Back when I first started my freelancing business, I remember all I could think of was landing my first customers and I was always on the lookout for how I could offer my services.
I’ve liked to think I’ve since improved my techniques but did learn some valuable lessons:
Three things to keep in mind when looking for potential customers
1. Patience needs to be your new BFF
Not everyone operates on your schedule. Do you find yourself constantly checking your email? Or second-guessing yourself and whether they will pick you? I know the feeling. Trust me, that was me. But you have to just let it go once you’ve put it out there and realize that not everyone will respond to their email 5 minutes after you sent it. Chill out.
2. LISTEN with BIG EARS.
Identify problems and then talk about solutions. Don’t just offer your services. Often people don’t speak the same ‘technical’ language as you do. You might be talking about social media and they may not realize that blogging is one aspect of it. Start listening and see how what you offer can help solve a problem.
3. Hang out in different watering holes.
And put yourself out there. Are you constantly talking to the people who already know about what you do and offer a similar type of service? You’re getting caught in the echo chamber! And that ain’t going to put food on the table. It makes you feel good about what you do but people in your existing industry are probably not the people you are going after as customers.
Put yourself out there and think of areas that could use your type of service. For example, talking to other social media enthusiasts about social media is most likely not going to get you any work. But maybe heading over to a yoga forum or another industry where they are just dying for your expertise, you will get noticed. Try different things. In my case, I experimented with giving some of my time away for free on a network for entrepreneurial women and not necessarily a place where I was competing with hundreds of other people offering services like mine.
What have you tried? What worked or could use improvement? Let me know in the comments below!
I love your suggestion to hang out in different watering holes. When building a business online, you begin to see the same faces everywhere. Hanging out in different online spaces really helps to meet new people — and gets you out of the comfort zone trap where you feel like everyone already knows what you do. New places = new connections = new opportunities. Thanks for the reminder!
Totally agree!
I find it’s also easy to get comfortable hanging out in the same places where ‘everybody knows your name’. What do you plan on doing differently?