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Igor Benić talks about how to get your first client and what helped him get them.
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What is Line 42?
A podcast on Web Development and ways to improve it. Two developers talk about their experiences, opinions, and challenges with projects on which they are working on.
[00:00:00] Igor Benić
Hello and welcome to another solo episode by me Igor Benić and we are talking today about getting your first clients. And the content of this episode is actually coming from my own experience so it can be a bit different for everyone else but I believe that following the suggestion here will get you a client much sooner. And before I even started doing what I'll talk about it here is that I wasted two years on Elance or Odesk, now that's merged into Upwork and yeah for two years I tried and tried and I didn't get any client, not a single one. So after changing my approach I got clients within a month or so. So before you start the process of getting your clients you'll need to define what the client is and in the freelancing world that's a person or a company that pays you for the work you've done or that you are doing for them and in the business world a client can also be a customer or a consumer of your products or services.
[00:01:34] Igor Benić
So should you narrow it or not? When starting out, it might be counterintuitive to narrow your client type down to just a few, for example, to choose a niche, right? And I would recommend to keep that actually in mind, but not to do it in the beginning of your career, or even if you have currently no clients at all. But by keeping that in mind, you'll be able to realize after a few clients, what type of clients you like working with the most. Maybe it's an e-commerce client, maybe it will be a client in the education area or something completely different. But why is that important to do? Well, you will be able to market yourself for such niches and thus write content that will bring you more clients.
[00:02:41] Igor Benić
And this brings me to online presence. You can narrow it down or you do not have to. Online presence is, let's say, a combination of various channels. So this, after realizing myself, is what I'm telling everyone. You need to build an online presence. It can just be blogging. It can even just be TikTok videos in the beginning, right? But you should start right away, even if you are just in college or school at the moment. Because ask yourself, what's easier, buying from a stranger or someone you already know? This will make it easier for clients to hire you. They will get to know you and then they will be much easier to decide if they should hire you or not. So how to do it? You have a few options. You have social media, you have blogging, you can be an active member of a community, you have networking. And I tell that from my experience, if you're a listener and you have more years of experience, you have experimented with other channels, do send me an email. Do contact me about it. I want to hear from you. So social media can act as a proof of being present and engaging with others, which is a great social skill for you to have as a developer. Blogging will make you viewed as an expert in the niche you're writing about. For example, myself, I'm more into WordPress space, so I write a lot of WordPress tutorials and also I categorize them. For example, I have a lot of WooCommerce tutorials and thus it's much easier to hire me for a WooCommerce project. Then being an active member of a community makes it easier to hire by members of the community or similar communities. You'll be known to them and probably exchange ideas beforehand through regular discussions, chit chat or something like that. And then there is networking. That's kind of similar to being a part of a community, but it can expand much further where word of mouth can get you much bigger clients, even if you don't realize it right now. And what helped me? Well, blogging. That's the first thing. It was sharing the content I created and I shared it everywhere. I was on Twitter, on Pinterest, I was on a few Facebook groups and let me tell you, that helped a lot. Maybe that was the jumpstart for my freelancing career. Then there is Twitter where I share my learnings through Twitter threads or just short tweets and screenshots of code and stuff like that. I also applied to write on other sites to get my name out there. So you can actually read my own tutorial if they didn't remove it about custom shipping methods on WooCommerce, which was back then on, I think it was the NetTutsPlus, but now it's, I mean, I think it's just TutsPlus. So yeah, I've done that. I was always active in select communities and Facebook groups back then when I had time to do it. Nowadays, not so much and I regret that, but definitely communities such as PostStatus, which is a paid community and it's probably not available for everyone's pocket, right? But it's a community that's really important if you're a WordPress professional. Then I also networked with like-minded people through the select communities, through the Facebook groups, through email and stuff like that. And also I went to conferences. And I remember one conference was in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, where I went there. And after that conference, because I met people on that conference, I met people who work at TopTel, I applied to TopTel. And basically, if I remember the timeline correctly, I went to the conference, I applied to TopTel within a week of that conference. Within a month of applying or something like that, I got accepted. And within a month of being there, I got a client that the revenue from that client was around $5,000 for two months of work, which is not a bad deal. So yeah, by doing all that, blogging, Twitter, writing elsewhere, being in communities, networking and such, people will remember you. And when someone needed a WordPress developer, well, they mentioned me to the leads. And also by blogging, people viewed me as an expert in the WordPress space. So that's a great perk.
