As a freelance writer, making a great first impression on a client is just as important as being able to show off a portfolio of quality work. Clients want writers who can write immaculate copy, of course, but also want someone they can trust and work with. Plus, it is only human nature to give preference to people you like and get along with.
Martha Retallick has written an honestly useful, if Americanised, guide to expanding your business contacts. I won’t lie to you, the basic suggestion herein is to cold call people and the suggestions are orientated toward how best not to become a crumpled husk of your former optimistic self. However the advice is useful and backed up with good examples and techniques.
In a nutshell this is a book about communication and how not to do it. As a particularly blunt and tactless individual I thought this might help me temper my natural desire to be right all the time…. but it has not (apparently). Persuasion is a generally interesting book but it is purely for those people who like the self help genre and does not stray from the core readership market or attempt to engage the business reader.
Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out
At Freelance Advisor we’ve spent a lot of time sharing advice on how you can effectively use Twitter and social. As a tool for finding more friends, colleagues clients and work. We’ve discussed how to use it for Marketing your personal brand and for PR for your own company.
This cheeky little site has a different view…
A few years ago getting heard on Twitter was easy. When I first joined there were less than a million users and it was easy to find friends with common interests and it was even possible for a couple of friend to create a trending topic.
Now with 70m+ users (sending 50m tweets a day) the story is a little different…
Anthony Hewson | Lifestyle & Time out
Relationships are more important for a freelancer than for any other individual.
That’s a pretty bold statement and I’m bracing myself for a wave of incredulity articulated by examples of people going through any sort of emotional or physical trauma. Ok, leaving that probably overwhelming group aside… here’s why
With 72% of small businesses stating that new business generation was their top priority in 2010, they are turning to technologies they know will quickly and easily bring them new clients through the door. These technologies are still websites and telephones over newer methods such as social media.
When asked whether social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, has been useful in generating new business, 63% answered no, with a staggering 75% not knowing how to use social media effectively for new business generation…
Winning new business the easy and fun way. By following 6 simple rules you can build the freelance life you always dreamed of. Lucky you! You could be getting yourself shed-loads of new business starting from today.
You may to want to earn good money, have long holidays and be your own boss….but all you have to do is win new business. That’s the bit where most freelancers get the heebie-geebies. But I promise you can do it and you’ll get good at it!
Crunch MD and Freelance Advisor supporter Darren Fell talks about the steps freelancers should take to ensure a sustained supply of business.
Are You Giving Your Clients Squid Eyes? (The Second Secret of an Awesomitised Freelance Life)
Bad-ass kung-fu copywriter Leif Kendall continues to reveal the secrets of an awesomitised freelance career.. Awesomitisation Part 2 explores the importance of understanding clients’ briefs.
Freelance Advisor and Home Business diva Emma Jones explains why now is a perfect time to spruce up your business development and pursue opportunities that will mean new work from existing customers and new work from new customers.
Here’s three things you can do to keep the contracts coming in…
There is no finer talent for a business owner to possess than the skill of making a sale. As the business grows you may decide to outsource the sales function but at the beginning, making a sale is on your ‘to do’ list.
Here are six simple steps that will turn prospects into clients and leads into revenue.
Whether it is networking, meetings, clients or conferences, marketing yourself is an essential skill for any freelancer or contractor. Freelance Advisor and author Emma Jones offers seven quick tips to help you shine Starting on the right foot: 7 steps to creating the right impression You only get one chance to create a first impression. [...]
Freelance Advisor founder Darren Fell is a successful entrepreneur and all over the first page of results when you Google his name. We asked him to share the secrets of his success and he responded with this guide to marketing yourself. Marketing yourself for free, a guide. The big question running through everybody’s mind when [...]
The death of the CV? Are curriculum vitae a thing of the past? Guest blogger Greg Coley, Creative Director of the integrated agency VGroup, gives an insider’s view on what freelance designers can do to get noticed. Marketing yourself as a freelance designer So you’re a budding young designer straight out of university, a middleweight, [...]
One of the joys of freelancing is that you get to do everything. But this omnipotence means you can’t hate the sales team for not bringing in new clients, because you are the sales team. Become CEO of YouCorp You can’t have a spat with Maureen in accounts because she hasn’t sorted your expenses, because [...]
I was asked by Phil Green of the MD Hub 100 to present to a MD Hub 250 group about how I took Pure360.com from no customers at all to hundreds. As I thought the following presentation may be useful to all at Freelance Advisor. It shows the early days and a few photo’s of [...]
In the age we live in having a website as a business is critical. I’m not sure about you but it’s literally the first thing I do when I want to vet a supplier out and in my old days at Pure360.com I’d even do that for customers. No site and to be honest I [...]
