to express your thoughts competently and clearly. And this skill, in turn, will make freelancing even easier and more enjoyable.

Participate in professional communities. This way you can catch two birds with one stone. Firstly, it is communication with colleagues in the profession, learning something new and increasing your reputation among “your own”. This will be especially useful if colleagues are overloaded with work and are looking for someone who could help them. Secondly, potential clients periodically appear in professional communities. And if they see someone's helpful thoughts and polite interactions with others, they may want to start working with that person.

I once published a post in one of the professional design communities with the conventional title “Hourly or per-project assessment when working as a freelancer?” This one publication provoked eight requests from potential clients within 24 hours. Two of them began to cooperate with me.

Speak at public events. Such activities will increase recognition among colleagues and clients. After all, it’s one thing to read someone’s materials, and quite another to see this person in person. Assess how he behaves, how he looks, how he speaks. If all of the above is a problem, then you shouldn’t speak publicly right away. First you have to practice.

I myself tried to avoid one-off events, preferring to speak on record, so that later my reports could be reviewed several times. In the end, I settled on the format of webinars if I need to convey a large set of knowledge, and video podcasts if I want to share some interesting thought while driving a car or while walking in the forest.

Such videos periodically brought clients both directly to my services and to the paid educational materials of the Projectorate. The main thing is that each such performance in itself is free for the viewer and at the same time useful. And the greater the benefit, the stronger the viewer’s desire to share the video with others.

Teach. Any specialist has a set of unique knowledge related to the work process and the use of professional tools. And anyone can share this knowledge with others. But only a few do this.

Training materials attract the attention of both potential students and those who first wanted to do the work themselves and were looking for information on how to do it, and then despaired and decided to entrust it to specialists. And the only specialist that a potential client will know after viewing the training materials is their author.

A large percentage of my clients are people who came to me with the words: “I thought I could design my own website in Axure, and I found your training videos. But in the process I realized that it would be better to let professionals do this. And I don’t know anyone except you.”

Use word of mouth. Many people think that “word of mouth” is when clients have worked with a freelancer, are satisfied with the quality and recommend him to others. And that over time you won’t have to promote your services at all, and all clients will come based on recommendations. But this is only half the truth. Clients remember performers for quite a short time. Therefore, for word of mouth to work effectively, it is necessary to maintain a customer base and periodically remind them of yourself. Occasionally, once every few months, ask how you are doing, congratulate you on the holidays, talk about the news. You can read more about this in one of the next chapters of the book.

In conclusion, I want to say that I have never bought advertising to promote my services, so I can’t really say anything about it.