hey guys it's Alice welcome to the first freelance Friday of 2019 if you're new here
I am a freelance graphic designer and I graduated from University last year and
I am sharing the knowledge I have sometimes it's very limited in these
videos every single Friday so if you're interested in graphic design please do
press the subscribe button welcome to those of you have been here for a while
thanks for coming back glad you're not bored of me yet today's video is all
about finding clients and hopefully this helps you out let me know in the
comments down below if it does let me know your tips and as always I like to
say I'm not an expert I'm learning so hopefully I can just share the things I
know and we can learn together the first thing I would do is use your existing
contacts now whether you think you don't have them or not you all have a wealth
of people at your fingertips if you've got Facebook Twitter Instagram or if you
don't get it and share the work that you do and the things that you want to
achieve on-line is free and it's the easiest way to reach a bunch of people I
know that Instagram hashtags and go far if you get the right ones so definitely
make the most of that go to your personal Facebook find some groups for
graphic designers or freelancers and posting it and say hi I'm a new
freelancer here's some examples of my work let me know if you'd like to have
in you just need to get your face out there don't be scared it's all about
experience the second point actually also kind of ties it in with kind of
getting your work out there and using your existing contacts is to
get yourself a website I use Squarespace and I really really like it I pay a
yearly fee for my square space which might not suit you as you start up but
there's plenty of free portfolio websites out there get yourself a domain
name usually it's either your company name if you trade as a company or just
your name so for example my website is Alice though UK when someone asks me
what work do you do I can literally just send them a link to my website and that
tells them everything about me kind of puts it all into one place and makes it
easier for people to find you and obviously on there you can put your
contact details you can put reviews and testimonials you can write blog posts
you can do whatever you like and that's your own little space for people for
soli information about number three is to create diverse
content and get it out there so you're alright having a fancy website and a
fancy Facebook page and all the instagrams but you need some good work
on it like how I started at uni which I didn't even know existed which was doing
like mock briefs so there's a website called brief box that we used quite a
lot unit and there's probably many more but brief box has a number of either
free or paid for briefs that gives you a description of what your client wants
and you can finish that brief and it kind of inspires you to create something
different that you probably wouldn't have created so even if you're not
getting actual paid briefs find your own and make them and keep your feed active
because the more you practice the better you get and the more chance you're going
to be seen for the work that you do because it will be getting better number
four is to work for free and this one can sting a little bit and you do have
to be quite selective with the people that you do work for free for but and
usually working for free it gives you a good name and it gets the word out and
word of mouth is a really powerful tool say you've got an aunt an uncle who were
getting married and they want some wedding invitations design in design no
an invitations for free you probably get a few grief free drinks at the wedding
you know and then post those wedding invitations on your Instagram page and
your socials and stuff and there you go you've got some experience of wedding
invitations you use the hashtag wedding invite hashtag graphic designer and
someone might want that exact template with their own names on it there you go
you can charge the laundry and the final one is one that I need to do myself more
often and this is to network with other creatives so whether that be in person
or online network follow get inspired by other creative people and just share the
love you know so I follow quite a few people on Instagram who do creative
things and I like their photos but I don't necessarily comment on that and so
that is something I'm gonna do this year I'm gonna share the love I'm gonna try
and find some Facebook groups in my local area maybe of people who are
artists or graphic designers so I just kind of can develop my own little
community which hopefully in my little freelance bubble will
make me feel less alone and when I am stuck with anything I do have a group of
people to ask those are my five tips for finding yourself some clients I'm gonna
write this all down in a blog post with a little bit more information so if you
want to go and check that out it'll be on my website like I said I'll be
uploading every single Friday a different freelance Friday videos so
make sure you tune in for that and yeah I'll see you soon
the next video is gonna be a weekly vlog so I'll see you on Monday I