Today we answer a common question we’ve been getting from the community: “What we would each do if we were starting a freelance business from scratch again?”. This was a really fun episode, where we each discussed what we would do in our first week if we were starting a new freelance business today. We get into the dread of cold-calling, the power of referrals, how to become a specialist, offering value, and using the power of social media to attract your initial clients.
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Show Notes for This Episode:
[1.00] What is our advice for freelancers starting out?
[1.40] Lisa picked up the Yellow Pages and cold called!
[2.30] How Lisa transitioned from full-time to freelance
[3.40] Why it was tougher in the past, without social media
[4.50] Finding the motivation to break out of your comfort zone finding clients
[5.45] How to keep faith when struggling to find clients
[6.30] Why direct communication is the most effective
[7.15] Why your ‘conversion rate’ matters when pitching for business
[8.30] Why people hire people they like
[9.20] Why human relationships matter so much in business
[10.20] How Tom used local connections to get the ball rolling
[10.50] Referrals then start to kick in
[11.20] How Lisa just referred her developer for us
[11.50] Ian didn’t put himself out there, but still got work
[12.50] How Ian used link-backs to attract new clients
[13.30] Don’t burn bridges, as older companies can often pass on work
[14.30] Building up a web with strands to potentially reach new clients
[15.15] Sticking with what feels comfortable to you
[16.55] How Ian still to this day gets client requests from older work
[17.15] Why designers are in demand
[18.30] We don’t even know many designers who are available! This makes it easier to get referrals.
[19.00] Paul Jarvis making a name for himself to attract referrals
[20.00] A great business development opportunity for designers
[21.00] How Dustin has a mutually beneficial friendship with another designer
[22.00] Word of mouth and recommendations are the highest converting way of attracting new clients
[22.50] Stand out by offering something of value (without pitching your services)
[23.50] Tom’s story of how he offered free consultations, and his tips for how to replicate this technique
[25.30] The importance of putting yourself out there in the right places
[26.15] How Dustin stood out by combining two things he was great at, to find one thing he was best at
[27.00] How to niche down to attract early clients more easily
[28.00] Becoming a specialist, to make your services more attractive to potential clients
[29.15] Dustin’s experience of hiring a specialist
[30.30] Ian’s experience of developing a specialist style in his lettering
[31.30] Focusing on what’s in demand in your local area (Lisa’s experiences)
[32.15] Why local can be easier than global when you’re starting out attracting clients
[32.50] Defining your ideal client (who you can realistically attract)
[33.30] Quick fire round – What Lisa would do is she started out today
[35.00] If Tom started out (he would ignore the ‘fancy’ work that didn’t make money early on)
[36.30] Why the business cards, and the ‘brand image’ aren’t so important early on
[37.10] What Dustin would do starting out (guest blogging and providing value)
[39.30] Why you need to be sincere and contribute value, rather than spamming people
[41.00] What Ian would do starting out today (using his network of Facebook friends, using social media as a catalyst)
[42.00] Ian’s tip for defining the work you truly want to focus on, very early
[43.00] How Ian would post content from day-1 to build up an audience
[45.00] How we would all do what we actually did originally. But in a more focused, quicker way.
[45.30] Pay attention to what is working, and do more of it (plus Ian’s caveat on this)
[47.45] Why your level of discomfort is dependent on your time-frame to get work in the door
[48.40] How Lisa did the initial uncomfortable work, but then never had to worry about it again
[50.20] Don’t worry about business plans, just get moving!
“A must for every creative freelancer (or those aspiring to freelance). Thank you for being so… honest! Such a wealth of information from people I admire who have ‘been there and done that’. Listening to the podcast every week feels like I’m among friends. Can’t wait for more episodes!” – AG_GD
Thanks so much for these podcasts. I really enjoy listening to the topics about the day to day issues of working as a designer. They help me feel a little less isolated too!
Hey guys! A little bit late but thank you so much for the podcasts, I’ve been listening since week 1 and I truly love it. I’m a design student from Brazil and I wish I could recommend you guys for all my colleagues because everyone struggles with these things, but not all of them can understand english…
A topic I wish you guys could cover is organizing your agenda? We know it’s common to grab more than we can chew because at the beggining we just can’t calculate well how much time we need to finish the project. It’s something I struggle a lot. Even if I use timely or some app to record my time it nevers goes well.
Anyway thank you all so much again!
Hey Calyane,
Thank you so much for your comment!
If we manage to get transcripts of the podcasts, the team will definitely explore other languages too but we super appreciate you wanting to share this with your colleagues.
I’ve popped your suggestion over to the designers for you so hopefully they can touch base on a subject like this soon. In the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy all the podcasts to come :)
Hey Guys, thanks for the wonderful podcast. Just one thing I wanted to mention, that the sound tends to very low and I have to turn up my speaks real high to hear properly. I particularly have a hard time hearing clearly what Tom is saying. I listened to the podcast again on Itunes and it seems to be much better there.
When I heard Lisa say she called up PR companies, I promptly pulled up the yellow pages book (yes, we still use them in my country) and called up, emailed a PR company that I had not considered as yet. No work yet, but at least it might lead to something in the future.
All the best guys. DC is my go to site for inspiration everyday. Please install a favorite button for the products as your site is getting larger and larger and this is direly needed. Probably a redesign of the site a well as some of the drop down menus are getting too long to follow comfortably.
I would be interested in hearing your views on design contests for a future podcast.
Take care.
Hey Vladimir! Thanks for commenting. I wouldn’t let this dissuade you, everyone started somewhere, and whilst it takes time to get to this level, it’s definitely achievable, with work. I hope this show will give you some solid tips for how to get there.
Well, I suppose the yellow pages could make a good door stop… or a place for the cat to sit so they don’t sit on your work… ???
Is it at all possible for you guys to list this on Google Play Music as well? I don’t have iTunes (I know, blasphemy!) and I really don’t want to install another app when I have one that can do the same thing. I’m just asking a question, I have no idea how difficult it is or isn’t to get these on various services.
Thanks for the incredible feedback! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the show. If you’d like us to discuss any particular topics please do let me know.
Thanks for the suggestion Scott. I’m afraid that we’ve already tried to host with Google Play Music, but it doesn’t seem to be available to us here in the UK just yet. However, I hope that you’re able to listen either via these pages, or on Soundcloud, as an accessible format. As soon as we’re able to get on Google Play I promise we’ll be there for you :).