A Genuine Article

Freelance Web Designer Looking for Work? Please Do This

By Marc Carson · Wednesday February 12, 2014

[Above: Chicago ‘L’ Station, photo by Daniel Schwen]

I spoke to a very excited web designer friend on the phone today. He’s really energized by the fact that he’ll soon be able to quit his full-time job and move to 100% freelance work. Why so excited? Because his full-time job is a drag, wears him out, doesn’t pay a lot, isn’t interesting to talk about, and doesn’t add anything to his professional skill set. The prospect of working for himself sounds amazing in comparison.

There’s just one problem.

In order to get there, he needs more money. He’s already got some good clients, but no work to do right now. With just a bit more cash he’ll be able to quit his day job and keep paying his bills.

I had been in his shoes before—I struggled to start a web design business three times before it finally stuck. So I knew exactly what I would do.

Here’s what I told him: You have existing clients. Good ones, too. Get in touch and tell them what you can do for their business.

You see, freelancers will often wrap up work for a client and then move along to the next job without so much as a “let’s work together again sometime.” And it’s not that they have anything against that client, but they feel like they’ve completed everything the client asked them to do. They’re done!

This is a huge mistake. In my experience, most clients are looking to establish a relationship with their freelancers. They really appreciate your professional experience and opinions.

So I told my friend to visit his clients’ websites, put himself in their shoes, and think of things that would add value—new website features, changes to their designs, improvements to the writing, or changes to the underlying code for SEO purposes—just about anything, as long as it would push their work forward in some way.

Put another way, ask yourself: If a someone from a competitive marketing agency came along and pointed out a bunch of areas for improvement in your clients’ websites, what would those areas be?

Finally, if you’re still having a hard time thinking of ideas, look at your clients’ competitors. What are they doing differently? Your client deserves to know.

But it’s like sales!

Marketing and sales skills are relevant to every business. I know there are web designers who have enough work coming in that they have never needed to approach a client in this way. But getting in touch like this is actually normal and even expected.

People who under-communicate, on the other hand, risk being replaced or forgotten about.

When you call your client—and don’t email, please call if you can—just tell them you were on their website, you made a list of ideas for improvements, and you’d love to meet with them to review possible changes that you think would help their business. Tell them you have time this week, on days X and Y, and you can just stop by for a few minutes.

They know you. They trust you. Now trust yourself and invite them to improve the way they do business online.

Oh, and be sure to ask for an up-front payment of some percentage so you can quit your job even earlier. As my business coach once told me: “You don’t do anyone any good by being out of business.” Don’t hesitate to ask for what you need in order to do a good job and remain helpful to your clients.