Become Freelance

It is the downfall of so many Freelancers and small business owners who fail. Marketing. For some, this is the “yucky” part. The topic of dread. Wouldn’t it be nice if customers just fell from the sky whenever you need them? That will happen… eventually.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862 )

Although you may have a strong aptitude for the talent or craft that you want to pursue full time, if no one knows you’re here then it won’t behoove you whatsoever. You can be good at what you do. In fact, you can be the undisputed BEST. But unless you’re better than your competitors at advertising and marketing, then you will not win. Often it is the Freelancer who is best at marketing who is able to land countless new customers, as opposed to the one who is too shy, modest or who lacks people skills. Let’s face it, marketing is about sales! It’s about increasing traffic. We’ve all had experience in dealing with a sales person, maybe even been one ourselves at one job or the next. Think back to any of those situations that you had a need (for a service or product). Did you buy from the most talented guy, or the one who was the most confident, had the best guarantees, offered a good service and went the extra mile?

Honestly, the whole subject of marketing your Freelance business could be a whole eBook all by itself. Nevertheless, it is a topic that must be addressed within your initial startup so that you can lift off immediately, rather than spinning your wheels for a month to determine what works and what doesn’t. With that in mind, Foolproof Freelancing has these marketing insights for you to enact immediately:

8 Marketing Maneuvers for COLOSSAL Results –

1. GIVE YOUR BUSINESS A PERSONALITY: Your own personality should represent that of your business. What is your style? Unique characteristics? Present your Freelancing services or products in a charming manner that will appeal to businesses and individuals of all categories. You will attract those customers who are looking for your inimitable style. Think about whom you are and what type of image you wish to project. Are you -

• Elegant and Sophisticated?
• Witty or Sarcastic?
• Enlightening or Motivational?
• A Sharpshooter, Straightforward and Matter-of-fact?
• A Busybody - a True People Person?
• Culturally Enthusiastic?
• A Fresh Innovator of Creative Concepts?
• Look across the board at your competitors. Do you see any that stand out? If so, why? So many businesses take a boring approach to selling their services. Make your business colorful, appealing and pleasant to look at in all of your presentations. Develop a logo that identifies the main resource of your venture. And don’t forget about that witty, captivating name. Make your business MEMORABLE

2. DON’T BE AFRAID TO TOOT YOUR OWN HORN: Beep! Beep! You’re awesome. That’s why you want to own your own Freelancing Business. If you didn’t think you’d be good at this, then why would you do it? Make sure you always project the image that you KNOW you are the best. Confidence in yourself = a client’s confidence in your abilities.

• Make your profile, website and promotional materials outstandingly creative
• Modestly brag when listing credentials. Your appearance must answer the question of “How is this provider qualified to complete my assignment?”
• Note awards and achievements
• List something personal about yourself, even if you have more than one employee.
• Raise a customer’s confidence in you by posting your photo (even if you say you are not photogenic). Research indicates that customers feel a certain rapport with you immediately if they can see what you look like.
• If you look good, you will get more jobs. People hire good-looking people. You know it’s true. Make sure you look good in that photo. It amazes me how many Freelancers post a photo of themselves from a shoddy webcam. In some, you can see the messy office in the background or the Freelancer wearing a pair of jeans.

Get a professional photo for your bio. This is a MUST HAVE!

• Show your absolute best work – do not post things on there from 10 years ago, unless they were of notable achievement, like appearing in National Geographic Magazine or something super stellar.

3. TALK ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME: Not that we condone narcissism, but when you start out on a Freelancing venture, you need to take action quickly. Telling everyone about your business will not only validate the idea to you, it will pique interest of prospective buyers that you might not have discovered. EVERYONE KNOWS SOMEONE. You never know where your customers will come from, and sometimes the biggest clients can be found in the most unlikely places. At the risk of sounding obsessive, you should make sure when you talk about your new Freelancing gig that you put the mention within context of the appropriate conversations. Most people ask out of friendly human nature – “What are you up to these days?” or “What’s new with you?” or “How are you?” and things like that. You know it’s true because you do it! Use these opportunities as a chance to tell people and you may be surprised to hear, “Oh, really? My husband’s co-worker needs a guy who does that. Do you have a card?”

