• Ruthlessly cut down on 80% of exising clients who are a drag on you. Say no to that difficult client who always pays late, shortchanges you or extracts lot of work for less. Ofcourse you must exercise discretion in this e.g. some projects may be low paying (say, for a non-profit), but it might provide you a wide exposure.
• Concentrate on the top 20%. These are the ones who provide 80% of business either directly or indirectly (references etc). Don’t miss deadlines, avoid being too friendly, provide regular feedback and yes, greet them on festivals. I usually email each of my clients on say, Xmas or Thanksgiving.
• Don’t spam clients. Infact, you must ask for permission before including their email address in your mailing list. And never ever refer anyone else to your client before you ask them. It will also be a good idea to seek permission before you post your client’s name for your portfolio.
• Provide them value added service. Give them more than what any other pro would. Those extras will delight them in hitting a gold mine (in terms of a valuable freelancer). Point them to information that is relevant to their business. e.g. Has your client heard of that new accounting software which will help them in their business? Who knows, it might just open another business avenue for you.
• Consider yourself a stakeholder in their business. Unless you do that, you will fail to see what is required to help the business. e.g Is the website good enough to meet the required sales target? How will my copywriting position the brand? Consider this – all my big clients have asked for past references and projects done. They want to know what my contribution was to the business.

So go ahead and fire those pesky clients and greet your favorite clients – if you have a contrarian view, I would love to hear it.

When to Enter. Although, there is no restriction on when, you should begin obviously when the number of available projects are the highest. So, the probability of you getting the project is higher. Now, I don’t expect you to keep a track on the number of available projects everyday(although most online freelance marketspaces do offer this count on their sites). There are certain periods in a year when there is increased activity on freelance market boards e.g. holiday season (about 15-20 days before Thanksgiving to New Year),  Financial Year ending (for accounting, data entry pros, etc.), and so on. It will ofcourse depend on the local factors too. This being a recession, is the best time to enter the business of freelancing and the figures on ALL freelance sites vouch for that.

Where to Enter. Initially, I would suggest registering on those freelance marketspaces which only provide free membership plans. This will give you an idea on how to place bid, how to communicate with clients, and more importantly how to tweak your bid proposals. I would suggest Rentacoder.com (RAC) for this. Registering for free membership (Basic) on marketspaces like Guru.com, Elance.com etc which also offer paid plans is a usually a bad idea unless ofcourse your skillset are unique. The rational behind this is simple – firstly, basic (read free) membership offer only a limited bids per month. And you don’t have to be a math wizard to figure out that the probability of you landing a project is far higher if the number of bids are more. Secondly, for an employer / service buyer, a freelancer who has paid hard earned dollars for membership is naturally preferable over a freelancer with free membership who can just vanish and perhaps register again using another identity. So then how does RAC work? RAC’s payment system has escrow system only i.e. the buyers’ interests are always protected (and so are the freelancers’, in terms of guranteed payment)

Present Comprehensive Bid Proposals. Study the project requirements and draft a proposal customized to that requirement. Read more on How to write a winning bid proposal.

Be Patient. It is not uncommon for new freelancers to not win any projects for first 2-3 months. Don’t let that dampen your spirits. Most of newbies give up at this stage. To verify, just view the number of freelancers registered on a site like RAC who have not logged in for more than a year.

Increase Project Fee Gradually. Low bidding initially, to win projects and hence ratings is understandable. However, you must increase the bid as you win more projects e.g. when you are too busy with lots of freelance work – if you win a job then stick to this high paying client. Your bid value is now “pegged” at a certain value. This will enable you to win even higher value projects.

So buckle up and enter this exciting way of life – it is liberating as challenging as it is.