- How to find freelance clients fast.
This is a question I get from a lot of you.
There are a lot of you who've asked me, Roberto,
I can't find my first freelance clients.
Roberto, how do I find freelance clients?
I've answered this question over and over again.
Sometimes I think, as much as
twice a year in multiple videos,
but here we are again.
So I'm gonna tell you some things.
I'm even gonna go into some tips
I don't think I've shared before
on how you can find your first freelance clients,
whether it's on the internet,
or whether it's in the local market.
So let's go ahead and jump into it.
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake,
helping you create something awesome today.
Welcome back to the channel.
For the new people here, first of all, welcome,
my name is Roberto Blake.
I'm a creative entrepreneur.
I used to be a freelancer once upon a time.
I was a broke college student
and helped me pay my way through community college,
and today, I'm gonna tell you how to get your first clients.
So let's go ahead and make some assumptions real quick.
Let's assume that you at least already have a body of work,
that you have a portfolio that proves
that you can deliver on your talent,
whether that's graphic design,
whether that's photography,
whether that's writing, web design,
coding, whatever it is that you happen to do,
let's assume that you have a decent body of work,
and let's assume that the problem is
you just don't know how to reach people
who can hire you and pay you what you deserve
and what you're asking for.
Let's solve that problem real quick.
If the goal is to drum up local business,
one of the first things I think you need to do
besides hitting up friends and family
and asking them to send people your way,
is you need to get out of the house,
and you need to go to local events.
You need to go to local events where they're free
or whether they're paid.
You need to visit your local small business association.
You need to visit your local chamber of commerce.
You need to also, every opportunity,
whenever you are anywhere, and you see business cards,
you need to pick up those business cards.
You need to do research on these people,
and you need to figure out whether you have anything at all
that you can do as a freelancer
to deliver value for them and help them solve problems
in their business.
Now the reason I want you to go
to the local small business association,
and the local chamber of commerce,
is that people who are doing local business
often visit there, interact with there,
and also they have resources for you,
trying to reach out to small business owners
and they also have an idea of what services
and things people are looking for.
They also have people's business cards there
and someone there might have said hey,
if there is someone who can do this
to help me in my business, that in my business,
please let me know, send them my way.
So this is an opportunity for you to find people
that have problems they're trying to solve in their business
and can afford to pay you.
This is probably gonna be your easiest local opportunity.
Here is another one.
Find people in your local business community
that are already are paying for advertising.
If they are ready or doing a local television commercial
and have air time, if they have a local radio ad spot,
if they have print advertising, billboards,
you know what that means?
They have a budget.
If they have a budget, that means they can afford you.
Now look at the things they spend money on,
and then figure out whether
that's something you can help with,
and can you do it better
than the person they're already paying?
And can you prove that?
So now, once you've identified
that there are prospects out there,
there are people who're spending money,
there are people who have businesses,
and they can afford you, you need to do some research.
You need to look at what it is
that they are paying for,
what their expectations are.
And you know try and figure out
how you can compete with that.
Now in some cases, you also,
when you figure out who these people are,
you need to find out who they're three,
local competitors are so that
if you don't end up working with them,
you could probably work with at least
one of their competitors.
And you just have to put yourself in a position
to where you are able to deliver
on the kind of work that they expect.
If you can't do that,
then you have to go back to square one.
You have to practice, raise your skill level.
You might have to find people at a lower tier
that you can work for for free to build up your skills
and reputation, and I know that's not what you wanna hear.
I know you have bills to pay.
But guess what, people hiring you don't care about that.
They only care about whether you can do the work
that they expect, and they are only willing
to pay for you in that particular instance.
They do not care about your problems.
So you can't use them as an excuse
in the comment section in this video.
The other thing I'll say about working for free
is a lot of people cry about it and they say,
well I don't wanna work for free,
or I don't wanna work for exposure and all those things.
I'll remind you that people buy exposure
in the form of advertising and marketing.
So you can't think that exposure is worthless,
or not worth your time.
If you don't have a network
of high net worth individuals already,
if you don't have access to people in the industry,
then for some of you, your only option
will be to work for free a little bit.
That certainly was the case for me.
I don't think I'd be in the position I am today
and earning a six figure income
if I had been unwilling to work for free.
So I don't want you to turn your nose up on it.
I will do a dedicated video to it.
But I just have to be very blunt with you about that.
You can not feel entitled.
Everyone has to earn their way.
Now if you're trying to do things online,
if you're trying to do things online,
then you also have to have a body of work.
And that will require you to have things
like a website in a lot of cases.
Now there are a lot of people who,
they only wanna use free platforms,
and I get it that it feels like you know, inaccessible
to you but websites are not that expensive today.
And you can earn the money to do that
even off of one client gig.
So I'm going to recommend a few different web hosting things
in the description down below for you guys,
and yeah some of those will be affiliate links
but here's why you need a website.
You need a way to control search engine
optimization and traffic.
So that people can see your work.
Now you need a place where you can control that
'cause yes, I'm aware that your website
will not get as much traffic as a free social media platform
where people are already there.
But it's also true that that social media platform,
there's people that might be more experienced,
more connected, more talented than you
that will be competing for eyeballs,
and you won't necessarily win that game either
just because it's free.
So think about that.
