Freelancers? Finding Suckers... I mean 'Client'

I get all my work from word of mouth.
It's not even that I've been recommended, it's that I'm the only (avalible) person they know who can do the job, and I own my own equipment.

>>1499401
Good customer service and word of mouth does the rest for me. (My industry is swamped.)

Customer service/social skills > timeliness > cost > actual skill. I pride myself on having some decent chops in what I do but I realize that it's just one small piece of many.

What's worked best for me is building up a fanbase/community that legitimately like you as a person (or persona, whatever.) You create a demand for your attention, approval, and company because people like working with you, while also needing the kind of work that you provide versus someone who just does your job but not much else. When it gets to this level, even when I RAISE my quotes, demand keeps spiking. People come back not only as clients but with referrals. Return clients make a good chunk but not majority of my customer base, however it's BECAUSE of these return clients that new clients are often attracted to me (via referrals, good reviews...)

Unfortunately this is very tiring for me so I've had to take breaks from this particular line of work from time to time, even though I love it!

>>1499603
Interesting hierarchy of importance there. I guess it all comes down to being likable as person while also for what of a better phrase "dealing with the customer"

>You create a demand for your attention, approval, and company because people like working with you, while also needing the kind of work that you provide
That is what I've suspected for a long time. Sounds like real good advice.

File: maxresdefault.jpg (61KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

61KB, 1280x720px

Before you close, you need a lead?

Take the lead, get me up to speed,
shall go where's there's need? where the customers are indeed?

>>1499609
Pretty much. At least that's just my own experience so take it with a grain of salt.

>>1501295
That's why I'm gonna bump this and see if any other anons want to put in their two cents.

My gut feeling is you're right though.
I think my problem with clients is that I have a big mental "personal|professional" divide, and I make it hard for myself to get chummy or to be charming.
Gotta work on that.

Not technically a freelancer, (property management) but most of my clients come from referrals.

People come to me because I get things done, get them done fast, and am known for not jerking people around. My clients like me because I manage things well enough that they rarely have to intervene outside of approving a few random bigger expenses once in a while. Some get to the point where they don't even bother to check on that more than occasionally because I never try to invoice them for fraudulent crap. It's just provide a property, and then collect some profits from the rent. They make money, they don't have to care about the details.

I guess I could exploit that, but I just don't see the benefit in doing so. People stick with me for years, when most other companies have high turnover with nickel and dime stupidity. My view is that it's just too many lies to keep track of. Clean paperwork is low effort. Well paid employees with diverse skill sets require very little management. Random dumb expenses happen. My clients understand this, and like that I'm perfectly fine eating a cost for something I did while the idiots who try to squeeze every penny out of stuff end up kinking the money hose.

One of my bigger referrers apparently says I'm "like a grumpy old dog. Loyal to those who treat him and his well, just don't even think about trying to cross him. He's not careless enough to leave any traces." I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the description. I really hate dealing with bullshit, or people that hem and haw. Work with me and we can both gain. Play games and you start to waste my time, and generally aren't amusing in the process. I'll let the lawyers turn you into ground hamburger. It's not my field, and I've got better shit to do.

>>1499603

what do you do??

>>1501555
How much of your job is simply talking to, and considering what you say about rarely having to intervene, how much of what you do is simply explaining stuff to clients?
>Look this property is going to need X fixed soon enough, that's an expense you'll want to be prepared for
Sort of thing?

or do you keep them at an arms length and only bother them when it's very very important?


>"like a grumpy old dog. Loyal to those who treat him and his well, just don't even think about trying to cross him. He's not careless enough to leave any traces."
Haha. That's something you'll never hear in those salesmanship books

>>1501689
Most of it's documenting everything and sending paperwork off. Little expenses like replacing or repairing the odd appliance get consumed in the day to day expenses. Something like putting a new roof on almost always requires authorization. One of my bigger clients doesn't even look at that anymore. He's perfectly fine not receiving a cent for several months in a row. As long as I've got the paperwork and pictures for his accountant to work with, he's happy.

Actually that's something else that I forgot to mention. Paperwork. I came from software, and I have a fetishistic approach to properly displaying information. My expense reports are largely automatically generated, and everything has links to picture of the work in my database. They have relevant information about current profits, deductions, depreciation, etc. You want any accountant looking at your paperwork to cream their pants. It makes audits a joke.

Anyways, a lot of the expenses are proactive preventative maintenance, which many other PMs don't properly do. Usually costs more in the long run, especially stuff with a peak season, if you wait for things to break first. I do preventative in the off season when I can, so I don't need to worry about shit breaking when everyone else is having problems. For example, my AC guys are salaried. They spend most of the year casually working through my AC units, or doing emergency rates. The average idiot doesn't do preventative maintenance, so during the first heatwave or two every year, tons of people are losing their minds because their AC is broken. That means I can charge emergency rates. Most people won't pay it, but some will pay 5 timers the standard rate, or more, just to get you out there right now. I rarely have my AC units fail then and there because they are maintained. That lets me seriously exploit that part of the market. Most of their salary comes from that 1 week or so a year. Anything else is largely straight profit.

>>1502406
I think that's an important thing to learn when it comes to consulting. Provide a service nobody else can match. For me that involves providing turn around times that other companies can't match for those willing to pay the premiums, and using the same resources to provide extremely low problem services at reasonable rates to my long term clients, both landlord and tenant. I've taken my resources and creatively flipped them around in a way that most other people haven't. If you as a freelancer can carve out some weird little niche that nobody else can compete in, you've got yourself a mint.

Too many freelancers try to get client quantity instead of focusing on client profitability, and those that do are all to often looking for ways to screw clients. If you provide a better service, and there is demand, people will line up to pay you.