Client Acquisition Made Easy: Generate Predictable Income & Grow Your Business
Self-Employed? Here are the best ways to find clients!
Securing clients and earning a consistent income is one of the most difficult aspects of being self-employed.
As the freelancing industry continues to grow, there’s a lot of competition. Fortunately, more companies are hiring freelancers than ever before, so there are a lot of opportunities.
I’ve spent years trying to figure out the best ways to reach and secure new clients. Five years into my freelancing business, I’ve found many effective strategies.
The best ways to find freelance clients are
Freelance newsletters: You sign up for emails that share freelancing gigs and other helpful resources (i.e., Freelance Opportunities).
LinkedIn: This is a professional social media platform ideal for networking and finding new clients. You can reach out and send personlized messages to companies you’d like to work with.
Social media: People often use platforms like X/Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to share freelancing opportunities. Join groups/pages or search for hashtags or keywords relevant to your niche.
Freelance websites: There are several online job boards specifically for freelance jobs you can apply to (i.e., We Work Remotely).
Referrals: Ask existing clients to share your information with other people who could use your services. Clients you work well with are usually happy to do this.
SEO (search engine optimization) marketing: Optimize your website, where your portfolio and services live, for Google by including keywords and other SEO strategies.
Networking events: Go to local events, often found through Meetup or Eventbrite. Get to know other entrepreneurs and hand out business cards to potential clients, which you can easily make on Canva.
Coworking spaces: Communicate with other freelancers and attend networking events hosted by coworking spaces. These opportunities often lead to job prospects.
Cold pitching: Reach out to companies you’re interested in working with via email or LinkedIn. Send a personalized pitch about why you’d like to work together and what makes you a good fit for the job.
Client retention: Offer ongoing services for long-term work. You can also ask existing clients if they need more work when you have extra availability.
How to maintain a full workload for consistent earnings:
It’s possible to scale your freelance business, be fully booked, and have a healthy work-life balance. To do this, think of yourself as a business and make a plan for long-term, sustainable success.Â
Use these tips to help you maintain a full workload and earn consistent income:
Choose a few marketing/client acquisition strategies and work on them consistently, even when you’re fully booked.
If new clients come along when you’re unavailable, add them to a waitlist.
Check in with previous clients every few months to stay on the top of their minds for when they need help in the future.
Follow up with potential clients you’ve communicated with before to see if they need your services.
We hope you found these tips helpful for finding clients and earning a consistent income.
For more on how to do this, plus useful client-acquisition templates, read more about how to find clients as a freelancer.
Nomad Favourites
Check out our favourite books, podcasts, videos, and products this month.
How to Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit for Creativity and Radical Self-Care
This title truly speaks for itself, and it’s an important topic when you consider the constant hustle many of us are doing to find clients and live as self-employed people in this world.
I’m currently reading it and finding it to be an accessible and comforting reading, not groundbreaking but a nice reminder to take care of yourself, with some helpful tips on how to do that and still be a busy, creative person. Find more book recs here.
LinkWhisper
I’ve been using this great SEO tool for a few months now and it has saved me SO much time linking between the different articles on my websites.
It’s particularly helpful for bigger sites with lots of content, as it can be easy to forget about certain articles and have orphaned content. LinkWhisper is easy to use and provides lots of valuable data.
LibroFM Audiobooks (& credit bundle deal)
I’ve used LibroFM for audiobooks for years because they support independent bookstores and get involved with great initiatives.
If you would like to try them out and get a free audiobook, you can use my referral link — and if you use the code CHOOSEINDIE, you’ll get two free audiobooks!
They’ve also got a great gift option this year, which is also just a nice self-care gift for yourself with their credit bundle deal (going on sale Dec 5-7).
You choose the credit bundle, your gift recipient picks their own audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase! Win Win.
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