[00:09:07] Igor Benić
And how people got to me through my blog? How did I get clients by blogging or with the help of my blog? Well, I created targeted content. If you have a specific idea of what would you like to work on or work with, create content about it. This can be an e-book, course, a tutorial, articles, webinars and similar stuff. I would definitely focus on the written content first until you get confidence on talking, being on video and stuff like that. So definitely try articles, like your opinions, more of opinionated content, and also tutorials where you share your code, your design, or anything that's considered a tutorial in your niche. And then the third point would be get those articles, get the tutorials, pack it and package it in an e-book. And you can sell it, you can offer it for free, you can incentivize visitors to subscribe to your e-mail, to get the e-book and stuff like that. And why is that? Well, imagine reading about a coding solution from a person. You immediately see that person as an expert on it, right? Because that person has written content about it, articles or tutorials. Well, now imagine a client who doesn't even have the skills for it, but sees you writing about it, reads your content. Well, you are definitely an expert to them, and they would be stupid to look elsewhere, right? So what helped me here? Well, I liked working with WooCommerce. So I created an e-book on developing solutions with WooCommerce, such as custom shipping methods and stuff like that. And I also created courses and tutorials on WooCommerce. And then, that was five or six years ago from recording this episode, I applied to the growth development of WooCommerce agency, and I got hired within a month there. Once you have such content, it's much easier to get seen through SEO, links such to show your expertise when applying to new projects, or even with cold emails or direct messages.
[00:11:59] Igor Benić
And now, before we move on to content, I want to talk to you about the sponsor of this episode, and that is, well, my own plugin, Simple Giveaways. It's a WordPress plugin that helps you create nice-looking giveaways with ease. And they are great to drive traffic to your business, grow an email list, and also get potential leads. You can basically use that ebook you created from your articles and tutorials and offer it in a giveaway. It's really easy. Just install it, activate it, and start getting more traffic. And now, back to the content.
[00:12:43] Igor Benić
So, as a freelancer, you might think that you need to work just on projects with clients, but actually clients are everywhere. A client can even be an agency or a company that you work with. If you're remote and you're just a contractor, that's a client. So if you struggle to find projects, try applying to remote jobs with 10 or more hours per week. Where can you find clients and such type of clients? Well, you should check them on job portals, jobs magazines, freelance platforms such as Upwork, TopTel, Freelancer, Codable, maybe even gig platforms such as Fiverr, and also of course within the cold reach like cold emails. What helped me when checking for clients? Well, Upwork, TopTel, Codable, then PostStatus Job Board. And my oldest method I have tried, it worked for me in a funny way, but it worked, was the job, a job magazine that I bought when I was a student. So how did all that help me? Well, on Upwork, I got my first remote clients where I realized that applying to projects is not enough. Just writing one to two sentences, it's not enough. You have to understand what you're applying to. But it was one of my first experiences with remote work where I experienced how to get on a short call, meeting on a weekly basis to discuss further projects and such. It was a great learning experience that's for sure for some of my first clients. TopTel is a bit different. Once you're there, you're likely to get clients really soon. Of course, if there are clients to choose from. You apply to clients, then a TopTel recruiter decides who among all the applicants will be sent to the client for further interviewing. This is a great solution for those that applied a lot but never got to the client. Then the recruiter can see that in their system and choose you to go to the next client for the interview. Of course, after that, it's up to you and the client to see if you are a perfect fit for each other. But it's definitely a nice experience. Codable is on another level if you're a WordPress developer. And it was at least like that when I applied to it because something happened that never happened to me on any other platform. And that is that I got my first job, my first project within the first 24 hours. And that was a 300 a bit more client and took about four to five hours to complete it. It's a great, that was money that I could dream about before. And then the PostStatus jobs board is the board where a lot of WordPress companies are posting their jobs. That's how I landed a job at Growth Development as a WooCommerce developer. And the oldest one, what helped me with the oldest one when I was just a student, right? So by using the job magazine, I just sent, emailed or even called people that were searching for web developers. Well, I was my first experience with a local client that really didn't end well. And why is because they wanted constantly new changes. I didn't know how to estimate it well, and also I didn't know how to value my time. And also I didn't even know what is the scope, right? I just said yes. And that, well, we finished, they got everything done, but I had to tell them a big no after everything was done because they would constantly email me to fix something for free.
