How to Market Yourself as a Freelancer

Marketing yourself is paramount for freelancers, as it’s certainly going to differentiate you from all the other independent contractors out there. And one of the most frequently asked questions among freelancers is ‘how can I successfully promote myself and attract clients?’ Well, with no further ado, here are some smart ways to get more eyes to your freelance business.

1. Use an e-mail signature

Simple as that and extremely efficient. As a freelancer, you’re going to be sending plenty of e-mails to prospects, other freelancers, and so on. So why not make the most out of this? Create a simple signature with your name, the services you offer, and your contact details. I’d also recommend adding a professional picture. Furthermore, if you have a website or a portfolio page, insert the link to your signature, so that people can get to know you better.

2. Share your portfolio online

Another great way to market yourself is to house your portfolio in a lot of different places. The online world is huge and there are many places where you can promote your work and services. Create a great portfolio with your best samples and add it to your website, to your LinkedIn profile, and any other freelance platforms you’ve joined.

3. Build a website

This doesn’t need to be anything complicated. Begin with getting a domain and a hosting service. Oh, and you don’t need any web designing skills, either (unless, of course, you’re a freelance web designer). Platforms like WordPress and Wix have a plethora of ready-to-use templates you can choose from. Therefore, opt for the one that best suits your business and list all the information you want your prospects to check out. Key sections to add to your website include the ‘About’, ‘Portfolio’, ‘Hire Me’ and ‘Contact’ pages. If you set up your website the right way, rest assured that work will start coming to you in a timely manner.

4. Embrace networking

Networking is, in fact, a way of expanding your circle of acquaintances. The main goal is to make yourself known by as many people as possible and eventually land a gig or get recommended when someone asks “Do you know a good freelance copywriter/ designer/developer?” There are multiple networking opportunities: from local business events and informal meetups to public speaking gatherings and job fairs, the list is endless. However, keep in mind that you shouldn’t be pushy when talking about your freelance business. Start with a laid-back conversation and let things flow as natural as possible towards your freelancing career.

5. Join freelancing platforms

Freelancing marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork, Giggrabbers and Toptal are awesome for marketing your services and landing new freelance jobs. Set up an account, write about your experience, past projects, skills, and qualifications. You can even include details about your education, courses you’ve taken, and conferences you’ve attended. Most platforms allow you to attach a resume and a portfolio and that’s a great way of having everything in one place. After you feel confident with your profile, browse for gigs and apply to the ones that seem like a good fit. Once you get your first assignments done, you’ll gain popularity, receive reviews, and potential clients will start inviting you to interview for remote jobs.

6. Use social media

Social media networks allow you to let everyone know that you’re a freelancer. Whether we’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, don’t forget to mention your business in your description. Moreover, you can create dedicated branded pages that focus solely on your freelance services and maybe run some sponsored ads. LinkedIn is one of the key networks to be on, as it’s main aim is to connect professionals. You can easily get discovered by recruiters and get in touch with companies that are searching for independent contractors. Plus, you can join groups where like-minded freelancers exchange ideas and share opportunities.

7. Seek out client referrals

Once you’ve done a wonderful job for a client, don’t be ashamed to ask for referrals. If they’re happy with your work, they’ll be willing to recommend you to their business partners and acquaintances who are searching for a reliable freelancer.

All in all, keep in mind that you don’t need to pitch 24/7, hustle, or struggle in order to market your services. These simple, yet effective tips will help you grow your freelance business and get more clients in a jiffy. Break a leg!

 

7 Key Tips to Get Market Feedback about Your Business Idea

So you’ve got your business idea, now the important thing is to get honest feedback to be sure your assumption is worth following through.

This step is crucial – an assumption about what the market needs or wants is great, but if it isn’t embraced by your target customer you’ll end up spending time, effort, and money unnecessarily.

Here are our 7 effective tips on how to get feedback from your target market.

 

 

1. Define your Target Market

This step almost seems so obvious that it doesn’t need to be stated, but defining your target market is perhaps the single most important step.

If you’re asking the wrong people about your idea, you’re going to get inaccurate feedback. This feedback will incorrectly alter your perception of your idea which may lead you down the wrong path. It’s just as bad not following a great idea through as it is following a bad idea through which won’t sell.

Objectively define your target market. Who will benefit most from your product? Do they have a likely age range? A particular area they live or work in?

Honestly answering these questions will allow you to tailor your approach, maximizing your chances of reaching the right people and getting the right feedback. Plus, you’ll save a ton of time by not getting having conversations with the wrong set of people.

 

2. Get Over The Idea That You Shouldn’t Tell People Your Idea for Fear of Them ‘Stealing it’

 Working with entrepreneurs (and being one myself), this is a phrase I have heard more times than I can count.

‘My idea is amazing, but I don’t want to tell other people because they might steal it.’

The only time anyone would actually put the effort into copying your idea is only if you make a huge success out of it, at which point it wouldn’t matter anyway because you would already be successful. And from the looks of it, the copycat never really wins.

