Comments on: Want to earn more money? How to find your first 3 paying clients

By: Case study: From $17/hour to $65/hour. How did she do it? | I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Fri, 07 May 2010 15:22:48 +0000

[...] « Want to earn more money? How to find your first 3 paying clients [...]

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:25:03 +0000

What will it take you to get your first 3 freelance customers?

Doing the footwork.

1. My specific customer is someone with this problem:
Self-Employed person who is an expert in their field but does not have the knowledge or time to do their own record keeping.

2. My prospective customer spends time researching the problem / solutions in these 3 places:

1) Referrals from other self-employed people or tax preparer.
2) Chamber of Commerce
3) Craigslist or Yellow Pages

2. One way I can break in to one of the places above:

Join the Chamber of Commerce.
Post an ad on Craigslist.

3. My opening line in an email to them:

Do you get frustrated keeping your own books each month?

By: E

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:32:42 +0000

Simple but great advice. Really interesting, I like the email title. I guess it works.

By: Jennifer Whiddon

Jennifer Whiddon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:44:29 +0000

If I had any skills I would certainly use them to freelance. I own a hair salon and I am a hair stylist. The economy nailed me to the cross and I am now getting ready to close the salon and go work for someone else. But everyone else seems to have amazing ideas for themselves. That is so great!

By: finance

finance — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:24:31 +0000

wow cool tips you have and very practical. Looks to me like a direct solution for getting a client. I’ve gotta print this one. great post

By: kck

kck — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:58:43 +0000

The guy who sent the first email would benefit if he hired someone to proofread his emails. I wonder how many possible clients he’s lost by having incomprehensible grammar.

1. My specific customer is a woman, probably under 40, who is interested in martial arts or self-defense but turned off by male-dominated schools.

2. She looks for information: (a) from her friends, (b) at her gym, or (c) online — google/craigslist

3. I can break into the above places by (a) giving lessons to some of my friends for free or cheap and relying on them to recommend me to others, or (b) offering to teach a class at my women-only gym.

4. My opening line: You can try out brazilian jiu-jitsu in a comfortable, all-female environment.

By: Lionwish

Lionwish — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:54:46 +0000

Working for free (For a while) is a great way to network, learn, and most importantly, figure out if what your trying to obtain is something you even like to do.

By: Dani

Dani — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:25:56 +0000

1. My specific customer is someone with this problem: Wants to be greener, but doesn’t want to spend a lot of time shopping around or a lot of money on “alternative” goods.

2. My prospective customer spends time researching the problem / solutions in these 3 places:

1) comparing prices via google

2) local store shelves

3) eco-friendly blogs, magazines, and forums like huddler, inhabitat, and real simple

3. One way I can break in to one of the places above: I have connections on huddler; I could post to their forums to pick people’s brains about my store model, which would help me tailor it to them and hopefully let them feel like they had a stake in the business’ success.

(This is great: in thinking about it more, I typed “cheap eco-friendly” into google and found out that there is a site called greendealsdaily.com that posts all kinds of good deals on green products. Not only would it be a great place to contact when I am ready to launch, but it lets me see what kinds of deals excite people. They have comments from people getting excited about $1.25 13-watt CFLs, which is twenty-five cents more per bulb than I got and about fifty cents more after shipping! )

4. My opening line in an email to them: Well, now that I’ve found a ton more active “green deals” websites, I would like to target them after I launch. Most of them have forms to fill out to submit deals, which I could use for specific items I was selling. I confess that I am totally blanking on what to send people in an individual email, and I realize that that is keeping me from moving forward and sharing what I have here. Here’s what I want to say:
“Hey, I am opening an online store where you can get wholesale prices on all kinds of eco-friendly stuff for a small monthly membership fee!”

By: Anastasia

Anastasia — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:28:20 +0000

Jenn
Your prospective clients will find out about your services at their vets office, doggy day care or from their dogwalker. A final category is the person who grooms them- especially for dogs with skin allergies. People with extra money for their “babies” make sure someone is taking care of their baby during the day and provides them with “enrichment activities”. Break in by finding dogwalkers in really posh neighborhoods or go to the most expensive doggy day care you can.

Your intro line grosses me out and makes me want to stop reading. Focus on the pampering aspect or on the holistic and healthy food . you will provide. Something like “Doesnt your hairy little one deserve the best? Home cooked healthy meals for your pet”

By: patty

patty — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:42:53 +0000

1. My specific customer is someone with this problem: They need someone to design a world class water feature for their project or a project they are trying to land

2. My prospective customer spends time researching the problem / solutions in these 3 places:

1) blind online search

2) personal referrals (from people in architecture/development/construction fields)

3) researching projects they like to see who did them

3. One way I can break in to one of the places above: make my presence better known with updated website and portfolio, make sure my already large network knows what I am doing, make sure that someone researching a project I worked on is able to identify that I was the designer

4. My opening line in an email to them: Let me design your landmark water features