You Aren't A Slave!

Freelancing is about being FREE to work from home, take on only the work you want, work WHEN you want, and choose how much you want to be paid. With the influx of online business, more and more freelancers are popping up. What does that mean for the professional freelancer that has been in the game for years? It means that the jobs that used to pay you $50 an hour are now looking to shrink their budgets by hiring writers who're willing to take less money for the same amount of work.

Now, now, now...don't be scared. For every 10 businesses looking for $1 an hour freelancers, there are 2 businesses out there who aren't willing to skimp on quality to just save a few bucks. Those are the clients you need to find, entice, and keep.

How?

5 Tips to Keeping Your Clients

1. Only Give Your Best: Just because you've been in the game longer doesnt mean you can slack off and get away with it. Because of the amount of cheaper labor showing up on the fertile fields of freelance, you must up your game and prove to your clients that they money they're paying you is worth it. Proofread, edit, revise, and the proof and edit and revise again. Make sure its pristine before it leaves your outbox.

2. Be Open to Critizism: The worst kinds of people to work with are the ones who aren't willing to take critizism, especially when they are wrong. If your work isn't up to your client's standards, listen to what they want, give them what they want, and continue to work to make them happy.

3. Be Available: Keeping a client happy involves keeping them in the loop. That means that you have an open means of communication with your clients that is dedicated to them. If you work from 9 am to 4 pm everyday, and you need to run errands one day, forward your chat service to your phone so that you can answer your client's questions on the fly. Also, having a smartphone that allows you to recieve and send emails is super handy.

4. Meet Deadlines: This one is easy. If you say that you'll have something done in 2 days, have it in their inbox in 1 1/2. Don't just meet deadlines, beat them. This shows your clients that they can count on you to get them their content before they actually need it. If you absolutely have to break a deadline due to an actual family emergancy (too many people slack off on the job and miss deadlines because of "sick kids"), let them know as soon as you can, and give them a new deadline that is as close to the old one as possible. Also, I know that life cannot be planned in advance, but try not to have too many family emergancies if you can help it.

5. Have Fun: If you love what you do and you're passionate about it, clients will want to give you work! It's as simple as that.

With these simple tips you can keep your high paying clients happy and not worry about losing your job to slave labor.

If you really want to know what its like having to fight your way up from the bottom of the freelance food chain, check out my guest blog.