Whether you`re going to hire a freelancer or you need to know what clients look for in freelancers, here are a few tips you must keep in mind.
If you`ve been freelancing for some time you have made various errors. If you are a new freelancer, perhaps you have not made all of the identical errors yet, however you possibly will earlier than long.
The issue is, regardless of all of the technology, tutorials, and internet websites out withinside the globe today, there may be one issue that humans can not keep away from – human error.
And now no longer one person loves to admit it, however, all of us make errors. Some errors are small and insignificant; others can come to be costing us a lot.
Here, I am listing some of the things that clients consider while hiring freelancers.
Skill and Expertise
The first and most important thing clients look for is a fit between their needs and your skills. This means they want to see clear indicators of how your services can help solve their business problems.
It’s not about you convincing the prospective client to hire you, but rather exploring how you, and they are a good fit to collaborate as two separate business entities.
A Solid Portfolio
A well-maintained portfolio is the most powerful tool you have in your arsenal as a freelancer. It shows that other clients have used your services and that they approve of you as a skilled professional.
This is crucial because, without a portfolio, a prospective client has no way of verifying whether you are what you claim to be.
Familiarity With Content Management Systems
Illustration of complex projects and their management CMSs are tools designed to organize and streamline workflow. If you are just starting out and don’t know anything about these tools, it’s a good idea to use their free trials to get acquainted with their UI.
You can ask your prospective clients which CMSs they use to figure out which tools are popular in your industry. Apart from the obvious benefit of better workflow and organization of tasks, knowing about CMSs also helps you come across as a professional.
Proper Invoicing/ Charging
It creates a good impression in front of prospects and separates you from other less-knowledgeable freelancers. Right from the get-go, one thing that you have to get right when freelancing is invoicing.
Speaking of legal, make sure you understand taxes before you send your client an invoice. A wrongly-charged tax will make your client doubt your expertise and even cut ties with your business.
Timely Turnarounds
As a freelancer, a big part of your job is to try and save yourself and your clients as much time as possible.
This means that there is no real cap that limits your ability to earn more. The faster you complete a task, the more you can do. This is good because it allows your customers to do more in less time, and it’s also good for you because you have control over your income.
Compatible Pricing
Clients come to you with their problems to find solutions they don’t know or don’t have the time to figure out by themselves.
To measure how valuable a client problem is, you can judge it based on three main categories: necessity, urgency, and scalability.
In urgent cases, the absence is actively damaging the company (financial or otherwise). If it is scalable, it will have a huge impact on the future of the company. Based on these criteria, you can choose a price that is acceptable to your customers.
Project Management
Most freelancers work with multiple clients at a time. Clients know this, and that’s why they often ask you to prioritize their work over others, for obvious reasons.
That means if a new client has an urgent requirement and needs to override a pre-booked slot in your schedule, you can charge them an additional fee for the extra hassle. But make sure to let the new client know of this fee before making the deal; nobody likes surprises in an invoice.