I’m now done with the first two weeks of my freelancing journey. Worked through a lot of ups and downs already. Find out how I dealt with these hurdles.
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MY FIRST CLIENT! I’d connected with a couple who had founded a company that dealt with nutrition in the form of traditional food recipes. I’d met them in an event that was organized in the Art of living campus. They had a brilliant concept that very few people were even willing to think about. I gave them a call and mentioned that I’ve finally quit my job and was getting into freelancing full time. I’d connected with them earlier about this and had kept them informed. Thanks to the relationship I’d built with them I wasn’t even asked any questions like how I would manage it and all. I was straight up told that they would be more than happy to hire me for managing their social media. This particular phone call was a massive boost in confidence for me. At this point I wasn’t really bothered about how much I was getting paid. It was all about getting that first paying client. I immediately got to work on preparing a presentation for them with my plan and other details [even though they did not ask for it, I felt it was only right to make it]. I met with them and presented the plan a day later and got an email confirmation for the plan and the payment details. The rush and hype I felt was out of this world. It was my second week and I’d already gotten my first paying client.
Don’t get me wrong I was nowhere near my target and had maybe achieved 20% of my financial target for the first month. This is where things got interesting. My first client was very well connected to other smaller companies like his and bigger ones too. I was immediately given numbers of two other people who owned different companies. I contacted them and thanks to the endorsement I got from my first client I was able to land my 2nd and 3rd clients as well! I went through the same process of making a presentation for the second client for social media management. The 3rd client needed content writing services so I set up calls with him to understand more about his business so I can get started.
SO NOW I HAD 3 CLIENTS! And this was just week 2. Again the money wasn’t important but the connections were. I had achieved 90% of my target for the first month in week 2. I was excited and this is where it went DOWNHILL. I got comfortable with the clients I had. I got comfortable with the way I worked. I got one lead from facebook for SEO but that did not turn out well and I didn’t like his proposition. I wasn’t sticking to my daily routine and was wasting a lot of time playing games and watching youtube videos. This is never a good sign for any freelancer. It’s very important to not get comfortable and always be on your toes. If you’re not working then go outdoors and do some physical activity or spend time with your family but don’t ever sit in a place and waste time watching a screen.
To know how I got out of this rut, check out my next blog “First month as a freelance digital marketer”.
Cheers!
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“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”
— Anthony Robbins1