Who will you freelance for?

Hello!

In the previous lesson we talked about how you are going to work and the tools you need to deliver effectively.

Now I want to help you to take some time to think about who you want to freelance for.

Defining your ideal client is so important for creating the right set of clients for your freelance business.

TODAY’S TASK: DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL CLIENT

It’s going to be difficult to find and win clients if you do know who you want to be working for and how you’re going to reach them!

Now I want you to clear time in your day and define your ideal client.

What sector do they work in?
What work do they do?
Where are they based?
How many people are in their organisation?
What will they hire you to organisation?
Are there any organisations that you.know of that fit the your criteria?

Try to take notes on any other areas that will help you define that ideal client.

See how much easier it is to decide who to work for when you can picture your ideal client?

Leave your replies in the FreeTrain community!

GETTING FOCUSSED

Try to plan some time to each week in working towards engaging with organisations that fit your ideal client criteria.

I’d encourage you to try to take steps each day that will help you win these dream clients.

Small daily activities will make a big difference to your new business pipeline!

You can always be working on getting new clients, but when you’re busy delivering client work or just starting out it can be hard to tell what to spend your time on and what will be the most effective route.

Here are a few ideas of what you can do, but try each of them out and see what works for you:

If you know someone who works at or used to work somewhere you’d be interested in working for, pick their brains about how that organisations works with freelancers and their hiring process
Take a look at their website, soical media profiles and email newsletters. Are there any clues to the work they’re doing that you could get involved with? Or key people at the organisation that might be hiring freelancers?
Create a simple guide to an area of your expertise that your dream client will need help with and publish it on your website
Ask other freelancers who their best clients are and how they ended up working with them
Look up networking events and meetups that your ideal clients might attend and head along
Use LinkedIn and Twitter to find people that work in the area and for the clients you’re targeting and (gently!) engage with them by liking and commenting on relevant post
Keep an eye on the jobs boards or pages on clients’ websites where opportunities are listed. They may be advertising for a full-time position, but it could be worth contacting them about relevant roles to see if they’d consider a freelance option (this approach is more effective than you might think!)

If you’ve already got a few clients that you like working with, try to pull out what exactly it is about them or the work you do for them that you find so rewarding and how you won their business in the first place.

I often update my ideal client description and how I won them with examples from my favourite clients and try to keep that in mind when presented with new opportunities or when trying to establish a relationship with a dream client.

Winning those dream clients might be just that at the moment – just a dream – but by being a part of the FreeTrain community you’re on the right track to making that dream a reality!

Ben

P.S. Share your ideal clients with the rest of the FreeTrain community.