How to Get Work as a Creative Freelancer

Since launching Mt. Freelance Aaron and I have hosted quite a few Q&A sessions with members, potential members, college students, and recent graduates about how to successfully freelance. 

I’m amazed how we still get new questions we’ve never heard before. But the question we get over and over again is this one. 

“How do I get more work as a freelancer?” 

So I thought I’d share a few of our thoughts here. 

The most important thing is to make sure your website is a home run. 

It doesn’t matter how many recruiters or potential clients consider hiring you, it matters how often you get the job. So if reaching out to recruiters and new contacts before you're set up for success you are going to lose out on work and potentially lose out on future work too if they decide you’re not ready or right for bringing on. 

We cover how to make a great website inside Mt. Freelance and have also written an article on it and love this article too. 

But if you’re short on time here are a few of our top tips: 

• Make sure it’s super obvious what you do on your hompage
• Be clear you are freelance and outline the kind of work you’re great at 
• Share client work that best reflects the kind of work you want moving forward 
• Showcase personal projects that reflect your unique voice and talents 
• Use project descriptions to explain how you work and help clients solve problems 

We HIGHLY recommend taking the time to make your website as fantastic as possible before you do anything else. 

You also want to make sure everywhere clients can find you is up to date, accurate, and reflects what you do and the kind of work you thrive doing. That’s your Linkedin page, your WNW profile, even your Instagram profile or FB account if they lean work and career. 

The other hugely important thing is to stay in close touch with your network. 

Think about the people who you would refer work back and forth with. I bet some of these folks only get in touch when they are desperate for work. Don’t be that person. Be the person who stays in touch with collaborators and your clients regularly. 

Send them holiday cards, reach out when you see a great piece of work they share. Check in once in a while just to see how they are doing for a virtual coffee or just email a hello. Be genuine versus transactional. 

This is particularly important because the best way to get more work is from existing clients and collaborators who you’ve already done great work for. 

Look at these relationships and see if there is more you can offer them. 

If you’re an editor could you also produce a film or podcast for them? If you design and update a client’s website could you also design their internal decks, social posts or annual reports? 

They may have work they are desperate to hire out that they don’t realize you want or can do. And if a client has a project that you can’t pull off yourself, that’s when you use your network and bring on collaborators. 

As a freelance you aren’t limited to what you can do, but rather what the people you can bring on within your network can do with you. 

As far as reaching out to new clients, we recommend being tactical versus casting wide and narrow net. 

Think researching a company’s needs and staff and doing a quick audit of where they need help. Then reach out to a few people there with a personal message on Linkedin detailing who you are and how you’d love to help them. 

That’s a wiser use of time than emailing 25 different recruiters a version of the same email. 

Imagine if instead of replying to jobs@ with an email you put together a short film or deck detailing how you are uniquely qualified to help them. 

Here at Mt. Freelance we get lots of businesses approaching us about sponsorship or partnership. We can tell by the second sentence who actually visited our website and knows what we do versus who is just spamming a list. Recruiters and creative directors can tell that too! 

Finally, be consistent.

Don’t stop doing these things once you get work. Train yourself to have a daily or weekly practice of doing this kind of outreach. Schedule time on your calendar if you need to. 

I hope that helps! And if you have a secret that you're willing to make not so secret tip to share I’d love to hear it! 

All best, 

Andrew