Core principles of freelancing
Why should clients work with you? Thousands of freelancers can do the work you do. Often, many of them can do the job better than you. Yet, the clients you work with are choosing you for their projects. Why?
On the basic level, people do business with you because they believe you are the best fit for their project and that you will be able to perform their tasks in the best possible way.
But if we dig a bit deeper and think about the psychological and emotional aspects behind why a client chooses to work with you, we might find out that a client chooses you because of the values you portray.
Let's look at two examples here. I have clients who repeatedly hire me for their design projects. Why is that?
Because our first experience of working together was positive, and they were happy with the end product.
Because we got to know each other, and they trust that I stand behind my word and values.
More specifically, if a past client of mine has a time-sensitive project and he's searching for a freelancer to work on the job, there's a high chance that he'll get in touch with me for the job.
Why? Because based on our previous interactions, he knows that I believe in never missing a deadline and never making a promise I can't keep.
So if I say I can complete his task by X date, he trusts me.
Core principles of freelancing
Freelancing as a practice has a lot of principles. Let's cover the most important ones that will help you get a step ahead of the crowd.
Happy clients lead to more clients
Referrals and word-of-mouth are two of the most important sources of business for successful freelancers.
Potential clients referred to you, whether by past clients or friends and family, often have more trust and respect for your work than the average potential client who finds your portfolio through other means, such as a search.
In my experience, referrals are often the most comfortable clients to work with, and they also have the highest conversion rate from lead to client.
If you want to build a successful freelance business through referrals, you must produce high-quality work that encourages your clients to refer others.
However, work quality is not the only factor to consider.
Clients will typically recommend someone they believe has treated them well and provided them with an overall positive experience.
For this reason, customer service and communication are critical parts of any project.
Do not compete on price
There is always more than enough competition for a freelance designer. Potential clients could look for other designers who could do essentially the same job.
As a result, freelancers must have something unique about themselves and the work that distinguishes them from the competition and encourages clients to hire them.
It's common for freelancers to compete with others by offering lower prices. However, in my opinion, competing on price is not good for a long-term strategy.
While cheap rates may help you get a few jobs now, competing on price has many long-term consequences.
Potential clients will consider your work to be weaker compared to that of other designers who charge a higher fee
After a period of undercharging, you may begin to perceive your abilities and services as less valuable
You'll have to work a lot harder to make enough money to get by
Having meager prices puts you in a difficult position if/when you want to raise prices in the future
You may unknowingly begin to hate your clients for paying you so little
If your competitive advantage is based on having low prices, and you suddenly raise them or others come in and undercut your expenses, your price advantage is gone.
Think again if you think it won't happen. There is always someone willing to charge less.
What is more helpful in the long term is branding yourself as an expert in a specific field. Of course, this strategy takes time and is more complex than simply lowering your prices, but it is the better long-term option.
Clients will be less price-sensitive if you've differentiated yourself from other designers in some way if you're the one they want to do the job.
Communicate transparently
One of the essential skills that a freelance designer should cultivate is effective communication.
Although creativity and technical skills are essential, they will not get very far if practical communication skills are not supported.
The success of a client project is defined by your ability to understand their needs and desires and communicate your strategy to them.
Clients always know their business much better than you do, and you will be more knowledgeable about the project's technical aspects.
Ideally, you will collaborate to achieve the best results, which will involve extensive communication.
Communication is always two-way. Freelance designers must be able to efficiently present their points and say things in ways that clients will understand, but they must also listen to clients and pick up on things that are not stated clearly.
Because of their location and dealing with clients in other parts of the country or the world, freelancers frequently face significant communication challenges.
Instead of meeting in person, email and phone could be the only ways to communicate.
Due to time zone differences, communication over the phone may be difficult in some situations. This emphasizes the importance of asynchronous communication skills for freelancers.
When interacting with a client, remember time differences — especially if you are talking via phone, Zoom, or Google Hangouts.
If your client is halfway around the world, remember that your typical working hours may occur in the middle of the night for them.
Invest in your skills, productivity, and quality of work
Most new freelancers' natural reaction to expenses is to be skeptical of anything that costs money. As a freelancer, your profitability is determined by your income minus your expenses, but expenses aren't always a barrier to increased profitability.
To make the most money, you must first maximize your productivity and efficiency. There are numerous tools, resources, and services available to freelancers that will save them time daily or weekly, allowing them to dedicate more time to income-generating work.
Most freelancers dislike dealing with the financial aspects of running a business. As a result, managing finances can require far more time and effort than is necessary. This is an excellent example of how many freelancers could benefit their bottom line by being willing to spend a small amount of money in exchange for significant time savings.
Delegating routine tasks to someone else is another way that spending money can save you time (such as a virtual assistant). Consider it this way. If you spend much time on unbillable tasks that anyone could do, you're not earning any money.
Establish long-term client relationships
Most freelancers must put in some effort to find new clients. Whether you approach it by bidding on sites like UpWork, searching design job boards, writing blog posts, updating your social networking profiles, or anything else, you're devoting valuable time to simply finding the work before you can even do it.
Long-term clients are precious because they enable you to do work that pays well without constantly looking for a new job. These ongoing gigs can be very engaged or only require periodic updates and changes, but having a long-term client can save you time in either case.
Even if you have a steady stream of leads coming in from your online portfolio or another source, it will take time to follow up with these people and find the ones who will eventually become paying clients. All of this is avoided with repeat customers.
However, don't become so reliant on long-term clients that you neglect marketing your freelance design business. Keep in mind that things change. Today's long-term recurring client may become tomorrow's ex-client.
Focus on being damn good at something specific
You can't be excellent at everything. There are so many aspects to design that no one can be an expert in them all.
Instead of being good at everything, it is more effective to differentiate yourself by striving to be the best at doing something specific.
Perhaps you want to establish yourself as an expert in WordPress theme design, e-commerce design, logo design, etc.
By establishing yourself as an expert in a specific field, you will be one of the first people who comes to mind when potential clients are looking for someone to do that type of work.
All of these are the core principles of freelancing. But there's one that is the most important principle of all:
You will get paid according to the value your service delivers
People hire you because of your value and the values you portray throughout your work. Let me give you a personal example of this.
In 2018, a client contacted me to help with a new project – creating a new design for an existing mobile application.
They were having issues with customers signing up for an account but not using the app. Their sign-up rates were terrible (under 5%), and even people signing up were not using the app. Not even talking about paid subscriptions.
The minute I looked at the app, I understood why its metrics were so bad. The UI was confusing, and people had to learn how to use it. The navigation patterns were completely different from what most people were used to.
We did some interviews with users and figured out a few improvement points. The first was adding an onboarding and revamping navigation.
At that time, I was still primarily working at an hourly rate of $75 per hour. But my gut feeling told me to price that project on a fixed budget. So I quoted a project at $4800 for onboarding design (3 screens) and navigation re-design (1 component).
It took me 15 hours (with iterations) to complete the project. The client was happy with the results. I was satisfied with the efficiency (and profits). The rate that came out of that collaboration was $320 per hour. If I charged hourly, I would only get $1125.
The sign-up rates increased to 40%, paid subscribers rate increased to 8%. The client has made over $15,000 in the first week of launching a new onboarding screen and updated navigation.
The lesson here is that you always get paid for your work's value, not hours worked. Keep that in mind next time when pricing your project.
Conclusion
Again, freelancing has lots of other principles. Listed above are, in my opinion, the most critical ones that, when applied to practice, can set you far ahead in the game.