Since I'm a little bit on the stubborn side it took me a while to admit it, but I finally came to terms with the fact that I wasn't getting new clients as a freelancer, especially with the methods that I'd been trying up to that time. So, I put a plan into action that involved hiring some freelancers of my own. I assembled a team that helped fill in my weak areas.
To start getting new clients as a freelancer, I knew I had to have clearly written proposals that described my services. And I also knew that the proposals would have to be sent out 24/7.
With that in mind I researched sales copy writers on Upwork and hired a talented marketer who created three different proposals that I could use.
This included sales copy that advertised my experience, portfolio, and expertise as a developer. I had three versions created because I wanted each one to be targeted to a specific type of project. For example, one of the proposals focused on enterprise projects. Another proposal was targeted at building APIs, while the third had content geared toward startups.
With a full set of professional proposals, I was ready to implement the second step of my plan: consistently sending out proposals. For this, I hired a detail-oriented and fluent virtual assistant from the Philippines named Sy.
I could hire Sy for $6.50 an hour and he paid for himself in the first week! I walked him through the proposals and described the types of projects that I wanted to get hired for.
After I was confident that Sy clearly understood my goals, I let him loose on Elance. He reviewed the full set of potential projects on the marketplace and sent my targeted proposals to each project that fit my criteria. Within a week I was getting responses back from clients and within two weeks I had been hired for multiple projects. Three months later, I had to hire my own developers because I was getting so many clients hiring me to build applications.
So how did my strategy for getting new clients as a freelancer work out? Well, here is a screenshot of my FreshBooks dashboard. Last year, my freelance business generated over $290,000 in revenue:
One month hit over $40,000:
I'm not going to pretend that this was easy. This is pretty much the opposite of a get-rich-quick kind of scheme. However, by implementing this strategy, I could cost-efficiently outsource the marketing for my freelance business so that I could focus on actual development.