Working with Clients. Finding Work
Working with Clients. Finding Work
Working with clients is vital for a freelancer, since we don’t rely on agents or managers. The idea behind writing the Working With Clients series was to share my experience starting from scratch as a graphic design student and becoming a freelancer, lacking the experience and expertise at first, but gaining trust and client-base in the end.
In my work I always rely on myself. I hate all of the group tasks and jobs I get, because I either become a control-freak and drive everyone mad or the final result is not good enough for me. Starting out as a graphic design freelancer I had a little knowledge and no experience and looking back now I try to figure out what I could’ve done better in search of the clients.
How to Find Work
Friends and Family
The first ever logo design I did was for my brother’s consulting company in Germany which is called Olenhof GmbH. As you know, your friends and relatives are always there for you but not only you but also the things you do. Obviously, you’ll never make enough money off them, but one logo designed for my brother led to a logo design for his partner and then a business card given to him led to three more clients.
Now for a starter, this is the best experience one could wish for. Family business is never giving you the pressure you might get when working with a person you don’t know. This approach leads to a solid client base if carried out correctly, but first and foremost a good portfolio start and the showcase.
For minuses, one has to realize that finding clients out of one’s friends and family means working with them, not for them, so this could lead to something you will create that you won’t ever want to look at.
Freelance Pages
Today, there are tons and I mean tons of freelancing webpages where freelancers can find work and clients. Working at those pages is always a war, because of the unbelievable amount of people hunting for the clients.
- Get a Freelancer is one of the most overpopulated pages of this kind. Tons of clients looking for cheap labour and with such high competition this is what they get.
- Elance is another popular freelancing site, where people are looking for jobs.
- Lime Exchange would be my favorite because of the feature that the page has that being tests. A freelancer has to pass tests on how well they know what they’re doing. This keeps all of the amateurs away.
Unfortunately, despite the enormous client base, such sites are overpopulated with designers from third world countries, leaving no space for quality. Usually those designers would charge a tenner for a logo and most of the clients think that is what they need.
Cold Searching
One way I found success in freelance designing was the cold searching approach I used. Cold searching means finding clients on your own – through their webpages, newspaper ads or simply by phone calling companies randomly and asking if they need a design work done.
The method is quite unique because the company you’re addressing doesn’t know it needs the design, however the approach is that they have nothing to lose. With this in mind, the designer has to give it all to do his best. Of course, there is no hourly-rate or anything like that but there’s also no competition.
Advertisement
Once you establish yourself as a professional designer and build your own blog and portfolio page, one thing that boosts up the amount of clients you get is simple advertisement. I would suggest using Google AdWords as well as community adverts on sites like TutsPlus etc.
Advertisement isn’t only paying money to get featured but also getting involved into the community, writing articles and more. Once your name is out there, it’s time to shine, because it boosts up your rating enormously. Don’t forget that every business needs investment, so don’t be afraid of paying money, it will eventually pay off.
Conclusion
As freelance community grows rapidly and with the internet technologies taking over, a good freelance designer has to be a smart businessman. Searching for clients is a very hard task, especially at the beginning but once you take off, it gets easier.
One thing to remember that eventually all of the methods mentioned would lead you to a situation where you won’t need any of the methods here due to redirecting advertising, where you future clients would be attracted to you with the help of older clients. One you get this, you’re at the right place.
You’re right, as time and jobs pass you made a name and a reputation, in my case i had the advantage of 10 years as designer in a design studio and had contact with many clients and show them my skills and work ethic and now as a freelancer some of the clients from my old job are now my clients and that helps me a lot.
One down side is that trying to be always rightful and honest I always ask for permit to publish my clients jobs in my website and the big ones don’t let me do it, affects my marketing but score me some point of honesty with the clients.
Also social media works to atract clients, I had two facebook accounts one personal ando one for bussiness (can work with one) there i publish my works and atract people that knows me to my personal page and sugest them my bussiness page and the content of my works is published in both pages, and there I have the freedom to publish my own ideas and designs that widens my range atracting people with a different taste in design.
Taking into account the amount of work one has to put himself to just to get his name out there, it seems to be easier to work for the man sometimes ;) However, it’s never as good :)
Being an established designer prior to launching a freelance business always helps a lot, however it might be hard to leave the job, huh?