Freelancers guide to Finding Clients is a self-help (e)book written by an American Web designer by Martha Retallick that attempts to educate the average Freelancer as to how to increase or gain new business from cold sources. The (e)book is amicable in its style and does actually read as though Retallick is talking directly to you which is quite a gentle way of introducing one to what is, potentially, an extremely stressful activity.
The book is broken down in much the same way that a school textbook might layout its subject. It starts with a kind of “what are we trying to achieve” section and then moves on through the basics to more ongoing strategies making sure there are some examples and good reasoning (and occasionally actual feedback) at every step. The book is a general guide as opposed to a reference tome and is written in a conversational style.
While I’d usually be aggravated by an upbeat story from someone who has clearly become successful (while I languish in the FA dungeon) and is then cheerfully rattling on about how they went about it whilst basically telling you the same thing that all self help books really tell you (WORK HARDER STUPID), Retallick manages to remain interesting and almost endearing to the end and it negates a lot of my natural anger towards other, more successful people.
Getting down to the nitty-gritty of the advice; I would generally agree with Retallick in theory but some of the actual practices she recommends will seem overly American to most UK Freelancers. The creation of an ICP (Ideal Client Profile) is a very good and sensible practice but the scripting of your calls is something that you might want to avoid in the UK else you will just get a lot of polite “no thank you”s (though to be fair Retallick does warn you to be flexible on this). The (e)book is not long and took me only about 45 minutes to read but I’d say that on balance that was time well spent. If you are looking for some advice on, or routines to follow regarding the murky waters of cold calling then this is an excellent place for the uninitiated to start and the old hand to brush up.
You can get your copy here – The Freelancers Guide to Finding Clients
