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“I’m fully booked out with clients — I can’t believe I’m now making more than my 9-5 job!”
This was the email I received from one of my students who had recently completed our online courses and made the leap into freelancing full-time. It’s an incredibly exciting moment in your freelancing career when you’ve figured out how to land your dream clients while doing work that you’re truly passionate about.
Five years ago, I made that same leap myself, starting my own online graphic design studio. It’s also allowed me to travel the world full-time while running my business remotely (15 countries and counting!), and I’ve now taught thousands of women how to do the same.
One of the things I always tell my students is that the key to a financially thriving freelancing business is maintaining a strong client base so that you can generate consistent income. But are you wondering how to get clients as a freelancer?
Aside from the financial freedom of being your own boss, freelancing also allows you the flexibility to work remotely from anywhere: whether that’s from your adorable home office, your favorite local coffee shop, or a co-working space in an exotic location like Bali. Sounds dreamy, right?
If you’re considering freelancing full-time, here are three ways you can find your dream clients online and finally have that financial freedom that has you craving to work from anywhere!
1. Build a Client-Magnetizing Website
Let’s imagine that your dream is to be a successful cupcake baker. Your cupcakes are incredibly delicious, so you decide you want to start a business selling them. It would be a little unprofessional to sell your cupcakes straight out of your home kitchen, right? To have a thriving cupcake business, you need a bakery to showcase your brand and a place for customers to make their orders.
The same goes for your freelancing business. Instead of needing a physical storefront though, you need what I like to call a “virtual storefront.”
This is your client-magnetizing business website, and it’s one of the most crucial elements to attracting your dream clients.
Your website should showcase the following:
The services you offer
Who you’re offering them to (who are your dream clients?)
The benefits and value of working with you
Your portfolio (any examples of your work)
It’s extremely important to have a website before you begin trying to find clients, and I can’t stress this enough. This is a business you’re building, which means it’s important for you to look like one!
“Aside from the financial freedom of being your own boss, freelancing also allows you the flexibility to work remotely from anywhere: whether that’s from your adorable home office, your favorite local coffee shop, or a co-working space in an exotic location like Bali. Sounds dreamy, right?”
2. Use Social Networks to Get Clients... For Free!
I want to bust a common myth here: Once you launch your website, you’ll instantly have an influx of clients begging to work with you. FALSE.
If nobody knows about your website (and your amazing business!), how are they supposed to find you? The key to finding your dream clients as a freelancer is to tap into your own network, then utilize social networking platforms to drive free traffic to your website.
Some of my favorite social networking platforms for finding clients are:
Facebook (specifically Facebook groups)
Instagram
Networking apps like Bumble Biz
You want to make sure that you have your website linked in your profile and that your profile and content clearly showcases your business. Engage authentically with your dream clients like commenting with insightful answers, offer up bits of your expertise, and finally, inquire about working with them.
3. Create a Sales Funnel to Turn Potential Customers into Raving Clients
Now that you’ve got eyes on your business website, it’s time to turn those visitors into paying clients! This is your client sales funnel—and it’s important that this process is professional and efficient so that clients actually want to work with you. That is the goal after all.
Start with a complimentary consultation call, which will allow you to understand what results your potential clients are looking for. This gives you the opportunity to pitch your services as the solution!
It’s also much easier to get a feel for a potential client’s personality and communication style to make sure this person is, in fact, your dream client.
Next, is following up your call with a formal proposal, which will include things like the project timeframe, cost, and a detailed breakdown of the services that are included. Finally, have your client sign a contract to lay out the legal terms and conditions of the project. Boom—dream client officially landed!
Guess what? By utilizing these steps, you’ll be taking the proactive and professional approach to landing your dream clients that most newbie freelancers shy away from doing. I guarantee you’ll soon find yourself saying, “I’m fully booked out with clients!” in your freelancing business too. We all have to start somewhere in our client-finding search, and that somewhere for you? It starts today.
About the Author: Cassie Torrecillas is the CEO and co-founder of the Bucketlist Bombshells, an online educational community that equips millennial women with the confidence, skills, and business foundation to start a service-based online business, giving them the freedom to work remotely from anywhere in the world. She’s been featured on Forbes and CNBC as she and her business partner lead their community of over 70,000 location-independent female entrepreneurs. If you’re curious about starting your own online business, sign up for their free course here.
This post was published on May 21, 2019, and has since been updated.
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