4. HIGHLIGHT BENEFITS WITHOUT SACRIFICING FEATURES: It’s a common problem and a big mistake of people who have insignificant experience in marketing. Freelancers are just as self-absorbed as buyers. Come to think of it, in this world it is every man for himself (or her). Most Freelancers post generic marketing messages on their promotional materials, websites and when placing bids. They say things like “I have 10 years of experience” or “my ________ (insert product or service here) is the best”. If I’m a client, I might say to you – “BIG DEAL! What’s in it for me?” Put yourself in the position of a customer when you are trying to find work. Answer the following three questions:

• Why is YOUR service or product better?
• What will YOU or IT do that is different and exceptional?
• Give me one good REASON why I should hire you?
• Once you put yourself in the shoes of your client, you will notice your marketing strategy changing a bit. Try this exercise. Pick up a book. List the features. Let’s say it is a red book with information about a topic that is similar to every other book on the market. Rather than just saying it is a red book about business, write WHY the color red will be beneficial, how the book will help the business and what makes it different than all the other books like it. What will happen for the customer who reads this book? By doing this you will:
• Shift the focus from what you have done to what you will do.
• Show the customer the benefits of using you over the hundreds of other choices.
• Find out what the goal of your customer is and clearly define how you will achieve it.

5. USE UNCONVENTIONAL METHODS: Freelancers typically do not have a large marketing budget. In fact, many of them don’t include a whole lot of marketing in their budget. Bootstrappers often do not have the cash to spend and must rely on unconventional marketing methods in order to attract new business. There is a trendy term for this – called “Guerilla Marketing”.

Well, what is it? As a business owner, you need to rely on alternative measures to get the word out about your services. Especially when you don’t have the luxury of an expensive ad agency to do it for you. Instead, you need creative outside-the-box strategies that will work within weeks, not months or years. I like to give clients an analogy that goes something like this -

Let’s say your absolute favorite celebrity band in the WHOLE world is coming to town. They are going to choose only ONE BIGGEST AND BEST FAN that will get front row seats, VIP passes, and an autographed guitar to bring home as a treasured keepsake to hang on the wall. What would YOU do to stand apart from the crowd and get noticed? How will you let them know that you are the biggest fan? Now take that same concept and apply it to your business. What will you do to stand apart from the crowd? Think of wild, unusual things, not the typical means that everyone else does.

This topic is WIDE and could be a whole chapter by itself. So for time and space sake, I will give you an example of unconventional marketing and then you should go put your creative hat on and begin brainstorming.

EXAMPLE – A friend of mine makes jewelry. She tried selling it at flea markets, fairs and craft shows, often working long hours at the booth and then additionally long hours creating the jewelry. It was hard work, selling and making the items. The target markets were women who “might” be passing by among the other 10 or 20 vendors who were also in the craft shows.

I told her to take a different approach. Find a niche within her business that no one else had yet found. We targeted spas. She contacted twenty hair salons and spas to set up appointments with the owners and show them her products. Eight of them were receptive. They allowed her to keep jewelry there in small amounts. They made an agreement that every month she could rotate inventory and collect the money earned from sales. In return, she offered the spas a 20% commission for letting her put the jewelry at their shop. She was able to mark the items up 200% more than she had been previously selling them at flea markets, because the clientele were often pampered housewives with hubby’s expendable income and could afford such lavish frivolities. She did not have to man the booth or waste long hours trying to sell the items – they now sold themselves! The staff at the salon was always pointing them out to the customers and they loved the fact that the products were continually changing. The handmade aspect made them even more worthwhile, whereas previous attempts at craft fairs proved insignificant among the many other similar vendors. That led to website sales, as more and more salon patrons caught wind of her beautiful jewelry. They told friends, who wanted to order online. A new e-store was born. The moral?

Find a niche within your business that may be completely unrelated to the product you are selling. Often, new customers will be more receptive to what you have because they’re not bombarded by 10 other people in similar fashion.

Find unusual ways to distribute or get the word out about your service or product. Work SMARTER and let the selling happen naturally, so that you can focus on PRODUCING.

Use outside-the-box thinking to open up new markets for finding clients who would otherwise never know you exist.

