Contributed by Rosemary O’Brien, Catalogs.com Top 10 Guru
Working as a freelancer has its perks. You can work whenever you want to as long as you get your work done.
You can take a day off without asking your boss. You can even work from wherever you want like from a coffee shop or even if you go out of town, but to get that work, you have to be good at promoting your freelance business. Here are the top ten ways to find the work that will make you the big bucks with clever tips for promoting your freelance business:
10. Network
Every small business owner will tell you it’s who you know. Even the smaller freelance business person has to know people in order to find work. Go to the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club meeting in your town. It’s a good start to finding clients.
9. Work for free (for a short time)
No one wants to work for nothing, but working for free may get your noticed. Offer to create a website for your church or write a press release for a local business. You will be able to put that job on your resume. If you ask for a couple of referrals in return, you may get a few paying clients from one non-paying gig.
8. Business cards
Business cards are a great way to find those who are looking for your product or service. Since they are a low-cost item, pass them out to everyone who might want to work with you. Add them to your envelopes when you pay the bills and see who gets in touch. I have sold a few books this way!
7. Postcards
Postcards are also inexpensive and easy to create. Just like the business cards, pass them out to everyone you meet. You can even leave a stack of them at places such as the indoor ATM counter, your local library or anywhere they may be seen.
6. Email signatures
Promote yourself through your email signature. Make sure your signature line is included even when you send out personal emails. When someone passes on your email, they are passing your signature on to someone who may hire you.
5. Give away pens
Do you know how many pens I have in my house? I get them from everywhere and imprinted pens are a great promotional tool. Give them out at the networking events you attend or even to your hairdresser. Then the next time someone needs a pen, they may pick up one of yours. Remember, getting your name in front of everyone who needs your services is the goal.
4. Host your own event
There is a business woman who thought many of her clients would benefit from each other’s products and services. She had wanted to introduce a few of them for quite a while, but could not make the time for all of the individual meetings. Her solution? She created her own event! By getting all of her clients together, she connected them while earning recognition for her own company.
3. Tee-shirts
People love to get things for free. In this day of casual Fridays and all-around casual offices, suits for women have gone by the wayside in many companies. Putting your logo and business information on a blank polo or tee-shirt is a great way to get your name out there especially at a hosted event. Give them away as prizes or mail a couple to a new client. Each time they wear it to the park or the gym, they will easily be promoting your business for you.
2. Start a blog
Blogs are a great way of promoting your freelance business. They are like a website, but easier for the non-techie in us all. There are even fun, free ways to bump up the design of your blog. Odiogo allows you to Create text-to-speech (TTS) podcast from RSS feed for iPod, iPhone, MP3 player and mobile phone without doing anything more than adding their widget to your blog. After that, all of your blog posts become podcasts for potential clients to listen to at the gym, on the ride to work, or anywhere they have their portable device along.
1. Website
The standard for any business is the website. Think about it. Whenever you hear about a new product or anything at all, you immediately go look it up on the internet, right? Today it is very easy to set up your own website even if you do not want to hire someone to do it. Online business services offer website hosting and website building tools which provide everything you need to create your website so that customers can find you. And if you do not want to build your site yourself, hire another freelancer to build it for you.