If I could wave a magic wand to help you do whatever you wanted in your freelance editing business, what would it be?
I posed this question recently in my Instagram stories, and the overwhelming response was: how to get clients!
I get it. I felt the exact same way when I was first getting started my business 8 years ago.
If we don’t have clients, we don’t make money and have a hobby, not a business.
One thing I want you to know about getting clients – and something I’ve personally learned over the years – is we focus on getting clients before we’re actually ready. If we think about getting clients as a point along our journey to becoming a freelance copyeditor, it’s actually closer to the end of our journey than at the beginning.
If we focus on getting clients when we’re first starting our business, we tend to skip steps. And when we skip these essential steps, it ends up biting us in the butt. I’ve seen it over and over again not just in my own business, but in my clients’ businesses too.
Before you can start getting clients (and we’re talking about clients who will actually pay what you’re worth and not just little $10 jobs), you need to do two things…
Get Your Mind Right
Mindset is the foundation of your business. It’s the first step I teach in my Freelance Editors Club and it’s essential to building a sustainable business.
If you don’t have your mind right, focused on abundance and growth, your business is going to struggle, and you’ll never get to the point where you’re actually ready to take on good clients. Your work won’t be up to par and you’ll start spinning your wheels, wondering why this is so hard.
Start with your mindset and then you can move on to other things that will help you get clients.
Build and Nurture Long-Term Connections
I know this isn’t the fastest way to get clients. You could go out there and start cold messaging everyone and their mom who is writing a book, but it’s not going to bring you lasting results or a sustainable business.
The key to getting clients that you love to work with and who will pay you what you’re worth is taking the time to build and nurture your relationship with them. This isn’t easy, and if you’re introverted like me, it might take you even longer.
When we have these 2 things in place – your mindset and your relationships, you’re going to produce better results.
And what happens when you produce amazing work?
Your client wants to hire you again.
They’re going to give you a raving testimonial.
They start referring you to their friends.
You don’t have to do any marketing. You don’t have to run any ads. The only thing this is going to cost you is your time creating amazing results for your clients.
You’ll avoid the hamster wheel of struggling to find clients and you’ll be much happier in the long run.
View this post on Instagram
And if you want to get more clients in your freelance editing business, join the Freelance Editors Club and I’ll teach you the exact steps to getting your first client and booking your services out!