Now at least with search engine optimization
and specifically, targeting maybe your local market,
or targeting the niche, you might be able
to rank in the search engines
or at least get someone's attention,
and then you can convert and get that business,
'cause I know that's something I've been able
to do in the past and even now, as a business person,
I always take advantage of it.
There are websites and marketplaces
that allow you to compete for freelance gigs,
bid on them, and so on.
There's Fiverr.com.
I've had my own grievances with them in the past.
But less on the platform and anything that's done,
then there are people who use the platform
and have stolen work from me.
So I'm just being transparent that like,
don't think that like I just oh Fiverr,
yay it's cheap and everything like that.
There are things that I disagree with.
But what I know is this.
Though the fact that Fiverr exists,
and that there's a market for it
as the largest freelance platform
in the entire world at this point,
and they are the most recognized and marketed,
you can't get away from that reality.
So you might as well take advantage of it.
And see if there's any way for you to benefit.
So I would say that you need to have a presence in Fiverr.
And you need to have a presence in Upwork.
And if there are other freelance sites
that you feel are accessible to you,
and that you can meet their requirements,
then you should apply for those as well
and you should put as much of your work
in these platforms as possible
so you have multiple opportunities
to find new work, or for clients to find you.
Also, you can use these platforms as
links in your social media profiles,
if you feel that that will work better
than having a link to your own website.
It just depends on where you feel
it's gonna be the easiest to get somebody
to make a transaction.
So just kind of keep that in mind.
And take each of these platforms with a grain of salt.
I also plan on doing a video on the way
to get the highest paying jobs in Fiverr for you guys.
I've been talking a lot with a lot of freelancers
about this but I've also been doing
my own research as a buyer.
I've been running some experiments on a hidden account.
It has to be a hidden account because I don't want people
directing eyes that it's me,
and try and manipulate the situation.
So I've been, running my own experiences
and experiments as a buyer to see what people will do.
And it's been interesting.
One of the things you have to be willing to do
when it comes to getting clients
is you have to be able to explain the value
of your services very clearly to people.
And my advice is that it's easier to get clients
no matter what you're doing if you just charge
a flat project rate for something.
Because that's easy for someone to understand
how to control their budget.
When you do stuff hourly, one there's no real
incentive for you to be efficient,
and also everyone's gonna be worried
whether you're billing them for more hours or not.
But if it's just hey, I did the thing, it's done.
This is my fee.
Like it's very easy to make that transaction
when you know exactly how much something cost.
And I can tell you as someone who hires freelancers
on a regular basis, that that's how I prefer to do it
as someone who's hiring.
So let's kind of recap real quick.
We talked about the fact
that if you wanna get local business,
you need to look at who has a budget for you,
and who is already a business owner and operator
in your local market.
And you need to get out of the house and get involved
with your local community,
if you wanna drum up local business.
You also obviously need a body of work,
and you need to build up your reputation,
and you need to have a website.
And one of the other reasons to have a website
is it's a place that you can put your testimonials.
Putting your testimonials on your website
of what you've done for people,
the results, showing your body of work.
Talking about your process.
It is important.
It is one of the things I think helped me the most
back in the day.
So I would encourage you to do that.
Like I said, I'm gonna link to Bluehost,
and some other websites that you can get hosting from,
in the description down below.
For those of you who wanna build
an email list for your business,
I'm also gonna link to ConvertKit for you.
It's what I use for my email marketing.
But I think that search engine optimization,
email marketing, these marketing tactics,
and also aggressive local marketing.
I even would go so far as to say
that some of you, if you're doing local marketing,
should consider even printing flyers,
that easily explain your services
and might even have your rates on them.
I think that that's a powerful thing that you can do.
So I think those things are important
to kind of keep in mind if we're talking local.
If talking about doing stuff on online,
you need a website, you need to be able to control that.
I still like the idea of you having an email list,
and having some free download or something.
I also think you have to leverage social media.
But I also think you have to leverage
the existing online freelancer market places.
And there are quite a few of them,
and not just Fiverr and Upwork.
There are others as well.
I'm gonna do a video also about making more money
as a freelancer by raising your skill level,
because I think that a lot of you don't realize
there are certifications out there for certain things,
and there are also services you can offer
that are high ticket items.
Freelancing doesn't have to be like this
like $50 a transaction proposition.
It can be extremely lucrative to where everything
is $500 up for you.
I know especially that that's true when it comes to things
like photography, which again,
is again a more localized thing to do.
But there are people who, if they are entry level,
make $500 on a weekend doing a wedding,
and people who are more experienced,
making $5000 in a weekend or more.
So I just think that you have to
understand the opportunity as it exists.
Understand where the market is,
what people can afford and position yourself
to get the most value by delivering the best service.
And I think that's where I wanna end this.
Question of the day.
If you already are doing freelance work,
what's the most money you've made in a month freelancing?
And the reason I ask 'cause I wanna encourage
some of the new people here to realize
that this is a money making opportunity for them.
Now if you haven't made any money at all freelancing,
what is the value that you think
you can deliver to the market?
I'd love to hear from you guys in the comments,
let's get a great conversation going.
And if you have any advice to offer
other freelancers, please leave that there
and try and help the people in this community
so that they can make more money.
Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome stuff here on the channel
we've got plenty of tips on freelancing,
marketing yourself and using the social media platforms.
As always you guys, thanks so very much for watching
and taking the time with me today,
don't forget, go out there
and create something awesome today.
Take care.