How I’d get freelance clients (starting from 0)

this is what I would do if I'm starting out as a freelancer with zero clients and zero experience I'll start by specifying my offering I'm going to first list out my skills based on my skills I will list down the services that I would offer for each service I will write down a list of deliverables let me give you an example skills UI ux design workflow the services I'm going to offer based on my skill set is responsive web design mobile app design and webflow development I'm going to then list down the deliverables for each of these services for example responsive web design consists of competitive research or analysis the sitemap user flows wireframes figma prototype High Fidelity UI responsive designs design system there is no right or wrong answer this is just an example to speed things up you could easily Google deliverables for responsive web design and then figure out what deliverables you want to include I'm going to also look at how other Freelancers position themselves I want to know how successful Freelancers priced test service so I start by Googling freelance web designer and see what comes up I'll study their website their services their brand identity based on this practice I know that I want to separate myself from designers on Fiverr and artwork I do not want to undervalue my design work I would then know how to position myself once I'm crystal clear on what I'm going to offer I'll start to package myself you don't need clients to build a portfolio if I'm starting out and I have absolutely zero real world projects to show I'm still going to prepare a simple portfolio clients need to know what to expect if they hire you as a freelancer most people are not going to gamble on someone with zero work to show Even if you offer to do it for free so this is what I would do I would pick a product I would identify a problem to solve and then come up with a solution let me give you an example the first example would be a local dentist website I can identify design problems with landing page find better ways to increase their appointments the second example would be an app landing page that could use some design Improvement increase conversions and downloads to the app the third example I could look at smaller apps in the App Store based on the ad reviews I would figure out what's working and what's not I will also test all the ad myself figure out how I could improve the app better and come up with my own design Solutions I would treat it as I'm working on a client project since I've already worked on the design Solutions I would email the company share a link to my designs in the email briefly point out what could be improved let them know that if they're willing to explore further I'm available throughout this process I'll make sure I have at least two projects in my portfolio and then I'm going to Showcase my portfolio online I'm not going to spend months preparing a portfolio I would launch it quickly make improvements as I go along in terms of where to Showcase your portfolio I would go for these few options it's either I can build a simple website or I will save time by buying off aware flow or framework template or I can start with just a figma link notion page or even a behance profile the key here is to save time and go with the one that you are most familiar as of now then I'm going to write a one minute page about myself this is a page that I will use to pitch my prospects now the pitch would consists of things like who am I I'm going to decide if I want to position myself as an individual or an agency I would specify what services I offer in the pitch the link to my portfolio how am I different what is my experience I'm gonna keep this really short I also admit that I'm really new and that's why I'm offering lower rates to new clients I would state that I would love this to be a long-term relationship stay true to your pitch be honest be transparent I'll review my page and pretend I'm the client I'll ask myself do I want to work with this person is the quality of this person's work up to my expectations would I hire me next thing I'm going to do is to show my work and get discovered if you wonder where do you find clients ask yourself if you are the client and you want to hire a freelancer today where would you go this is the answer to your question this part is really important you can be the best freelancer in the world but if nobody knows how to find you you could have a tough time finding the right clients the key to getting discovered is to be where your prospects are and provide value so when they think of hiring a freelancer they think of you to put this into practice I'm going to make a list of where my potential clients would go and make myself discoverable there here are some ideas for you freelance platforms like people per hour freelancer.com or tell your friends and family ask for a referral offer a small commission if you successfully close a deal depending on what you do you can set up profiles like a dribble profile be hands profile or if you're a workflow developer you could set up a webflow profile to Showcase your work there are also private freelance communities like swarm and Contra where you can join and build a network there you can reach out to your past co-workers or company and tell them that you're offering freelance Services you can can call email agencies and companies sharing your portfolio with them and hoping that they get back to you you can also work on getting discovered on search engines by improving the SEO of your website or your blog you could go to events and conferences where your potential clients could be at if there are any near your place you can also try out paid advertising think of where clients would be at and Target those places for example if your client reads newsletters on a certain topic consider paying for an ad on that newsletter slot hopefully get some eyeballs there the next thing I would recommend you to do is to create value now this is a slower Journey but a wildly rewarding one it's the surest way to build trust with complete strangers on the internet when value creation is done right people trust you and it becomes much easier for you to close a deal how do you create value here are some ideas you can start by offering free advice like what I did with my Twitter thread here where I suggested and designed Improvement that can be made to a certain landing page or you can start building up online presence like sharing your work on LinkedIn Twitter or even a YouTube channel you could give value to your community for example you can make yourself known in the figma community by sharing templates build a figma Plugin or a widget that is used by many people and build a larger following you can also start by building a side project what is a problem that you encounter often and couldn't find a solution for it maybe build a side project that solves that problem for example you can start a helpful blog build a digital product that solves the problems create a design template or write an ebook and share it with the world speaking of site projects when I'm managing multiple clients and multiple freelance projects as a solopreneur it was really tough I had a hard time remembering every Project's progress what invoices do I need to send out what deadlines are coming up and a lot more so I built this all in one notion workspace where you can manage your clients track invoices track project progress and have all the important information in one place to make your life easier I've also included resources like client onboarding checklist Discovery questionnaire email boilerplates NDA templates and more coming soon when you purchase this product you will get lifetime updates for free I'll add the link in the description below getting clients is a simple concept you get good at what you do you get discovered by people who may need your service rinse and repeat so now that you know how to get your clients watch this video and learn about how to manage your clients and learn about my entire freelancing workflow if you're thinking of expanding your income streams and eventually quit your job check out this video thanks for watching bye foreign [Music]

Channel: Rachel How

Views: 239,425

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Id: XG_-wR7AjLY

Length: 7min 40sec (460 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022