{"id":5862,"date":"2017-05-30T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T07:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alessandravita.com\/?p=5862"},"modified":"2017-06-17T16:24:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-17T14:24:30","slug":"10-tips-to-work-with-direct-clients-as-a-freelancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alessandravita.com\/wp\/10-tips-to-work-with-direct-clients-as-a-freelancer\/","title":{"rendered":"10 tips to work with direct clients as a freelancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would you like some tips on how to start your\u00a0own business as a freelancer? Or if you have a business already, are you\u00a0trying to get to work more with direct clients rather than agencies? If so, this post is for you. Enjoy the reading!<\/p>\n

1. Jump… but only with a parachute!<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Despite what most people might think, starting a business doesn’t imply signing a couple of documents and then looking for clients, but the other way around. If you want to do things properly to achieve a sustainable\u00a0success, you\u00a0can’t forget that getting good and long-term clients isn’t easy and takes significant time<\/strong>,\u00a0unfortunately much more than you think. In other words, no clients, no business<\/strong>.\u00a0If you don’t have stable clients and still decide to officially start your own business, it’s like jumping from a plane without a parachute. Don’t do it.<\/p>\n

2. Be financially prepared<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Once you have enough clients to provide you with some\u00a0stability, this step will begin to be worthwhile from an economic point of you (at the very least, you shouldn’t\u00a0lose money).\u00a0The ideal scenario\u00a0is that\u00a0you have\u00a0been saving money for some time and can perfectly keep up your living standards for up to one\u00a0year<\/strong>, without any financial pressure to make your ends meet.<\/p>\n

I cannot stress enough how\u00a0this makes all the difference for your professional future: it will decide whether you’ll be making \u20ac1,000 or \u20ac10,000 per month 5 years later<\/strong>. Why? Because if you set a very decent fee nobody initially accepts and you don’t have any savings, you’ll be forced into the\u00a0vicious circle of desperately lowering your rate\u00a0to get work at any cost from\u00a0terrible agencies (or, as I informally\u00a0call it, “prostitution”).<\/p>\n

3. Don’t forget\u00a0this is a job, not a hobby<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The biggest issue I see in this\u00a0field is that average\u00a0translators barely make it to the end of the month<\/strong> and<\/strong>, even worse, they are fine with that<\/strong>. Why? Because it’s probably the most vocational profession there is out there\u00a0and\u00a0we truly love what we do<\/strong>. As a consequence, many confuse their job with a hobby and constantly accept far-too-low fees to make a decent living out of it. In my opinion, this is a huge mistake. Loving our job translates into higher\u00a0quality and we should do the exact opposite: making a great\u00a0income by doing what we\u00a0love<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Set the right\u00a0fees from the very beginning<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Setting decent rates is not a new tip, I know. You must have heard it from every single experienced freelancer a thousand times already. The reasons are fairly obviously: avoid undercutting the market you hope to be living of\u00a0and\u00a0unfair competition.<\/p>\n

Yet, my tip is a little bit different, but only suitable for a few. You shouldn’t apply the minimum decent fee you’ve heard of, but rather a medium-high fee from the very first day.\u00a0<\/strong>If you are still unexperienced, you will be paid enough to hire someone to proofread your translations and deliver good-quality work.<\/p>\n

In the long-term, then, this will make the difference between working for agencies or direct clients<\/strong>. These\u00a0are two parallel\u00a0worlds that almost never touch one another, believe me.<\/p>\n

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Warning:<\/strong> you can even consider\u00a0following this tip only if you have been saving enough and if you are tremendously determined and patient. In the first months, you’ll definitely doubt\u00a0about this\u00a0strategy, because at first it will imply getting costant noes and “You’re too expensive” messages. If you are not running for the long run and want\/need immediate yet\u00a0modest results, forget about it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Apply different fees for agencies and direct clients<\/span><\/h2>\n

In any case, if you do decide to work for agencies as well, remember to always charge them\u00a0less\u00a0than\u00a0direct clients<\/strong>. The former are lower because middlemen\u00a0will need to get their margin. In order to know how lower they should be, you should ask professionals or associations in your country.<\/p>\n

If agencies do their job properly, I personally find more than justifiable that they get a\u00a0margin. Sad, though, that this is generally not the case (if you speak Spanish, you might want to read a previous post on this issue:\u00a0“Los intermediarios tienen que aportar valor a\u00f1adido adem\u00e1s de cobrar un margen<\/a><\/span><\/span>“).<\/p>\n

6. Hide your lack of experience in a smart way<\/span><\/h2>\n

As previously mentioned in a recent post in Spanish (“Traductores e int\u00e9rpretes que nunca contratar\u00eda<\/a><\/span><\/span>“), another vicious circle affecting not only freelancers-to-be, but also the world\u00a0of work in general, is “Having no work experience and thus getting no job;\u00a0getting no job and thus\u00a0having no work experience”. I am sure you’ve heard of it and probably even complained about it yourself.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have any\u00a0related experience (maybe from a previous in-house position), read carefully. Be smart and\u00a0do not indirectly underline\u00a0your lack of experience to\u00a0the client by saying that you recently graduated from this amazing university or using your graduation picture on your CV.\u00a0<\/strong>No matter how good the university is, the only think the client would read is that you have no experience at all and that s\/he’d better be looking for a more experienced professional, especially if you’re expensive.<\/p>\n

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What you should do instead is standing out from the crowd out there and make your profile interesting. For example, get some experience by taking some unpaid assignments at your university, working as a\u00a0translation\u00a0intern or\u00a0volunteering as a translator and\/or interpreter\u00a0for NGOs and similar good causes. Please do not confuse these options with\u00a0working for free for profit-making businesses or lowering your rates to add a line or two in your CV.<\/p>\n

Once you have\u00a0some related experience, you might need to at least\u00a0give the idea that you’re specializing in the client’s field.\u00a0My tip here is to learn more about that field, for example by taking an online course (there are many amazing ones offered for free by the best universities in the world on\u00a0Courser<\/a>a<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0for example).<\/p>\n

7. Prepare a bullet-proof online branding<\/span><\/h2>\n

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In my personal experience,\u00a0direct clients, especially when it comes to big companies, have always found me online through my website. Also, most of them usually tell\u00a0me\u00a0that they chose me because of it, since it was conveying what they were looking for: professionalism, reliability, trustworthyness, etc. When that happens, they won’t even care to look for some cheaper service provider.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t done it already,\u00a0you\u00a0have some homework to do: get yourself a modern and responsive website that conveys the right message\u00a0to your clients and work on your SEO.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes word of mouth <\/strong>helps as well: after somebody\u00a0recommends us, that professional brand we have created will do the rest.<\/p>\n

8. Find the right clients for you<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Again, clients are key for your business and they won’t be waiting in line in front of your door as soon as you decide to become a freelancer. There are many ways to look for them and it really depends on the field in question.\u00a0Some ideas to find direct clients:<\/p>\n