Marketing is one of the key aspects in freelance business. You really have to spend some good amount of time on thinking and planning about how to market your work and skill set. However, many freelancers actually spend their valuable amount of time on marketing in a view to get new clients, and completely overlooking the existing client base.
This article will shed lights on 3 Steps that will lead you to get more work from your existing client base instead of looking for new clients all the time:
Ask for 10/15 minutes of Consultation
The general trend is, most of the time freelancers get clients though referrals. It is the clients who contact the freelancers with a specific job in mind and hands that off to the freelancer. Once the freelancers finish the project, it is handed over to the client and in most cases we will never hear anything from that client until he is faced with a similar kind of projects to be done.
To prevent this from happening, instead just letting the client go, try to discuss about his business and functional mechanism of his business. Just ask politely for 10/15 minutes. Most of them will be more than happy to have a discussion. The main objective is to find out where, and what kind of bottleneck that the client is having and trying to solve them. This can lead to a long term satisfactory relation being develop and you may end up having a continuous steam of work.
Prepare a Questionnaire for The Client
It is the best advice to have an open-ended question for the client during the 10/15 minutes discussion. Questions such as “Is there any service that they used to offer but not offering now because of staff shortage”, can really open up opportunities for you.
Submitting a Proposal
Once you have finished the discussions and though about it, you will be able to figure out which way you can help them, if any. Then it is time to prepare a proposal where you specifically ask for the work. You put forward your idea and method in a simple plain word so that it sounds both lucrative and beneficial to the client; and it really soars up you chances of finally getting the work.
Thus, if we can concentrate a bit on our existing client base, then with a little plan and patience, great benefit can be derived. Take these advice seriously and gain your client base.
This post is summarized from How to Get More Work from Existing Clients?. Photo by NWSD.
Asking for a better salary that we all hope we could get it done as per our will, but the reality is different. You boss will not be at all that interested to uplift your current salary status. In fact, pressuring this may in the end hurt your work relationship. This article will focus on some points that you should remember when you turn comes up to negotiate for a higher salary:
Aim High and Be Realistic
It is always good to hold a high ambition, in fact, it has been found that people with higher ambition deals more successfully when comes the factor of negotiation, but you should also be realistic and propose something that makes sense.
Be Persuasive
Deal diplomatically. NEVER say that you want higher wage for your own benefit. Instead, try to be persuasive and make your boss understand that paying you higher is actually for company’s benefit. Iit will only betterment the company’s output.
Deal with a Right Tone
Keep your tone to moderate. Do not argue over anything in the middle of discussion. Make your boss believe that you are willing to listen and in return you also expect the same from him when comes to discussing your issue. Avoid threats and ultimatum of all kinds.
Plan Properly
Your compensation should include not only salary but also other benefits as well, such as greater work responsibility, a bonus, profit sharing etc.
Listen to Your Boss
Just like your own interest. Your boss will have his own points of views and interests to look after, so you should be patient enough to address hose as well.
Create Varying Options
Always think up new plans over how to improve the company’s performance and share the ideas with your boss. In fact also take part in joint brainstorming in which different people of your company are discussing the future events. In that way you can prove your worth and your boss should have no problem satisfying your own needs.
Make Your Claim a Strong One
When you claim for higher compensation, you also must put logics that are firmly grounded on objective criteria. This way you can persuade them a lot easier.
Backup Plan
It is always better to think up a back up plan in case you have to walk away from the table, i.e. your boss turns your proposal down.
Plan Thoughtfully and Carefully
You have to invest considerable amount of time and energy to really draw an effective plan for the overall success.
Take Note
Learn from the experience, even if it is a successful one, try to pinpoint which side you could have done better and which approach you should modify to suit the condition more effectively.
By following these ten tips you can really enhance your chance of being successful a great deal higher than average salary.
It is true that though freelancing is really a lucrative proposition, but it is not really for everyone. In fact, many freelancers happen to start it, then either fail to cope up with it or just find himself just perfectly suited for it. However, there are few in the market who will suggest that freelancing is really a safe option as even when you come to realize that you will not be able to meet the standards, you can always return to a 9-5 regular job. However, from my point of view, it is not always the easiest as the following points will tell you why:
Lack of freedom
With freelance work comes an unbounded amount of freedom. In fact this is one of the major reasons for which people goes for freelance. However, when you revert back to a regular work, it is hard to concentrate back again. You may not feel at home with your work and thus your overall performance can go down drastically.
Sincerity
Well this actually can vary from one employer to another, but the general idea is that the employers may find it difficult to entrust you with responsibility as you really were out of regular work for quite some time. They may think that you will again fall for it when you will have enough work contacts.
Ill Feeling
Some people will not want to be back in salaried work because they themselves wanted to be a freelancer but couldn’t do so for the lack of courage. They will try their best to hamper your effort to come back.
Skill Evaluation
May be you are really disappointed over freelance work faster than you should. Because you may never know, your skill set probably best suited for freelance environment. And you can profit really good from this field. So before throwing the possibilities out, make sure that you have tried enough and you are just not suited for it.
