You should know by now that being a freelancer gives you lots of freedom. That is, you get to work whenever you want, wherever you want. You can also work with multiple clients at a time or be loyal to just one.
Honestly, how you want to earn your income depends on your preference. However, we all know how time-consuming it is to regularly look for new clients whenever a project is about to be finished.
How do we solve this?
What we could do is to find clients whom we can work together with long-term. In this way, we can have regular income while still working freely in our very own homes. Moreover, thereâs less time in discussing with another client and sending proposals every so often. It would make things much easier isnât it?
Now, in this article, Iâll be providing you the steps on how to find and seal the deal in having long term contract with a client.
Always Communicate Well With Your Clients and Teammates
Your client doesnât just check on your performance. Similar to being a freelancer, they also have the option to cut ties with you as soon as the contract is finished – even though they still would need the current skills that you have.
There would be a lot of reasons why a client wouldnât want to continue working with you. Personality-wise, one reason behind it would be not communicating well with the client.
Just imagine working with someone who takes days to reply to an e-mail, doesnât articulate their thoughts properly, or makes you feel like he isnât concerned at the project youâre working on.
Compare this to someone who actively responds to e-mails, explains his thoughts clearly, and is greatly invested in the project youâre both working on.
Of course, the client would very much want to work longer with the latter.
Now, how do you become someone whom the client wants to work within this aspect?
First, take time to read and answer the queries of your client. Make sure to explain things clearly, eliminating the jargon especially if your client isnât fully knowledgeable on the technical aspects assigned to you in the business.
Second, it is always a good trait to be proactive. Regularly update the status of your project, even if the client doesnât ask you of it. Honestly, theyâll appreciate it knowing they donât have to check up on you just to make sure youâre working on the project.
Third, respond to the clients in a reasonable timeframe. Being a freelancer gives you an opportunity to work with different clients from different parts of the world. It is best to reply within the day for local clients and within 24 hours from clients located on countries halfway across your location.
Be Part of Reaching Your Clientâs Success
Clients hire someone because they are trying to achieve something they canât do on their own. They may say this to you on your first contact, or if not, itâs one of your responsibilities to find out. More often than not a single output on your project, is one step nearer to your client’s goals.
For example, if you build a website, the main goal could be to attract more customers. If you are one of the catalysts in reaching this goal, your client would be overjoyed as investing in you is money well spent.
To be able to be part of reaching your clientâs success, you should understand what the main result your client wants to achieve. The next step would be doing what you can to achieve with them.
If you are more knowledgeable in the area as compared to your client, you can always provide some input which could lead to the success of the business.
If you think the clientâs plans wouldnât be effective and he/she wonât accept your input for some alterations on his plans, itâs best to not accept the project. In the end, youâd only be motivated to continuously work on a project if you think it will succeed.
Find Clients Whom Youâd Get Along With
There are two main points to consider when a client would want to have a long-term business relationship with a freelancer:
First, itâs when a client still plans on using your skill continuously in the future.
Second, when you both enjoy working together.
It may be difficult at first, but itâs best to look for potential clients that have both of the qualities above rather than accepting any project that comes in your way.
To determine if a client may still need your skills in the future, just think of the project itself. Is it a one-time thing like making an advertisement or is it a project that requires continuous update and maintenance?
One example of the latter is a content writing job for a fast growing website As the number of readers or subscribers come to visit the site, the client is more likely to think that he may need to publish content more frequently, arising a need for a long-term content writer.
It could be difficult to determine if you enjoy working with a client or not. In some cases, we may just be staying because of the income they give us. To help clear things out for you, you could try answering these questions:
- Do you like the idea of working in the kind of business that your client have?
- Do you get along with the client?
Thereâs nothing wrong in turning down a project when it isnât what you think youâd enjoy, or you feel like you wouldnât get along with the client. You are a freelancer after all, in which you are your own boss and does the big decision regarding this.
Meet Your Deadlines
A client would love to have a long-term business relationship with a freelancer who delivers on the agreed date. Being able to do so does more than being paid and builds client trust.
When a client trusts you, itâs more likely for them to want to continue working with you.
This doesnât mean you have to impress the client by trying to finish a lot in a short span of time! This would just make it stressful or difficult for you. Make sure to be realistic when stating deadline and double-check if itâs achievable.
If you want to refrain from getting late in passing your output, itâs best to add an extra day or two just to add space when things go wrong. If you are new to the project, you might still be getting used to it and may take you longer than expected.
Moreover, there may be lots of unexpected events that may happen – you may suddenly get sick or need a day off due to an emergency which could hinder you from doing your work. Your client will be absolutely happy when things are done before the deadline.
Conclusion
Getting a long-term client can be challenging at first, most especially when you are new when it comes to becoming a freelancer. But in the end, itâs not always skill that determines if a client would like to work with you for a much longer period of time.
Half of it would be your personality when it comes to working with other members of the team (if any), your enthusiasm with the project given to you, as well as your timeliness when it comes to meeting the deadline.
Being able to get along well adds to the likelihood of having a long-term business relationship with the client too. Since if you are comfortable with hi/her, youâd be able to provide inputs with ease and vice versa.
Just do your job well and be the kind person you are; follow the simple tips in this article and everything will work out fine. You got this, fellow freelancer!
