Five tips to help you find work as a Freelancer

Being a Freelancer is awesome! But, having been freelancers ourselves the team here at Roll knows how quickly FREE-lancer can turn into STRESS-lancer, NOSLEEP-lancer, LONLEY-lancer or just BORED-lancer. So we put our heads together and based on our own experience working as a freelancer and with freelancers, we have come up with the top tips to help you #BeFree.

The result if a five-part series looking at the most common questions and challenges freelancers have and sharing our tips and experience on how to deal with them — starting with this article.

Five tips to help you find work as a freelancer

Of course, this is where it all starts. You can’t be a freelancer without work. If you come out of full-time employment you’re probably used to other people finding the work and handing it over to you to execute. So being on your own and having to find your own work can seem daunting in the beginning. The good news is, the more you do it the easier it will get because (a) you get better at it and (b) you get more experience and become better known in your industry. As with so many things in life, it’s the getting started part that can be hard. So here are some ideas to get your first few freelancer jobs.

1. Create your profile

The very first thing you need to do is create your profile. Basically this is your brochure / website that promotes you, your skills & experience and your services. It can be as simple as a pdf document with an overview of your skills and experience and some samples of your work. But if you’re a creative or technical freelancer you probably want a better way to showcase some of your work. A simple web presence can be a very effective way to do so. Squarespace is a great tool if you don’t know anything about web development and design. Other options are WordPress (even if you know very little about web development you should be able to create a basic WordPress website) or Drupal.

On your site or profile, be specific about your skills and the types of work you’re looking for.

Make sure it’s really obvious from your page or profile that you’re available for work (and not just showcasing your past work) and most importantly, make it easy for people to contact you — that means at least a phone number and email address in a highly visible position.

Alright, now that you have your presence / profile it’s time to get the word out.

2. Get the word out to your Network

When we thought about where we used to get our freelancer work from, all of us here at Roll agreed our networks were and are the single most valuable source of work. Of course, living in Auckland (New Zealand) a place where everyone knows everyone probably amplifies this even more. But regardless of where you are, you’re likely to have a network you can tap into to get work.

There is nothing more valuable than a great network — Know how to leverage it.

You obviously don’t want to spam people but sending out a message to your network to let them know you have gone out on your own and are looking for work can do wonders. Many people prefer to work with someone form their own network so if they do need your services they will probably really appreciate you reaching out.

Your goal is to make it really easy for people to assess your skills and fit for work they might need a hand with. Make sure your messages are precise and to the point. Your goal is to make it really easy for people to assess your skills and fit for work they might need a hand with. A simple bullet point list is often a great away to do so. Include your profile or a link to your website for anyone interested in more detailed information. And remember people in your network might not be an expert in your specific area — especially if you do quite technical work. For example, if you’re reaching out to a small business owner to see if they need help with design or development work, they probably don’t know anything about programming languages or design tools so listing those skills will have limited value. Instead, avoid jargon and include a link to examples of your work to give them an idea of what you could do.

Don’t just rest on the network you have. Put effort into extending and nurturing it.

Make sure you have a future proof way of getting in touch with people — LinkedIn is great for that. Make it a point to add everyone you interact with professionally on LinkedIn so even if you don’t speak to them for years, you still know how to find them. Email addresses and phone numbers can change. LinkedIn won’t. In your specific industry another platform like Facebook or Twitter might be more relevant than LinkedIn but the concept is the same.

3. Remember to ask for referrals

While someone in your network might not need your services right now, they might know someone who does.

An additional benefit of reaching out to your network is that it can open doors into their networks. While someone in your network might not need your services right now, they might know someone who does. So when you reach out to them make sure you ask them to pass on your details to anyone they think might be interested. From our experience most people are very supportive and happy to make introductions. But they often don’t think of it themselves. So make sure you ask. When you do, make it easy for them pass on your details. A good way to do so is by including your profile / web presence as a link or an attachment.

4. Engage in groups and communities (online and offline)

Another tactic that has worked really well for some of us is engaging in online groups and forums. Find a relevant group on LinkedIn, Facebook or other networks and industry specific forums. In most cases a hard sell of your services won’t work in these groups. But a softer approach might. For examples, if you’ve recently done work relevant to the group share it, ask for feedback and mention that your available for work. Or look through the discussions other have started to see if you can contribute and connect with people that way. For example, if you’re doing web development and someone is asking questions about website optimisation you might have some tips you can share. This is a great way to draw attention to you as well as showcasing your expertise.

But don’t just limit yourself to online groups

Have a look at what meetups and other networking groups are active in your area and industry and get involved. Start by just going along and talking to people. But after a while you might want to consider getting more involved to get noticed. You can start be asking some smart questions at the end of presentations or engaging in the discussion. Or maybe there is even an opportunity to present a project you’ve worked on or talk about a topic you know well. Often organisers of these events are looking for expert speakers so they might be happy if you put your hand up. While this can seem daunting in the beginning, it’s a great way to position yourself as an expert and get your name out there.

5. Website to find freelancer work

If you have exhausted your personal network, asked for referrals and engaged in groups and still don’t have enough work, or simply want to try something else, there are a bunch of website that can help you find freelance work.

Freelancer and Upwork are probably the most well known but there are many others. Entrepreneur Magazine complied a great list of the 15 best freelance websites to find jobs. Check it out here.

Alright, that should give you some ideas on how to find work as a freelancer. Pretty soon you will be negotiating details with potential clients and one of the first things they will want to know if how much you charge. Read the next article in this series for tips and examples on how to determine your freelancer rate.

This is part 1 in a 5 part series. Other articles in this series will cover:

• Work out how much you should charge as a freelancer — Read it here
• Freelancers: When to say YES and when to say NO
• The nitty gritty detail Freelancer should think about — agreements and payment terms
• Managing your work as a freelancer

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About Roll

Roll is the tool for serious freelancers who understand that, to be successful, they need more than just individual tools to track time, manage clients & projects and send invoices.

By putting all these essential tools in one easy to use software application, Roll gives you insight and visibility into how your business is really performing, across the board.

Roll will help you better manage your businesses, so you can be a FREE-lancer and spend more time on the things you really love.

Learn more at www.rollhq.com