[00:17:38] Igor Benić
And once you know where to look and apply to clients projects and jobs, it's important to know the client. It's important to understand the client or the project. As I said before, I lost two years before getting a remote client. I just randomly applied with two to three sentences on online platforms and that didn't work. So learn as much as possible about the client, their business and the project. Use that to your advantage by describing how you can help them achieve X and Y. Be descriptive about what you'll do to get them results and if you've done something similar, describe what you did before. In case you build your own presence such as social media or blogging, this is where you can provide links to the content you have written about a specific topic that is related to that project. And what helped me to get a first client here, through that, well, I browsed the website they need help with. I checked their requirements and described what can be done and how, with options of course. Then I also was proactive and told them about a few more things that could be fixed. They liked my proposed ideas so they actually hired me. But be transparent here. You don't want your first client to think you can do everything and then fail at it. Tell them what you can do and what you can't do or think you might not be able to achieve it as they want it. It's better to lose a client through transparency than to lose trust through lies. If you lose the trust you won't hear from them ever again. If you lost them because you didn't know something, they actually can come back later with another project or request. In most cases, if you build a relationship with them and they like your online presence, they might hire you with the scope you provided, even if it doesn't contain everything they need. you
[00:19:56] Igor Benić
And there are also various strategies you could use to get your first client. One of them is to offer a free service in exchange for more work or similar. For example, are you a designer maybe? Well, ask someone through cold email or DM if they want you to redesign their landing page or site for free. For example, make a deal to get a percentage of each sale from such a landing page up to a fixed amount. For example, 10% of the sale of each sale up to $1,000. If you converted so many leads for them, you'll get a client that trusts you and wants to work with you further. Then for example, maybe you're a developer. Ask them if they want a free web audit. By creating such a web audit, suggest the steps you should take to make their site better and convert more. Add CTAs to your web audit document so they know where to get to you if they want to proceed. You can also make a similar deal as well to get the percentage of each conversion or similar. Make it a deal that is hard to pass and easy to accept for them. One that doesn't cost them upfront.
[00:21:21] Igor Benić
And actually, if I'm being honest here, the fastest approach is not to build an online presence or blogging or such, because this stuff takes time. So what I would recommend you is to look for clients that are actual companies or agencies. Apply to some that give you enough revenue to pay bills and experience remote working. Then while you're working there, start building an online presence. Write what you're doing or have done. Once traction starts, you realize that you're getting job offers or clients with projects that are contacting you to work for them. That is a great indication that you are doing something great. With that, you can slowly start to take such projects, but smaller ones just do not burn out and build a client list. Then it's up to you. Once you have a client list, it's up to you to decide if you want to go freelancing or stay at the agency. The biggest pro here is that you have built yourself multiple opportunities to get new clients and work how you like with whom you like.
[00:22:43] Igor Benić
Well, I hope you learned something here and you got yourself an idea on how you will approach your next client or try to get your first client. And if you liked it, let me know about it. I hope you have a great day and talk to you in the next episode.