The Best Ways to Get Clients When Working from Home
Are you a work from home newbie? A stay at home mom or dad trying to figure out where your first client is going to come from? Not sure of where or how to get clients for your fledgeling business? Today you’re going to find out some of the easiest places to look to get your work from home business off the ground to start making an income.
As technology becomes more advanced and more people appreciate its role in everyday life, working from home is slowly but surely becoming a thing more common.
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Not only are you able to make money like you were in an actual office, but you also get to enjoy the flexibility of working in your home setting while saving travel money plus you no longer have to put up with the stress of the commute. You can work in your sweat pants or pajamas, and your clients will not even care.
However, the biggest question is how do you get clients easily when working from home? Today you are going to learn some simple tips that you can use to get clients in a simple and more effective way:
Where to Find Clients
1. Word of Mouth, Networking and Referrals
One of the best ways to find clients is to let people know about your services. Don’t be shy and hide your skills and abilities as there are people out there that need your help.
You can share this information with those close to you, so friends, family, colleagues who will in turn share with others opening up new opportunities for whatever services you are offering.
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There are many remote jobs that were obtained by speaking to an old boss and the positive result was getting a new client just by connecting and telling them what you now do.
Apart from this method being a cost-effective way of attracting potential clients, it is also a great way of winning clients with the highest retention rates. In fact, referral customers usually tend to buy more over time and become an excellent source of additional referrals.
Client referrals are one of the most common ways of getting work and getting testimonials from your clients is also another way to drum up extra business.
Asking your satisfied client for a written testimonial is a great way to gain even more jobs. You can use these client testimonials on your website, blog when providing email pitches and even on your social media.
The key here is that once you get a client you have to make sure that you provide the best service possible so that they will keep on coming back and also refer you to others because of the excellent job that you have done. Each one tells one. or two or three…
However, it is important to have a clear idea of what makes your perfect client to ensure you communicate your services to the right network.
You can attend networking events where you can constantly pitch your business, and allow people to meet you in person. The more you talk to people the more you get people to talk about you, the more likely for you to win clients. Do you see how that works?
I just want to add I know that this can be extremely difficult especially if you’re an introvert but sometimes if you want something badly enough you’ll face the fear and do it anyway.
Here’s a simple example. You’ve recently taken the Real Estate Virtual Assistant course and start wondering that you’ve learned all this wonderful information and additional skills and want to implement straight away but where do you find clients?
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Go find out where your nearest Realtor networking meeting/seminar is. Ask friends who might be in the construction business or go to an Open House (make sure to have business cards ready). You just never know where an opportunity will come from so it’s best to put yourself out there.
2. Online Advertising and Social Media
For those of you who love to use social media for your own personal use why not use it to your advantage?
Advertising and social media will give you a bigger audience, and increase your chances of winning clients. The key to advertising is generating leads that are promising in exchange for the money spent. You will need to showcase the value you offer to clients, and why they should try your services.
There are quite a few easy-to-use social media platforms that are a powerful way of interacting with potential clients. Apart from clients, you can join groups and pages of people working from home giving you an opportunity to grow and learn how other freelancers find clients.
For instance, you can join groups or pages of freelancers on Facebook and LinkedIn while showcasing your services and products on Pinterest and Instagram. LinkedIn especially is a great place to explore professional groups of interest.
You also can always find queries from potential clients within Facebook groups. So, for instance, someone asks within a group if they can recommend a logo designer this is a perfect way for you to sell your skills and services.
These are all excellent ways of connecting and sharing with others who just might have need of what you have to offer.
If you’re on a budget Facebook ad campaigns might not be the best way forward in the beginning but you can take advantage of trending topics on Twitter and hashtag optimization to get your name out there.
3. Bidding Sites
The most common challenge that new freelancers working from home face is knowing where to start. Fortunately, you can join one of the several bidding sites and start earning almost immediately.
They include bidding sites such as Fiverr, Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Guru, among others. Although you may not make as much money when starting out on these platforms, bidding sites give you the opportunity to build a) a portfolio, b) gain much-needed experience, and c) expand the range of services that you can offer.
4. Job Boards
Job boards are another potential way of finding clients. The list of job boards has increased steadily, but the popular ones include ProBloggerJobs, AngeList, Indeed, GitHub, Authentic Jobs, Smashing Jobs, and Stack Overflow.
Browsing through job boards, and checking them daily for new projects can be an easy way of finding clients. The major categories listed in these boards include research and development, design, copywriting, marketing, and miscellaneous jobs. The good thing with this option is that you can filter the positions to show only remote jobs if you prefer.
5. Cold Pitch Emailing
Although it may sound intimidating, cold emails are an excellent way of finding clients. You can send emails to your potential clients, clients you may have had in the past, or asking your current clients to refer you to their friends and colleagues.
Important to note is that the email needs to show how you knew the recipient, why they should care about reading it, the services that you provide, and what to expect from you. If properly written, you can expect a call or an email inquiring more about your services. Check out Mastering the Art of Pitching for easy to fill templates.
7. Ask an Expert in Your Niche?
This one is a pretty good way to get new clients and very simple. Rather than being a cold pitch this is more of a warm pitch. Get in contact with those within your niche who are ahead of you in the business. A fellow blogger, virtual assistant, freelance writer etc.
You may be in a Facebook or LinkedIn group with them or even a subscriber to their blog or website. This is one of the reasons why it is always good to be active in these groups as your name will be recognised and they’ll know you for asking questions or helping others with queries.
Don’t be scared, ask if they have an overflow of work, ask them to check out your work and send a link to your online business pages. They just might be on the lookout for some help or wish to subcontract out some of their work. Network and collaborate with others in your niche.
What’s The Next Step to Finding Clients?
To put it all together, there are several ways you can use to easily find clients when working from home. The trick is to find the one that works best for you and limit the range of services you offer at first.
This will help you build a name for yourself, and build a larger pool of clients requiring similar or related services. Most importantly, be creative when offering your freelancing client services and try to reach out to potential clients whenever you get an opportunity.
I hope that these few ideas will help you to build up your client base and start making some great money online.
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