When you think about growing your freelance business, what comes to mind? More clients? More money? How about more flexibility? Or more time? Whatever it is, there are good reasons to think about growth, even if you want to stay small.

Tips for growing your freelance business

Whether you launched a business in the pandemic or have worked as a freelancer for some time, it’s important to continually improve.

Whether that’s adopting new systems or looking for ways to expand, there’s always something you can do to grow.

Growing in expertise and business opens you to new opportunities, allows you to try new things and keeps you from getting complacent.

With all of this in mind, here are some tips for growing your freelance business. 

Make it easy to get paid

There are a million bookkeeping and payment systems out there. Use technology that makes your life easier. Use technology that makes it easy for your clients to pay you.

One great way to do this is by considering mobile payment options in addition to more traditional forms of payments. Systemizing your invoicing (and billing on time) also enables you to receive your payment faster. 

Expand your client base

Growing your freelance business means you’ll need to expand your client base. It may not be MORE but you’ll eventually want BETTER clients. Understanding how to make stronger connections with your ideal clients is step one. Well, knowing who your ideal clients are is step one.

Building relationships is achieved through networking and building strong relationships with clients, editors and other industry professionals.

Curate your portfolio

When you’re just getting started your portfolio can make an impact as well! Build a strong collection of industry-specific work and continue finding ways to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. This will help you leverage your previous work to find new work, and new clients.

Market yourself

You need to market yourself as a writer if you want to make a living writing! You just do! Learn marketing and figure out how to do it consistently. Seriously. This is how you get out of the feast and famine cycle. M-a-r-k-e-t-i-n-g.

Growing your freelance business comes down to value

When you first started freelancing chances are your rates were low. Too low. And that’s OK. You were learning. But now? Now, you have skills and experience. As you develop as a freelancer it’s important to know your worth. And raise your prices accordingly.

Do great work

One of the easiest ways to grow your freelance business is by doing exceptional work. Meet your deadlines. Be great at communication. Keep your standards high. 

Outsource

Even if you’re bootstrapping and don’t have much cash to spare, there are still things you can outsource. Perhaps it’s too early to bring on a virtual assistant or social media manager, but how about a babysitter? Or grocery shopping? How about bookkeeping. Just a thought. What are you spending TOO much time on now, that isn’t benefitting your business? Start there.

Maintain a blog

Having a consistent, regular blog can help you become more visible in your niche and enhances your brand, not to mention increasing your website’s SEO and literally bringing prospects to you. Tempted? Here are 10 reasons to start a blog.

Be patient and persevere through the messy middle

Growing your freelance business takes TIME. And you may get stuck in the messy middle for a while. Honestly, this is where a lot of freelancers quit. It’s SO hard to keep going when things are a grind. But if you can find a way to implement strategies that help you keep going, you can find ways to be productive even when you’re unmotivated.

Good time management

Good business comes down to some pretty basic stuff. Keep your committments, show up for those counting on you and practice good time management. This allows you to make the most of each moment and allows you to discover that ellusive work/life balance we all hear so much about. Don’t waste your time, use it wisely. Find tools to streamline your activities and figure out how to do your best work.

One more thing. You may be interested in my free resource library. This is where I keep my files, downloads, ebooks, worksheets and whatever else I manage to create. I love sharing what I learn and want to keep adding to this library so it becomes a wealth of helpful goodness.

This is a free resource but I do require a password to access the library itself. You can get access by popping your email address into the form below.