The simple fact is, if you have a great idea, the best thing you can do is share your idea with everyone you can.

Now don’t get me wrong, in the last tip we’ve said that you should strictly define your target market, but there’s no harm in telling people who are not part of your target market because they may know other people who’d benefit from what you have to offer.

The trick is not to put nearly as much emphasis on opinions from people who are not from your target market; they won’t directly know the benefits/drawbacks of your idea because they won’t be thinking as potential customers.

3. Ask Your Potential Customers Face-to-Face

Physically asking your potential customers for feedback is hugely valuable. Asking specific questions and having conversations face-to-face can bring you highly valuable information that no other form of feedback can.

Face to face we’re much better able to read facial expressions and body language, getting a feel for what someone really thinks. Maybe they’ll be animated and enthusiastic, maybe they’ll be a bit more held-back, or maybe they’ll want more information and turn into one of your first customers.

The drawback of this method is something called ‘demand characteristics’ – that people may tell you what you want to hear. By and large though, these people are few and far-between. To alleviate thiss, remember to ask open-ended questions as much as possible.

4. Ask People Already in the Industry

If you can find anyone already in the industry your idea is based in, you can gain massively valuable feedback because it comes from a place of knowledge and practical experience. Imagine talking to Tiger about golf club comfortability. Imagine the value of the feedback you’d get from him.

This type of feedback is unique, the type your potential customers won’t be able to directly give you. One of the dangers, though, is in making sure not to ask someone who is a potential competitor. If they are, then of course their advice will be biased to their own interests.

If you manage to find someone objective however, their feedback will be as honest as it comes, because they’ll have nothing to lose in offering their advice.

 

5. Survey Your Target Market Online

Creating your own online survey is hugelyeasy these days. Using google surveys or the plethora of survey websites makes it so simple to get feedback on anything at all.

Online surveying can bring you huge feedback. If you go out for a day and speak to people face-to-face, you may be able to speak to 40-50 max. Because people can fill surveys in simultaneously, you have the opportunity to get massive amounts of data/feedback from relatively little effort.

The trick with this method is to ask the right questions and get your survey in front of the right people. Keep your questions short and concise, people don’t want to spend too much time on things they don’t get much out of.

Ask 2/3 questions at the beginning to define whether the person is a potential customer, then ask the most important questions to whether your idea will be well received. Keep it short, sweet and to the point.

 

 

6. Use Social Media Channels

Everyone is on social media these days. Putting surveys or questions on blast using multiple social media channels has the potential to bring you all the honest feedback you could ever need.

Facebook, LinkedIn and others offer specific targeting to get content in front of exactly who you want. Facebook charges relatively little to allow you to choose the age-range, location, gender plus other factors of who you’d like to target.

In this way you could share a survey or create content (like an article, blog post, video etc) with valuable content which then asks for feedback.

The great thing about online feedback is that people are more honest than in real life. Because it’s online, there isn’t much consequence on comments so generally people are far more willing to say what they really think.

This type of feedback can be invaluable and will help you make an informed decision on your idea.

7. Offer Something in Return for Feedback

 

Okay, maybe not that much…but we’re all busy these days and as a general rule people won’t be inclined to do something if they won’t get much out of it.

The way to get around this is to offer something small in exchange for someone’s feedback or opinion.

The trick is to give something which would be massively valuable to your target market, and less so to everyone else. Here’s where you’ll have to get creative; what would your target market really benefit from, but which won’t cost you a lot?

The best answer for this is specific information. You have your target market – think about what information they would benefit from and offer that in exchange for their honest feedback. Perhaps an article or a very short free e-book which you would then give them on receiving their feedback.

This will entice your potential customers to communicate and connect with you and because it’s online, they’re more likely to be honest. This also has the added bonus of catching their email addresses so you can stay connected with them for future.

 

Who are we?

A bunch of super cool tech junkies. Try out our innovative biz dev platform here and let us know what you think.

 

The Pursuit of Happiness

In 1943, the noted behavioral psychologist Abraham Maslow released a paper in Psychological Review detailing the things which everyone needs in life to achieve happiness and fulfillment. This framework is known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

According to Maslow, there are 5 levels of need. Each individual requires certain basic needs like food and clothing to be met before they can begin to focus on the next rung in the hierarchy, safety. Once an individual has achieved some level of safety and security he can begin to spend more time focusing on less tangible needs like social acceptance and the need for love. Those who succeed in fulfilling their social and emotional needs will in turn strive to fulfill the need for self-esteem or respect in their chosen career or life path. Only after the fulfillment of each of these needs will the individual be in the position to reach for the ultimate human need, self-actualization.

While the levels of need near the bottom of the pyramid may be interchangeable at times (as evidenced by anyone who’s ever thrown caution to the wind and jeopardized their own safety in a bid for acceptance), each of these needs must be met before a person can aspire to self-actualization.

