Freelancing and Fishing: The hidden benefits of casting a bigger net
If you have ever in your life heard stories about fishing, you’re bound to have heard that the bigger the net the bigger the catch, right? What if I were to tell you that was complete bullshit when it comes to freelancing? What if you were to find out that casting a gigantic net into a pool of unsuspecting potential clients was also complete bullshit and that it would never work?
Hell, that’s exactly what the “in crowd” tells you all the time – that in order to build a solid, sustainable business around your skill set, you need to target clients who are ones you’re morally comfortable working with and who would allow you to utilize their name power in order to expand your business. That’s what the “in crowd” says, but what I say is completely different.
The bigger the net, the better
One of the main questions I get from the readers here, on twitter (follow Guerrilla Freelancing) and IRL (in real life) is this: “Should I just focus on one skill to offer clients, or should I try to land as many clients as possible?”. Here’s the short answer: Limiting yourself is bullshit. If you can design websites and also code a little bit, but you love designing logos and print material, why would you just go after web design clients? Why not push yourself in front of various client types and get your name involved in various circles.
If there’s something that needs done but you’re not 100% sure you could handle it yourself, hire another freelancer. The benefits of hiring other freelancers is two-fold: In the eyes of the client, you’re taking care of everything for them and that is going to make them a happy client. On the other hand, by hiring another freelancer to take care of items you’re not an expert in, you’re helping a freelancer earn money and thus keeping the spin of our world in tact – oh, and those freelancers will appreciate that because it allows them to work more and look for jobs less.
How to: Send out 100 cold emails and land a client every time
In a comment I left on our last article on Working Locally vs Working Globally I mentioned how I send out cold emails to land clients. The way I handle this is to follow the below’s strict, 5 step instruction manual (it’s actually not strict and I sometimes make things up as I go, but this is the blueprint for your success, so follow it).
- Pick a niche market: I usually choose something broad like “Fashion”, “Sports” or something similar.
- Do a google search: Head over to google and search for something along the lines of “Fashion blog”. This will give you results of blogs that relate to fashion*
- Do a bit of research: Read over the websites “about” page in order to find out more about the site and it’s owner(s).
- Send them an email: Make it sound personable and non-spammy. Just let them know you were looking through google for “Fashion Blogs” and found their site and wanted to check with them to see if they would be interested in hiring you for a redesign.
- Wait: After you send out 100 of these emails, wait around for a bit. Out of the 100, you’ll get around 10-20 who actually reply to you. Most of those will say something along the lines of “Thanks, but no thanks” but you’ll always get that 1 gem that hires you.
* = You can trade out ‘blog’ for anything you’d like. The point here is to mix-match as many keywords as possible and get as many contacts together as possible
The benefits of this method
If you put together a scripted email that has the intro, outro and a bit about you already written, you’re going to be able to save time and actually only have to spend 1-2 minutes per email (writing a bit about the actual persons site and making it a personal email), which takes you to 2-3 hours total in order to send out 100 emails (sometimes less once you get into a groove).
So, for 2-3 hours of your time, you’re going to land a client who pays you anywhere from $500-$2,000 (generally speaking, your prices may vary). Sounds like a bit of time well spent if you ask me.
The other benefit of doing this once in a while is that you’re essentially putting your name, face & work in front of 100 new sets of eyes. They have friends and colleagues who may need your services as well, and by being in the front of their mind, you’ll be the first name they spit out when they’re asked for a recommendation.
How do you cast your net?
Do you run around the internet with a small toy story rod and reel or do you jump into the big boats and toss out a 100 foot net? What do you find better success with? Lets discuss it in the comments.
