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Best ways to find Clients for Your Freelance Writing Business

Before you start handing out business cards and trying to find freelance work, it’s important to understand why companies hire freelance writers.
Companies hire freelance writers for a number of reasons. When a company downsizes, for example, writers often are among the first to be let go. It isn’t because the company doesn’t need them. It’s just that management often considers documentation to be secondary to the actual product the company produces.
Even after the fulltime writers are gone, though, the work they were doing still has to be done. And so, companies turn to freelance writers.
You might be asking why companies would lay off their staff writers and then turn around and hire freelancers (who sometimes are the very writers the company just laid off). There are many economic and business reasons for hiring freelancers instead of employees. For one, although freelancers make more money per hour than employees do, the company’s actual cost is less for freelancers than it is for full-time employees. With employees, the company has to pay for vacation time, sick days, and downtime when there just isn’t that much for the employee writer to do. In addition, the company has to provide benefits, such as health insurance and pay half of their FICA.
When you add all of this together with the employee’s salary plus providing a space and equipment, you’ll see that companies pay a lot of money for their employees. When companies hire freelancers, they’re only paying the fee that the freelancers charge, which is only for the time that the freelancers are actually working.
Second, full-time employees can be a legal problem for companies. If a company hires an employee who doesn’t work out for any reason, there’s a chance that the employee may sue the company when let go. Some of these lawsuits are fair, but some aren’t. Regardless of whether the lawsuits are fair or not, companies have to pay lawyers to resolve them. Also, disgruntled employees could damage the company’s reputation or property.
Working with freelancers is less risky for companies. Your clients hire you to work for a very specific amount of time or a specific project. You are eager to do your best in hopes of getting more contracts in the future, but when the project is done, if the company doesn’t have another project waiting for you, the relationship is ended. It’s a clean and simple business arrangement.
Another reason companies hire freelancers is that sometimes they simply have more work to be done than people to do it. It makes more sense to hire people who will be available only when they need the extra hands, and then will be gone when the need no longer is there.
Freelancers also can provide skills that companies only need occasionally. For example, if a company is applying for a grant and doesn’t plan to do this more than once, it makes more sense to hire a freelancer to write the grant proposal than to hire a grant writer, then let that person go when the grant proposal is written.

Start With the People You Know

One of the best ways to find clients when you’re first starting out is to look at the people you already know.
Many freelancers find their first client by looking at their last job. If you left your job on good terms and were honest about why you were quitting your job, there’s a chance that the company you left may pay you to continue working for them as a freelancer.
If you’ve kept In touch with co-workers who have gone to work for other companies, call them, even if you weren’t the best of friends. Tell them about your new business, and then ask them who you might contact at their new company about your services.
Always remember that all business is basically “people” business. Don’t overlook anyone when you’re trying to find clients. Do you work on volunteer projects? (By the way, volunteering is a great way to get to know influential people who can help you with your freelancing career – especially if you volunteer to do the writing and promotion duties for those projects.)
Think about the people you’ve worked with on those projects. Are any of them affiliated with companies that you’d like to work for? Ask for their help in getting your foot in the door. The worst that can happen is that they say “no.”
Think about the organizations that you belong to. Are there people at your church, for example, who work for companies you’d like to work for? Call them, tell them about your business, and then ask for suggestions about how to do work with their company. You’ll find that most people will be happy to help you.
Join the Chamber of Commerce and go to their meetings. Chambers of Commerce is great place to meet other business people and gain new contacts.
Above all, network, network, network! Tell everyone you know about your business. You never know where your next job might come from. Mention that you freelance at parties, when you’re standing in line at the grocery store waiting to check out, and so forth. Be sure to carry some of your business cards with you at all times so you can hand them out if anyone is interested.