Family meetings are really fun for me. On my last meeting with the whole family, my ninety-two-year-old grandmother finally admitted, \u201cI just don\u2019t understand this job of yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

This lead to several other questions including one that I\u2019m asked quite frequently, how do I get clients?\u00a0Here are some of my tips on how to find and land clients for your business as a designer.<\/p>\n

Word of Mouth<\/h3>\n

Customer service is the number one most important thing when freelancing, your reputation is based off it.\u00a0 A happy client is a client that will be dropping your name every chance they get.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be ashamed to plug yourself.\u00a0 When I first started out I thought plugging myself at every possible chance would make me sound desperate, too desperate.\u00a0 Then I quickly learned that plugging myself meant eating soup rather than soup can labels.\u00a0 There are certainly tactical ways of going about that spare you an aura of desperation and make you sound more like a good contact to have.\u00a0 Make them ask you what you do.\u00a0 You can accomplish this by asking what line of work they\u2019re in, then follow that up with questions about their online presence.<\/p>\n

Volunteer your time and expertise to help out a non-profit or volunteer organization.\u00a0 These types of organizations have no quarrels with plugging your name and recommending you to anyone they can.\u00a0 It also looks great on a resume to be able to say you\u2019ve done some volunteer work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Network<\/h3>\n

A personal recommendation will almost always hold the most weight, that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to have as big of a network as possible.\u00a0 Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn make this a piece of cake.\u00a0 They allow you to deliver your work to the masses and interact with prospective clients.<\/p>\n

Tradeshows are another great place to expand your network and find a niche where you can really make a name for yourself.\u00a0 Attend tradeshows of things you consider to be your hobbies or things that interest you and chat up some of the vendors.\u00a0 The fact that you\u2019re already knowledgeable on the subject will make conversation flow easily and give you an advantage over a larger design firm who doesn\u2019t know anything about that field.\u00a0 You could even plan ahead and check out the sites of some smaller vendors and talk to ones whose sites you could work miracles on.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Get Your Name Out<\/h3>\n

Getting your name out plays in with word of mouth and networking, but what if you don\u2019t live close to a major city?\u00a0 Businesses are few and far between (and probably don\u2019t have a large budget to spend on a website) and the closes tradeshow is hundreds of miles away.\u00a0 You can easily get past all that by taking to the web.<\/p>\n

Contact a few blogs that you have bookmarked and visited frequently.\u00a0 Offer to write an article in exchange for providing a link back to your site in your bio.\u00a0 Not only will that help get your name out, but the link back will help boost the SEO of your website as well.<\/p>\n

If you only know how to write code or are having a severe bout of writers’ block, stick with what you know and showcase your talent by developing a free WordPress or Joomla template, or even an HTML template for that matter.<\/p>\n

When ever you work with a retail client ask if you can leave some business cards on the counter of the reception desk.\u00a0 Or kick it up a notch by having some pens made with your name, contact info, and what you do, then leave those on the counter.\u00a0 Scour your local grocery store for a bulletin board and leave a card or some sort of promotional flyer there.<\/p>\n

At the very least you can be active in some web forums and online communities.\u00a0 Find places where people are seeking advice in your area of expertise and offer struggling members some advice.\u00a0 Comment on blogs in areas you know about, or if there\u2019s an inspirational roundup of sites and you feel yours fits in to drop a link and suggest people check it out.<\/p>\n

A brainless and extremely passive way to do this is to include all of your contact information, complete with a link back to your site, in the signature of your emails.\u00a0 Every time you send an email that info is there for who ever is reading it, whether they\u2019re a client, friend, acquaintance, doctor, student, or what ever. It never hurts.\u00a0 Links back to your site on the websites you\u2019ve developed is another similar method.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cold Call<\/h3>\n

If times are slow and you\u2019re hungry for work as well as just plain hungry, work the phone and email contacts.\u00a0 Look at businesses in your local area and check to see if they have a website and if they do is it useful or can you improve it?\u00a0 When I first started I was afraid to tell someone their site was an eyesore.\u00a0 Granted I never would have used that description, nor do I recommend you do, but you would be surprised at how thankful those people are when you offer your services.\u00a0 More often than not they\u2019re too busy doing what they do, just wanted some kind of web presence, and gave it their best attempt.\u00a0 And when prompted will admit they didn\u2019t know what they were doing nor did they have the time to find a reasonably priced professional.<\/p>\n

Give your current clients a courtesy call and see if there\u2019s anything you can do for them.\u00a0 Suggest an upgrade to their site with some fancy new trick you\u2019ve learned, or tell them about some cool feature you saw on their competitor\u2019s site and assure them you could develop something even better.\u00a0 See if they want to have some ads or business cards made up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Be Prepared<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s the scouts\u2019 motto, but if you\u2019re not prepared then you\u2019re probably not going to seal the deal.\u00a0 Finding yourself in a conversation with a prospective client and then not being able to hand over your business card or send a link to your online portfolio is a swing and a miss.<\/p>\n

When meeting with a prospective client it\u2019s always nice to have little gems that you\u2019re able to drop to help them build confidence in you.\u00a0 Imagine you\u2019re in a meeting with a prospective client and they ask what you know about responsive web design.\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing to say, \u201cI\u2019ve read an article on it.\u201d\u00a0 Chances are so they did, that\u2019s why they\u2019ve heard about it and are asking to see how much you know about it.\u00a0 Now imagine the same scenario but being able to reply, \u201cActually, I just had an article published on responsive web design.\u201d\u00a0 Checkmate.<\/p>\n

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About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder<\/a>. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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