it's time to talk about finding clients as a freelancer I get questions every
single day about how I started as a freelancer and how to find your feet how
to get clients all those type of questions so I've decided to compile all
my thoughts and all my tips and advice into this video so you've got a quick
source to find your own clients and start as a freelancer firstly I
recommend building yourself a professional-looking website so when you
do have clients approach you you have a place to send them that has all the
information they need and examples of your previous work personally I use
Squarespace for my website but there are tons out there and I definitely
recommend paying for a domain name so even if right now you know you want to
be freelance but you're not sure in what area I recommend going on to a domain
website and purchasing a domain name that
is yours so years and years ago I purchased the Alice Thorpe .co.uk
domain name it cost me about 6 pound a year to hold and I had it ready for when
I became a professional I mean I'm still waiting to become a professional but I
can pretend once you've got yourself set up with a swanky new website I would say
to get social media so personally I use Instagram I use Facebook and I use
LinkedIn I know a lot of people swear by Twitter however I don't use that as much
anymore so it is personal preference especially as a designer a graphic
designer slash illustrator I find Instagram is so helpful to inspire
myself to follow other designers to kind of chat with people who are similar to
me and also LinkedIn is really good to find more professional connections so
maybe in the future if I wanted to work for bigger brands LinkedIn is a place
where I can reach out to those and hopefully find myself some clients and
actually I see a lot of people reaching out for work and opportunities on
LinkedIn so that is a really really good space to be if you are in need of some
clients and some advice and information really the biggest thing I have learned
since being a freelancer I've been a freelancer now for 8 years I started
when I was 16 and I fell into the trap of waiting for clients to come to me so
as a photographer I kind of had work sometimes and then for really long
periods of time I didn't have any work and I just kind of sat there and didn't
do anything about it so the biggest mistake for me was sitting and waiting
for clients to come to me that's not always gonna happen not everyone is that
lucky so it's important to be proactive so if you are available for work make
sure people know about that they're not going to approach you if they don't know
and also reach out to the kind of people you want to work with and speak with
them and see if they're in the market for anything that you're creating we'll
go into that in a little bit more detail in one second something that I really
enjoyed being a part of right in the beginning was a job board site so I used
a site called fiver on there you can pay graphic designers or video editors
actually lots of creative industries copywriters anything like that you can
pay people to do work for you so it starts at a fiver so five pounds and it
goes up from there you can set your own rates and that could be a good space
to find new clients I know there are lots of other sites I've personally not
tried them but I will link a few different sites in the description below
so you can check them out for yourself you can also make use of existing
contacts that you have so if you are a recent graduate it is important to stay
in touch with your fellow graduates because you never know further down the
line you might end up needing to work for each other and it's a great way to
put the feelers out there and find work in your chosen industry so if like me
you are a recent graduate I'd recommend just emailing or messaging someone you
know who works in a similar field to the one you're looking for just send them a
personal email hi how you doing really enjoying the work you've done make sure
that you are up to date with what they're doing and make it personal you
know they don't want another blanket email they're not going to reply tell
them what you do tell them what you're available for and just ask them if they
know anyone in the market for the work that you do or know anyone that might
offer some advice or point you in the right direction kind of linking in with
that is talking to people in your field so I graduated in a creative degree so
it's very important for me to stay in touch with my fellow classmates
however connecting with other people that you've not previously met is so
important because you can learn from them and you can ask them questions and
connect with them so what I do I connect with a
bunch of people our LinkedIn and Instagram I find Instagram a lot easier
to talk to people on it's a lot more relaxed so I follow designers and
illustrators and only the other day I asked a fellow illustrator what printer
she used what paper she used and she was more than happy to help me out the worst
they can do is not reply so just kind of be a bit brave and put yourself out
there follow the people who are doing the stuff that you want to be doing and
take inspiration from their work this next one I'm still working on myself but
I get told this so much and it is to find networking events that are in your
areas so for me I go to YouTube events I don't yet go to graphic design events
and I think that's where I am missing out so it's super important to show your
face even just say hi tell someone your name and then further down the line they
might remember you they might reach out to you networking events are super
important for that if you want you can hand out business cards and you just
kind of again put in the feelers out there and see if you can find anyone who
is up for hiring a freelancer like yourself whilst we're on this topic
actually let me know if there's any design conferences or events or
networking things that you know of because I don't know where to start
looking for them and I do need to go to this one of my absolute favorite things
to do when I first started and even now is to recreate existing things so you
might recognize that in my logo redesign videos I like remaking logos that already
exist because it gives me an interesting angle to work from and I get to explain
the process a little bit as to why I changed it so for example if you want to
be a website designer maybe redesign a website that you've seen and you think
could do with some tweaks put it on that website you made and speak about
make a blog post all about why you did it and the differences you've made and
how you think it will improve that company and if you are redesigning
something that is in the same creative field that you're looking to work in as
a freelancer people will be able to come across that website see that your work
is good and maybe that'll apply to them when they want your product to something
I did recently was make a list of the people and brands I want to work with so
for me because I do have two different kind of branches of work I have YouTube
and graphic design I have a for both so on there I have brands that
I would love to work with brands that I would love to design for and it gives me
something to sort of aim towards and it also allows me to reach out to them so
I'll go down that list and it's easy enough for me to find a contact email
for them and I'll just introduce myself I keep it short and sweet
I tell them which product of theirs I particularly liked and let them know
that I'm open for chats open for any opportunities and again the work they
can do is not reply and even if they don't reply they've seen your name in
their inbox they're more likely to remember in the future the penultimate
one is one that is sometimes a little bit of a touchy subject it is starting
working for free so when you very first start work for free now I know a lot of
people say that that devalues everyone else's work in your industry however
when you're first starting out and you have a very limited portfolio and you
need the experience and maybe design in for a friend of a friend or someone
quite personal to you doing it for free is absolutely completely fine
the biggest thing I'd say when doing work for free is be very very selective
so don't let someone walk all over you only take on work that is going to
benefit you because after all you're doing them a favor
so don't accept work that you know isn't gonna benefit your portfolio isn't going
to help you learn and get better and make sure when you do accept free work
to set the boundaries so let them know the kind of time scale you're working to
how many adjustments you're willing to make and how the process is going to
work but alongside that also let them know that you are doing them a big favor
just say for a regular client I would charge a hundred pounds and I'm giving
you this for free really happy to help you out and then also once you'd done
ask for a testimonial ask for a review of what you've done so you can put that
on your website and let them know that you'd be more than happy to be referred
on so if they are really happy with what you've done which you need to make sure
they are they will tell their friends and other companies that you did a
really good job and hopefully you'll get some more work out of it where the mouth
is a really really trustworthy tool within the industry because people trust
other people's opinions but my farewell advice for you is to practice practice
as much as you can do some mock briefs recreate things that were
exist share things on Instagram use hashtags just keep practicing and sure
that what you're making is something that you love something you're
passionate about because that passion will show through the work itself and of
course make sure you learn from your mistakes everyone has more mistakes than
successes that's just how it works but generally people only ever shout about
the success so if you are knocked down and you did something wrong and you're
feeling a bit downhearted just just pick yourself up learn from it and hopefully
that'll improve your work and your business in the future
alright that's me that's my that's my tips for the day let me know if you're
watching this and you have anything else to add of course I'm not an expert I'm
just sharing what I know and what I have learnt but if you have anything to add
please do start a conversation in the comments I love to hear from you guys
thanks so much for watching good luck with your future freelance endeavors and
I'll see you soon for another video bye