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If you’re an early-stage freelancer, one of the most burning questions you’ll have is how to find freelance clients.

In their hunt for work, many freelancers end up spending their time where the market’s too saturated with competition.

Or, they put themselves in a race to the bottom doing soul-sucking jobs for cheap-ass clients.

Freelancing doesn’t reward those who have the most clients, it rewards those who find the best clients.

If you’re an early-stage freelancer, i.e., you have some work under your belt but you're not at the stage where you have a huge network of clients, or marketing that is bringing in leads, this advice is for you.

How to Find freelance Clients: Focus on Outbound Marketing

If you’re an early-stage freelancer, throwing up a website with a portfolio and waiting for clients to come to you is not going to work.

Making a post and hoping someone finds and chooses you among thousands of highly-skilled freelancers online is also not going to work.

Right now, you're still in the stage of building your business rather than having an established business.

You’re going to have to actively seek out clients and do some legwork to get people to notice and hire you - this is called outbound marketing.

Over time, your content marketing, social media and word-of-mouth referrals (inbound marketing) will grow and begin to pay off.

Clients will come to you and you’ll have to worry less about finding them. But for now, you’re going to have to put in some grind.

The Importance of the Portfolio in Finding Freelance Clients

In terms of getting work, it’s the portfolio that will convince freelance clients to hire you.

Concentrate on building some solid work to show what you’ve done successfully in the past. If you don’t have much client work to show, make dummy projects.

Don’t follow the advice in this post until you have a website and portfolio with at least three strong pieces of well-presented work (you can’t build a house without solid foundations).

The Worst Ways to Find Freelance Clients

First up, let’s take a look at the worst ways to find freelance clients. I see blog post after blog post of people recommending these methods to find clients. Honestly, I think it’s lazy advice that they probably copy from another blog post. I’ve been there and none of these were beneficial when I started out.

1.Gig Websites and Marketplaces

I would rather pluck out my eyelashes than recommend you spend any time on gig websites and marketplaces.

These places are for losers, and you're not a loser.

Platform marketing websites like Upwork, Fiverr and the like appeal to early-stage freelancers because they’re places where clients are already lurking about and looking to hire freelancers.

In terms of how to find clients, sure you can find them, but it’s not sustainable, not the path to success and not a place to make money.

Two Reasons Why Gig Websites Suck for Freelancers:

High Competition, Low Reward

Freelance gig websites pitch freelancers against one another in a race to the bottom.

With a crowded pack of competitors rushing to win a project, somebody will always be willing to do the job for cheaper.

The result? Making money there is really hard.

Too Time-Consuming

Spending time on freelance marketplaces is not a good use of your time. You’ll spend hours bidding, trying to build your rating and reputation, then write endless proposals, few of them getting accepted, and closing none of the clients you pitch.

An Exception:

Exclusive Freelancer Sites

Toptal and Contently are the only freelancer platforms I would ever say might be worth your time. These platforms only take the cream of the crop of freelancers, so your portfolio needs to be up to scratch.

You’ll need to go through a screening process, get vetted and probably complete an unpaid test or trial. But the payoff is top-name clients and decent pay.

2. Job Ads and Freelance Job Boards

The next terrible place to find freelance clients is on job websites like FlexJobs and Indeed, or freelancer job boards.

If you’re looking for work where jobs are already posted you’re already late to the party.

Like freelancer platforms, there’s too much competition on job sites and job boards. Freelance ads will have hundreds of applicants, most of whom will be more experienced and reputable than you at this stage. With ads staying up for weeks, you’ll spend ages crafting a tailored CV and cover letter for a job that’s likely already gone.

3. Business Networking Events

Most networking events suck and they’re not great for finding freelance clients.

If you’re going to networking events - from business meet ups to something like a Chamber of Commerce event - you’re just going to encounter a bunch of other people trying to find clients or sell you something.

Another issue with business meetups is the quality of people in attendance.

Those who commission freelancers and hold the purse strings don’t have time to waste at networking meetings, and you don’t have time to waste begging for scraps.

The Exceptions:

Hobby-Related Events

Attending social events related to hobbies can be a great way to find freelance clients and actually spend time doing something you enjoy.

A hiking meetup might have a couple of business owners in the crowd. Your pottery class might have a UX designer looking for a freelance copywriter.

Seriously, step away from the boring business meetings and do something you actually enjoy to build your network - just don’t go with an agenda to sell.

Creative Industry Events

When choosing events, go where the smart people are and check out industry-related events. The idea is to meet people that have interesting, creative jobs that can lead you to work.

Attend events for those that work at creative agencies or marketers within companies that need freelance copywriters, designers and animators etc. Creative people will go to a well-reputable industry event, they won’t be going to a boring business meetup.

4. Freelance Communities

Freelance communities on Facebook, Quora, Slack or Reddit are great places to make connections and find your peers. It’s worth getting involved in these communities and lending your expertise when relevant, but they aren't great places to find freelance clients.

Remember that just about everyone in those freelance communities is looking for work too and it’s not where your ideal clients hang out.

Sure, you might get leads or a referral from another freelancer, but don’t go into those platforms with high expectations that they’ll lead you to work.