What is self-actualization? One who is self-actualized has discovered her/his purpose in society and the world and follows that path without fear or regret. A person who is self-actualized has a bird’s eye view of the world’s events and the events in her/his own life and understands their place and significance within the bigger picture. A person who is self-actualized accepts constructive criticism with grace and curiosity as opposed to fear and defensiveness. Those who have attained self-actualization exude confidence and calm. They also understand that failure doesn’t exist; each perceived failure is an opportunity to learn, as well as a potentially important chapter in a grand story. To the complete human, the world isn’t a scary place at all. Every day is an adventure full of things to learn and solutions to uncover. Put simply, one who is self-actualized has achieved HAPPINESS.

If you’re happy and you know it, slow down bullets!

If you’re reading this on a computer screen from the comfort of your living room, chances are your physiological needs and need for safety are being met to a practical extent. For our purposes, we’ll assume that your social needs are being met as well. You have a place to live, you have ample food and clothing, and you have close friends and family who love you and would love to see you succeed. You have all of these things, yet… something is missing.

Perhaps there’s a dream sleeping inside of you that you’ve neglected for too long. Why has it been neglected?  Maybe you have a “good job.” Maybe pursuing your passion in earnest would mean relocating to a different city, but you’re loathe to move. Why chase an impractical dream now that you have so much to lose? Well, the short answer is: your life-long happiness depends on it.

The poet Langston Hughes explored this dilemma to great effect when he asked, “What happens to a dream deferred?” In the poem, Hughes illustrates perfectly the urgency and the need for us to do everything in our power to make our dreams reality. A dream deferred is akin to a cancer of the soul, destined to shrivel up or explode chaotically with the desire to be. Dreams that emerge from confinement in this way are gnarled and twisted and often bear little resemblance to the bright dreams of youth. These dreams turned nightmares emerge ugly, angry and full of resentment.

Very much like this gentleman…

So, there is a clear connection between the pursuit of one’s dream and the pursuit of happiness. Some might even say they are identical. It is telling that in one of our nation’s bedrock documents, The Declaration of Independence, an implicit distinction is made between “happiness” and “the pursuit of happiness.” Should we be striving for a stagnant, impotent happiness or a happiness that is constantly shifting and changing, evolving, and discovering new things about itself?  We need a happiness that is alive and growing, the antithesis of stagnation. In this light, happiness is not an end in and of itself but rather a life-long journey to be entered upon joyously, without fear. And what better road to travel down in this timeless pursuit than the road that only your dreams can plow? Our dreams are not secret diadems glistening far off in the future. They are vehicles that exist here and now, just waiting for us to drive them off into the never-ending horizon of self-actualization.

Sounds easy, right?

The truth is, following your dream is never easy. Many people seem to think that happiness and hard work are mutually exclusive. In fact, the opposite is true. Your dream will sit and gather dust and rust until the moment you get back behind the wheel and drive it into the future; but whenever that moment arrives, it will be a joyous one.

Whether you want to renovate the home of your dreams, open a record store, or make a movie, the first step to making your big dream a reality is the realization that you will probably need help. The beautiful thing is that there are talented and highly-skilled people all around you who are traveling on their own path to self-actualization. They are production designers, programmers, hair stylists, personal assistants, and writers, all looking for the opportunity to realize their dreams, and in the process, help to realize yours. Giggrabbers is a free, interactive online platform that helps bring your dreams to a reality. You tell the platform what you need, along with a budget that works for you, find and hire the right people you need to get things moving, and pay them securely all on one user-friendly platform. It’s the only platform that provides this much creative space under one roof, specifically with the success of your dream in mind. We can’t let our big ideas whither on the vine. No, we owe it to our family, ourselves, and the world to make them a reality.

Join Giggrabbers today to take one step closer to self-actualization or to help someone else get there. It’s free.

By Michael Koene

Bringing Projects to Life: Connecting You to What You Need

Giggrabbers, a free online gig management platform,  brings projects to fruition by connecting you to a diverse group of service providers who can help with your ideas. Clients are always looking for a service, be it the services of a musician, web designer, photographer, or house-sitter. The big question today is: which platform best allows for a project to pinnacle? Is it Giggrabbers? No, not by a long shot, but Giggrabbers aims to do just that, and its platform exists for that purpose. For for those that further inquire: “Well, there are many platforms that do that. What’s makes Giggrabbers a better option?” As far as we know, there isn’t a platform that connects you to musicians, legal freelancers, web designers, photographers, DJs, and/or plumbers all in one place; Giggrabbers does precisely that (we hope you click the link this time). If there is another platform, let us know and we’ll investigate; but Giggrabbers connects you to tutors in New York to web designers in California, or India if Cali isn’t far enough. We love doing it, and as a result, will work hard to make sure it works right for all parties. So for example, we don’t allow you and freelancers to set up hourly gigs; instead, we ask that you work with a fixed price, calculating the time it takes to provide a service by their hourly rate. (Don’t worry, we’re working on the hourly issue).

Check out our platform, post your project, and watch your ideas come to life.

Warm regards,

Alex