Thus once you have passed some good number of months in this field, it is not always so straightforward to revert back to your old 9-5 regular job. It will be a good idea to consider the above point before making any decision a final step.
Photo by PN.ORG.
Building a strong co-operative relationship with clients is the basis of getting long term guarantee for incoming projects. And as such, every freelancer should pay a close attention to building a nice and helpful rapport with the client.
This article will focus on some tips that will help the freelancer to get in good terms with the client.
The Initial Impression
The basic rule of developing every kind of relation to go beyond the professional level is to have a strong and effective initial impression. When you first come in speaking terms with the client, it is important to NOT to be over bearing or dominant, instead you should pay more attentions on client himself.
Try to figure out his psyche. Is he easy-going or very demanding? What is his actual expectation from the project or is he co-operative enough? Also think about if his expectation is really way high, then will you be able to fulfills that one. Tough it may not be all easy to be such speculative at the first go, but you should put forward necessary queries to go as far as possible.
Inform the Client
It is always better to set the IFs and BUTs with the client beforehand. Make everything as clear as possible. Tell him about your working style and what help he may expect once the project is started. This prevents misunderstanding and helps to clear out the picture from the client point of view.
Inform him also about some technical aspect of your work, such as what software you may use and what additional packages you may need. Also when you finish designing part of some webite building project, better clarify the design before the start of coding. This process of gradually educating client will make a good impression on him about you, and certainly he will consider you for his future works.
Being in Touch
As a freelancer, you may be dealing with a lot of projects at a time, so you may start to overlook some of the clients and cease communicating in a regular basis. However, this is a fatal mistake that many freelancers do. You should understand that you client has not given his project to a lot of freelancers, but only to you. So, he obviously has some kind of expectation from you. Therefore, do not keep the client in dark for long and at least email him once or twice in a week to abreast him about the latest development. Also, it is vitally important that you keep in touch with previous clients though IM or occasional email. This will help them to remember you for other projects they may have in future.
Beating the Deadline
Nothing impresses the client more if you can beat the deadline and deliver the project as per the expectation. Yes it may not always be possible, but you should strive to achieve this feat as it really cements your place in Client’s memory. In fact it is even better if you could just add some extra little features to enhance the project. This will surely please the client enormously and you will surely be awarded with more and more project.
By following the few above tips, building a strong rapport with client is just a matter of time. You should really consider these steps as it will help your business to expand in a real fast pace.
This post is summarized from 5 Kick-Ass Tips To Build A Strong Rapport With Your Clients. Photo by EmployeeFactor.
Freelance blogging can be one of extremely rewarding and a very comfortable way to earn some really good extra cash. Many freelance blogger have already took over this path and many new members are added each day of this world of freelance blogging. However, not everyone is really sure or certain about the field’s prospect or advantages.
This article is about helping some of this folks. Following are few reasons that will show you freelance blogging is not really something to throw away at all:
Flexibility
The flexibility that comes with freelance blogging is immense and is one of the main reasons to choose this path. Most of the work can be done on part time basis. You always have the flexibility to continue your work at any point of hour, day or night.
Networking
You can get yourself connected with influential personnel in this world of e-bogging, this will take you to the doorsteps of many other opportunities and will aid to have valuable lessons.
Recognition
By being consistent and efficient, you can very fast have a group of people or reader who will start to appreciate your work and slowly you will get more and more recognition from people. This not only helps to improve your skills in writing, but also can help you to have extra edge on other business or concerns that you are dealing with.
Higher Income Possibility
By being efficient, you will get enough opportunities to write in exchange of high payment. There are enough seekers out there who are looking for good bloggers and are willing to pay high. By getting into number of this kind of deal, you can end up earning a handsome amount.
Steadiness
Well this is a bit of a tricky part. At initial stage, you may not have this consistency of income or may struggle a bit, but with time, you will consistently have assignments to be completed by a definite schedule. It is giving you a steady income, but you will never feel the pressure of a 9-5 regular job.
Variety
Your writing topic may be of different categories at different blogging sites, so if you have the skills to discuss about more than a single topic or subject, you can use to gain advantage and earn even higher amount.
Added Knowledge
Researching about topic and writing about them will surely increase your knowledge about the subject area and in fact can be help you also to deal with other stuffs that you face everyday.
Value of Skills
If you are good, you will never face any shortage of work and exposure. In a regular job market, people often face difficulties to get the work they are most suited for. In freelance blogging, being efficient means you will surely be valued.
A skill in Writing is Enough
Often you may not have the interest to be an admin or moderator for a whole blog site, but it is alright as long as you are able to produce quality outputs.
Fast Projects
Producing a complete assignment doesn’t require long hours of your work schedule, but the pay can be quite good. This helps you also to concentrate on other things of life.
So, these were few reasons for which freelance blogging can be so desirable and profitable at the same time.
This post is summarized from 10 Reasons to Love Freelance Blogging. Photo by FreelanceSwitch.
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