If you find yourself winning one-off projects that don’t provide repeat work, it can cost a great deal of time and effort to find a steady supply of new clients. So your focus should be on keeping a small pool of clients who you work for on a regular basis. Here are some pointers on how to keep your clients coming back for more.

1. Make sure you make yourself indispensable
2. Always do a brilliant job
3. Become part of the team
4. Never miss deadlines
5. Come up with good ideas
6. Show you’re prepared to be flexible – ongoing repeat work is worth the occasional weekend working
7. Make yourself available at short notice
8. Remember that the client is always right.

Sometimes you can do all those eight things brilliantly but you still lose a regular client – because it’s through no fault of your own.

Welcome to Jaffa Brown who has written this guest post for Freelance FactFile.

One of the topics most discussed by freelancers (or contractors looking for other external work) is how to locate new customers and freelance work. There are many internet discussions about pulling in new customers through forum posts, web traffic and blog posts. All may work with sufficient traffic, effort and time, but don’t forget about the nine best places to seek out new freelance work:

Networking

Whilst we may prefer to be at home earning freelance money, getting out and meeting other freelancers, businesses and agencies can lead to new work. Network events are run by your local businesslink centre, chamber of commerce, or private companies such as 4networking; all holding regular morning and evening network events.

It’s very tempting to accept anything and everything that you get offered, especially if you’re new to freelancing or you haven’t got that much work on.

However, it’s important to know when to say ‘no’ to a job.

Outside your sphere of knowledge

I know that if it’s outside my sphere of knowledge, I’ll have a big learning curve to go through. So, if your niche is the healthcare sector, you’ll probably find it tough if you’re offered an assignment in, say, the music industry.

Dull-sounding project

And if I get offered a project that sounds exceedingly boring, I’m very unlikely to summon up enough enthusiasm to produce my best work. Equally, if it’s a project that needs a skill that’s not my key strength, I always find it’s best to explain upfront exactly where my talents and strengths lie. Who knows, it could be this potential client has other work that will play to my talents.

As freelancers, we all have regular monthly bills to pay BUT we don’t have the luxury of a fixed amount paid into our bank account on the same day each month. What can you do to ensure you get paid on time?

There have been many times when I’ve been owed several thousand pounds by clients but the money is sitting in their bank account and not mine. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll know that some companies are notoriously slow at paying. Up to 90 days isn’t that unusual.

I’ve found that it is possible to change these terms, since not all payment terms are set in stone. One client of mine has terms of 60 days and mine are 30, so we agreed on 45.

Like me, you’ve probably heard every excuse in the book about why our money hasn’t been paid to us.

“The accounts lady is sick.”

As this is a blog by a freelancer for freelancers, I want to make sure I write blog posts that cover what YOU want to read about.

So, to help me keep on track, it would be great if you could leave a comment telling me what kind of subject areas you’d like me to include.

Whether it’s a challenge you find hard to overcome, or an area you want to learn more about, just drop me a note in the comment box below and I’ll make sure I write about it in future posts.

Thanks!

Tell everyone you know what you’re doing

I know that title sounds obvious, but if you don’t tell your contacts what you’re currently up to, how will they know?

When I first went freelance, I told all my friends, relations, previous work colleagues and my network of contacts what I was now doing. I also made sure I let them know the kind of freelance work I was looking for. This very quickly led to two projects that each lasted several months. You can read more about how I embarked on my freelance career in My Freelance Story.

I’ve received considerable amounts of freelance work through word of mouth, so make sure you devise a plan that lets everyone in your network know:

a) what you’re up to
b) the kind of work you’re looking to do
c) the type of people/companies your want to be introduced to