There are two types of freelancers:

Those who pitch their services to clients.

And those who wait for clients to come to them.

…guess which one is more successful?

🤔

Especially in the beginning stages of your freelance career (0-2 years), being proactive to get clients is crucial.

After those initial two years, once you've built a good foundation, you'll find clients coming to you through referrals, SEO, personal branding, content marketing, and more.

The problem is, many aspiring freelancers struggle to take this proactive approach.

Why?

Because they’re:

Too busy - juggling multiple commitments or getting caught up in non-essential tasks.

Lacking focus - they haven't clearly defined their target client or offerings.

Working on the wrong things - wasting time on things that don’t actually move the needle on getting clients and building their business.

Stuck with wrong expectations - they underestimate the time and effort it takes to build a successful business.

Just lazy 😑

If you’re ready to fix this, here are 3 tips to getting proactive and finding clients:

1. Pitch clients via social DM

Send a direct message to prospects on social media platforms. I recommend focusing on LinkedIn and Twitter to start with. Don’t try to do all the platforms. Figure out where your ideal clients hang out.

When you find them, send a simple DM like:

Hey John, I recently helped Bob increase his XYZ by X. Would you be interested in a call to see if we can help you as well?

Keep it short and simple.

After a week, send a quick follow-up.

Fact: Most sales happen in the follow-ups.

2. Pitch clients via cold email

The same strategy applies to cold emails.

Start by building your list of leads with a tool like FindThatLead - it lets you search based on niche, location, company size, and more.

Next, craft your email template.

Use a tool like LemList to automate the outreach process. It not only sends the initial email but handles follow-ups and gives you valuable analytics data to track your progress.

Remember, cold outreach is a numbers game.

Don’t talk to me till you’ve sent 500 emails. 😶

3. Get involved in communities

Lastly, super simple and effective strategy: Join a community like Freelance Fam. It doesn’t cost anything, and if you spend 30 minutes a day there you can quickly build a great network for getting work and referrals.

A lot of people get clients there.

Takeaway?

No one is going to build your business for you.

Stop sitting on your butt waiting for clients to magically appear.

Go out and get them.

That’s it from me this week. Hope it helps.

Cheers!