Building Your Freelance Reputation

We all know how important a reputation can be in the world of business, and this is especially true when you’re providing a service.

People want to know you can do a great job on their project, and that you’ll deliver on time with no hassles. A lot of people have been burned by freelancers. Maybe they paid part or all of the cost upfront and never received what they paid for, or maybe they spent a lot of time going back and forth and never got exactly what they were hoping for.

But how can you build a reputation when no one will hire you because you’re new and don’t have a lot of samples or testimonials?

One great way to do this is by offering either free or very reduced cost work in the beginning, in exchange for a testimonial you can display on your portfolio website. You agree to do some work for a client either free or much cheaper than normal, and they agree to give you a testimonial that you can display along with their name, a link to their website or contact information, and ideally a photo of the client. If you can get a few people who are relatively well-known in the industry you specialize in to give you testimonials, you will find it much easier to get jobs.

Make sure you point out that the price you’re offering is just an introductory price, because you don’t want that client thinking they can get your services at such a low price indefinitely.

Some clients may try to talk you into working cheaply on a permanent basis because of your intro pricing. Don’t let them! It’s not worth it to spend a lot of time on a single client who doesn’t want to pay what you are worth, even if they are fairly high profile.

The one exception would be if someone is sending you a lot of other clients who are paying full price for your services. In that case, it might be worth it to keep the original client happy by working for them at a reduced cost.

You might also consider running contests to give away your services to a few people. This way, you have only a limited number of projects to handle and you get a lot of attention from potential clients. You can even ask those who want to enter your contest to opt-in to your email list so you can attempt to sell them your services later, even after the contest is over.

Next lesson we’re going to look at some of the best ways to find work as a freelancer, so don’t miss it!

If you missed the previous lessons, you can read them here -

How To Become a Freelancer - Lesson 1

How To Become a Freelancer - Lesson 2

How To Become a Freelancer - Lesson 3