5. Social Media

Put yourself in the client’s shoes.

If I'm a marketer looking for a freelance copywriter, is the first thing I do to go on social media?

Probably not.

Yes, you should set up relevant social media pages for your business but don’t expect them to bring in work right away.

Social media is getting harder to break into and navigate, you’re always a slave to the algorithm and other marketing methods are more reliable.

For some freelance professions, like designers and illustrators, having a social presence will be a way to win work later down the line.

Do it, yes, but social media isn’t something to rely on for early-stage freelancers looking for work.

Now we’ve gone through the worst ways to find freelance clients, let’s look at where you can find well-paying freelance clients.

The Best Ways to Find Freelance Clients

1. Cold Email/ Cold Pitch

Cold emailing is often an overlooked client acquisition method, but I've found it to be one of the most effective.

If you’ll allow me to toot my own horn for a second, cold emailing is one of the reasons I got to work at the Singapore Grand Prix and it’s earned me thousands $$ in projects over the years.

Cold emailing is not a numbers name about aggressive sales strategies or annoying cold calling.

It's a carefully considered, carefully targeted and carefully crafted way to get clients by seeking out those that need your services.

How to Find Clients with Cold Emailing

The key to booking high-paying and recurring clients using cold email is to identify the person at the company who is likely to manage freelancers.

You’ll need to do your research on your target prospect and reach out with a personalised email.

“Oh, but that sounds too time-consuming”.

Well, are you fully booked with client work right now?

Do you have spare time on your hands?

Thought so.

Give it a go and if it doesn’t pay off it’s probably more about your approach than the method.

2. Subcontracting for Agencies

Next up on how to find clients: the best ways, let’s talk about subcontracting for agencies.

Marketing and advertising agencies hire freelance talent when they have project overflow or need an extra pair of hands on client work.

Why Agencies Make Great Freelance Clients

Creative agencies know your value, the work runs smoothly to a reasonable schedule and you probably won’t have to manage or even be in contact with the end client.

Agencies have decent budgets to hire freelancers and big-name clients that look great in your portfolio.

How to Successfully Work with Agencies as a Freelancer

Agencies are looking for reliable and competent freelancers. If you’re a freelancer that can do the work, deliver on time and communicate well, you’re already 90% better than 90% of freelancers and it’s highly likely an agency will keep you on their freelance roster.

Speaking of being better than other freelancers, read “5 Ways to Look More Professional Than 90% of Freelancers in 5 Minutes or Less”.

(Shameless plug! Cold pitching to clients and agencies is one of the most effective ways to land high-ticket clients, but often beginners don’t always know the exact steps to cold pitch or who to contact. Instead of wasting time figuring it out, I’m writing you a handy guide. Comment at the bottom and I’ll send you a ping when it’s ready.)

3. Agency Job Ads

Creative agencies are often on the lookout for full-time creative talent ( think animators, designers, copywriters or translators).

A simple way I’ll build my network and get some freelance work in the process is to get directly in touch with the agencies looking to hire.

Think of it this way:

It takes a while for an agency to onboard someone full-time. In the meantime it’s likely that the agency will be looking for support on projects, which is where freelancers come in. Agencies that are hiring are also growing - meaning more projects in the pipeline where you can be an asset.

I know I said job boards suck, and they do. What we’re doing here is slightly different, we’re not going to go through HR or the usual hiring channels.

(If you want to know where I look and how I successfully use job ads to get creative agency work, it's all about who you talk to and how you position yourself. I’m writing a handy guide to take you through the step-by-step process. Comment at the bottom and I’ll send you a ping when it’s ready.)

4. LinkedIn Search

Yes, we all know that LinkedIn can be the worst - whether it's the toxic positivity, virtue signalling, MLM spam or posts that have “Agree?” at the end of them.

However, don’t overlook it as a source of finding freelance work.

The LinkedIn Search function makes it easy to find people looking for freelance talent. You can comment on the thread and send them a simple message with a link to your portfolio and website.

LinkedIn freelancer requests tend to come from people that are experienced working with freelancers, have reasonable expectations and pay well. It’s also not too time-consuming to search, comment on posts and send a quick message.

How to Find Freelance Clients: Everything Gets Easier with Time

Once you have a good number of clients under your belt, everything becomes easier.

You’ll have case studies and samples that prove to prospective freelance clients what you can do and begin building a network of people that can refer you when others need your services.

As you do the legwork on outbound marketing, your inbound marketing i.e. blog content, website, social media etc. should begin to get traction, so you’ll need to do less outreach over time.

Just remember, it’s really fucking hard to start and maintain a freelance business.

In the early stages, getting clients can be such a grind and you’ll feel you’re not getting anywhere. But in time, and with intelligent persistence, you’ll find yourself not worrying about where those next clients are going to come from.

If you’re an early-stage freelancer wondering how to find freelance clients I hope this post has been helpful. Remember to do yourself a favour by staying away from freelance marketplaces, highly-competitive job boards and lame business meet ups.

What are your views on how to find clients: the best and worst ways? Let me know in the comments.

How to Find Freelance Clients: The Best and Worst Ways