Getting your first few paying freelance clients can feel like one of the biggest mountains you’ll climb.

Try these three super easy and yet super under-utilized ways to help you get your first clients.

1. Tell everyone and anyone who you talk to

Once you’ve decided to make the jump to freelance, you need to stand behind that decision by actively telling people that this is what you do now.

Everyone in your life needs to know. You need to shout it from the rooftops.

This means telling your neighbours, your friends, your parents, the barista at your local coffee shop, your accountant, the bartender, your mother’s friend’s brother’s sister-in law, etc.

Maybe your immediate reaction is, “That’s just so obnoxious.”

But let’s clarify something. Telling people whom you already have an existing relationship with or have already established communication with is very different than pitching your services to strangers.

No one wants to be pitched to. But having a pleasant conversation with someone in which you naturally slip into the conversation that you provide freelance services is not pitching.

And it’s important to realize that the ultimate purpose behind this isn’t to sell your services to the person you’re talking to but to make yourself top of mind.

Maybe when you’re talking to your next door neighbour, Sarah, you casually bring up the fact that you’re now doing freelance web development. Sarah doesn’t need your services, but she remembers your pleasant conversation and the next time that she’s at bookclub and overhears that someone is looking to build a website, she drops your name and boom, that’s your first client.

When you make the jump to freelance, you need to talk about it.

2. Do free* work for your friends and family

We know that unpaid labour does not pay rent and “exposure” doesn’t pay for groceries.

But while we don’t encourage endless unpaid labour, being able to do work for free for a few clients when you’re just starting out, will go a long way.

Doing some client work for free can help you:

• Build a portfolio
• Get testimonials
• Practice your skills in a professional setting
• Increase word-of-mouth around your services
• Get return clients (who then pay for your services)

If you don’t like the idea of offering your services 100% free, consider this instead:

• Can you barter?
• Maybe you have a friend who is a massage therapist. You might work out an exchange where you’ll build their website for a few massages for free. You can even work out that you give them a testimonial for their website and they’ll give you one as well.
• Can you discount the services?
• Maybe you provide part of the service for free and charge for other parts, or just heavily discount the cost of your services.

A few important things to keep in mind when providing free or heavily discounted services:

• Make it clear that you are providing these services in exchange for a testimonial, displaying the project on your website, etc.
  This is why I put an asterisk next to the word free. If you’re going to do unpaid labour, you need to get paid in other ways.
• Make it clear what the cost of the service normally would be (you can even invoice them with a 100% discount).
  This is important so that when they return to get more services from you in the future, they know what your pricing is already.
• Be very clear about exactly what services you are providing.
  There’s nothing worse than telling someone you’ll do a 3-hour job for them for free but then it turns into a 30-hour job because you were never on the same page as to what exactly it is that you’ll be providing. Having a contract or agreement drawn up (whether formally or informally depending on your relationship with the person) is really important even when providing free services.
• Work the discount into your overall pricing structure.
  A while back we wrote a blog about how to accurately charge for your services. You need to include free work as an “expense” so that your overall pricing structure is adjusted according to the free work you provide. This way your bottom line doesn’t suffer in exchange for this work you’re providing.

Providing services for free when you’re first starting out is integral to getting your name out there and for having positive reviews and testimonials that back up your services.

3. Use Facebook, Slack or WhatsApp Groups

We know that Facebook is old news. But we also know that most millennials still use Facebook for Groups. And in addition to Facebook Groups, more and more Slack and Discord servers are popping up highlighting local job opportunities and gigs.

Do some research and find your local (and remote) groups. There are always people posting looking for specific services.

It’s important when you’re in these groups to not just spam people but rather take the time to engage and respond to people’s inquiries. It needs to be an exchange. Answer questions, respond, demonstrate that you are a part of the “community” prior to just demanding that people use your services.

What have you tried?

Getting clients by posting on Linked In, trying to go viral on social media, paying tons of money for advertisements, or simply starting on freelance websites like Fiverr and Upwork are other ways to get started.

Have you been freelancing for a while? How did you get your first clients?

Let us know!

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