One of the greatest challenges a lot of freelancers face is how to get first clients as a new freelancer, especially when you’re just getting started, right? You don’t have of experience. Maybe you are new to this whole industry. What could you do? Now, today I’m going to introduce you
I started my career as a copywriter and freelancer, where for the first few months, I got beat up by clients and rejections. So today, I want to teach you guys a bit more about, what I went through, how you can grab your first client as a freelancer, and really what not to do.
Example – A small story of a new freelance:
Let me start with an example, John had a lawn mowing business, where he was first trying to get his clients. He knocked on every door and said “Hey, can I mow your lawn?” and of course, they all said “No”. So one-day john saw a lawn. It had tall grass, was unkempt, and really messy but the owner wasn’t home. So, john did something really dramatic. He just mowed the lawn for them. He sat on the porch and waited for the owner to come back.
When the owner came back, they actually didn’t even recognize it, and they were like, “What the hell is this?”. They look at the lawn, they saw john on the porch, and they’re like “Oh, did you do this?”. John says, “Yes, I saw this lawn was very unkept, I just did it for you, I thought you were busy.” Like, I’m just a young kid trying to get started in the business. The owner was so surprised but she was really grateful and she paid john his first 100 dollars.
Add upfront value to your freelance clients:
So from this example, you learn one thing. When you want to get more clients, more freelance clients, the first thing you will have to do is to add value. This is very similar to a story of how I got started, because when I first started. I got a list of every business owner from directories and Google. I emailed them. I said, “Hey I do copywriting and you have a business, Do you want my copywriting services?”. Guess what they said? “No.” ‘Cause I didn’t add any value upfront.
The First 3 months, I got one phone call and they also rejected me. So that strategy obviously, does not work. So, what did I do? I changed up my strategy and I started delivering more value to clients.
I saw their website and I emailed them, “Hey, I went on your website, and I saw you can make these changes, I think it’ll really improve your business, it can get you a lot more revenue.” So I saw different areas on websites that can be improved and I said, “Hey I can help you with this for free.”. They took me up on it, I did the work. They kept me on retainer and that’s how I actually got my first client.
Now, for all my clients, I did the exact same thing. I looked at areas of their business. I saw where I could actually help them get more value, more revenue, and more conversions. I did the work upfront. I showed it to them and said, “Hey, if you wanna use it, you can use it. If you don’t want to use it, that’s also fine.” And that’s actually how I got my first 10 clients too.
This is how it works, Don’t ask for work directly that’s what every freelancer does. Stand out from others and sell without selling by providing value to your clients. No matter what services you sell, train your mind to hear “No” and don’t get demotivated. Because consistency is the key. Especially when you trying freelancing as a newbie. So be different from others and give upfront value without greed. I bet you will be amazed by this trick.
Final thoughts on starting your freelancing career:
So, what you get from my story is that you always add value upfront. You really should be a person of value, that adds more value to other people’s lives. This is how you will get your first clients as a freelancer.