6. NURTURE EXISTING CLIENTS INDEFINITELY: Since you are likely just breaking out into the Freelance world if you’re reading this book, you need to make sure you instill the best habits for future success. Often we (as Freelancers) are so excited to get a new client that we bend over backwards to make sure they love that first assignment, which then leads to more work if the client is happy with your services and has more tasks to be completed. Then what happens over a period of time is that we (as Freelancers) become laissez-faire about those “old clients”. Instead, we shift our energies and enthusiasm to new clients again. Remember – those clients keep using your services because of that initially outstanding customer service and excitement you brought to their assignments. Don’t fall into a rut or forget about them, because your client will become disgruntled and may even begin searching for another provider. Here are some things you need to do to keep those clients continually happy, so that they will remain YOUR client and not seek services elsewhere:

• Remain in constant contact. You can do this with newsletters; occasional personalized emails just to say, “Hey what’s up – I was just thinking about you.”; add them as a friend to a social network (almost everybody has a MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or some sort of network); send them a holiday, birthday card or personalized note, if appropriate; invite them to subscribe to a blog on your website; or extend a lunch meeting once in awhile if they live near your area.
• Always complete tasks of PAST clients efficiently, promptly and diligently. Give them precedence over NEW clients. They have faithfully stuck by your side, which has led to your current success. Always remember that!
• Rekindle relationships with one-time clients. Just because the client initially told you that there was only one assignment for you to do, doesn’t mean that you should say goodbye at the end of your commitment. Go through a list of clients from last year and drop them a line. “Hey, just wanted to say hello and see how business is treating you. Hope your company has grown like wild dandelions!” Or something in your own style. It may spark their interest again and they will remember that; “OH YEAH. That guy did a great service and it really helped me out. Now I need him again.”

If you forget about your clients – they will inevitably forget about you, too!

7. THINK LIKE A CUSTOMER: Discover WHY people buy what you have to sell. Do they buy because of price, experience, aptitude or just because they like you? To answer this, you must first take a bit of interest in the psychology of the human mind. We all buy things for a REASON. Sit back and think – “What REASON do my clients have to want my service or items”? Your product or service will do one of three things for your customer.

• It will help them
• It will pleasure them
• Or it will satisfy a need
• No matter what you are selling, whether it be knowledge, words, information, designs, concepts, assistance; or something tangible like a pair of mittens, your function is to meet one of those key reasons. Turn those three checkpoints into questions – “How will my services help them? Pleasure them? Or satisfy a need?” Forget about the profit side of your business right now and how much you will earn if you sell X number of items or get X number of assignments completed. Instead, put yourself in your customer’s shoes at all times to gain valuable insight about your own business. Pinpoint the desire for your customers to buy whatever it is you are selling.

8. CREATE THE STORY OF YOUR BUSINESS: Public relations could be a completely dedicated chapter and perhaps a whole book of its own tips and purpose. Often, the free publicity will work better than spending money on advertising, marketing and special promotions. Maximize free publicity by spreading the word about your business in a creative way. Rather than just telling people you quit your job to start your own business – build a dramatic story about how you finally reached that decision and made it happen. People are motivated by the success of others. If your story is unique, it will be a great tale to tell and will give you plenty of FREE publicity. Try chat rooms, blogging, press releases and newsletters. Create an “angle” of your tale, whether its rags-to-riches; how you overcame a great challenge; how your spouse’s love encouraged you to do it; or anything of the like. Happiness breeds additional happiness, so don’t be afraid to open up and share, even if the beginning was a complete disaster. Clients and the public will come to know you for your memorable story, rather than seeing you as just another start-up enterprise like everyone else. There are stories like these printed all the time in magazines like Entrepreneur and Success Magazines (which are both very inspiring).

Undoubtedly, our book could go on a whole tangent with a topic of marketing. There is a wealth of information out there to lead you in the right direction. The main point we’d like to come across to you is that just because you are an independent contractor doesn’t mean you should ignore efforts of marketing. You may never have dreams of skyscrapers on Wall Street, but your own castles in the sky of success will only manifest once you realize that continually acquiring new customers should always be your primary focus. Your talent and trinkets are secondary, because without the clients you will not be able to fulfill those talents or sell those trinkets. Marketing goes hand in hand with the growth (or demise) of a small business.