So you are setting out to be a freelancer. Maybe you had a full-time gig and a side hustle and are now looking to make the transition to being your own boss. Or maybe you are starting from scratch. Either way, there are a number of things we’ve identified at Snipply you can do to ensure you are building a healthy pipeline of business that should be able to sustain the growth of your freelancing operation. Let’s take a look at them below.
Start building your business through your existing network.
Job boards and marketplaces are essential places to have profiles and find new clients but it is important to build a basis of clients in your already existing network. When talking to freelancers or small agencies you’ll find a pattern where their biggest clients are past employers, companies in-network, friends of friends, or referrals from friends. Start here and augment your client list using online marketplaces and job boards.
You need to be building your network on a weekly basis.
There are easy ways to build your network. Go to industry events, ask for intro’s to relevant people from your existing network, or even host events yourself. If you are a freelancer you probably have an in-demand skill-set, so volunteer to mentor founders in startup accelerators, teach free “lunch-and-learns” and overall just make yourself available and helpful to people in and outside of your network.
Make sure your online profiles are always up to date.
While not rocket science, you’ll want your online profiles to be up to date and built so that they’re working for you. Not just job boards, your socials, websites, blogs, etc should be maintained to make sure you're always putting the best foot forward online.
Actively build your digital presence.
Beyond your online profiles you should be building out a digital presence that showcases your talent. Depending on what your skill-set is this can be a blog highlighting your thoughts, tips and tricks, showcasing your knowledge base, or presenting your projects. You might want to have a portfolio online if you are a creative, and you probably want to be sharing your work via every social you have. It also might make sense to have ancillary brands that are aligned with your industry that you manage. For example, separately branded blogs or social handles that share and comment on news and insights for your industry or area of expertise. This isn’t limited to freelancing — even large companies like Adobe do this with their web property CMO.com.
Follow your competition, potential clients, and industry as a whole.
There are simple things you can do to see what is going on with your competition and industry to make sure you are always staying competitive and knowledgeable about what opportunities are out there. This shouldn’t make up a ton of your time but simple things like setting up Hootsuite streams to follow keywords, or Twitter lists to follow companies in your space can be incredibly helpful.
Never rely on one or a few clients.
Often times you’ll have one or a select few clients that feed you a ton of business. While this is great at first, it is important to remember that things can change quickly. People leave jobs, budgets can get cut, or work can simply just dry up for a number of reasons. As a freelancer, you want diverse revenue streams. The same thing can be said for potential clients in your pipeline — you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket.
Make sure to keep a consistent sales process and pipeline.
It’s easy to get caught up in the business you already have but it is necessary to have a healthy pipeline of new business coming in. We know clients can drop off, so it’s imperative to make sure you’re able to keep a steady pipeline of work. The last thing you want is to go from insanely busy to completely quiet. It isn’t enough to build a network and keep profiles up to date, you need to actually be pitching and closing new business on a regular basis.
If you never ask you never get an answer.
This little tip to keep in mind is relevant in many different ways. When talking to people in your network, you’ll never know if they need help in an area aligned with your expertise if you never ask. You can’t upsell clients if you don’t find out what other challenges they are facing. Make sure to always be asking questions that can be helping your business, and listening to see where there are new opportunities for growth.
Follow up, follow up, follow up.
Never be afraid to follow up with someone. There is no reason to think you are being polite by not following up with a potential client or pushing an existing one. Follow up is key to closing new business and making sure current projects are completed on time.
Get to no faster.
Don’t waste time constantly trying to work with someone that isn’t that interested, or seemingly aloof or hesitant. Getting to no faster will allow you to focus on potential clients that will sign, and on the projects you already have.
So that concludes the top tips for filling up your freelance pipeline. If interested in taking a deeper dive head over to Snipply’s blog where we’ll be publishing a full guide for both freelancers and those looking to build a freelance team. And if interested in tools to make your world in freelancing easier, check out Snipply’s beta here.
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