It’s so easy to get complacent in our businesses when we have enough clients, or enough money, or enough free time.

These are the things we were gunning for, right? So once we get them we tend to just sit back and relax.

But what happens if one of your major clients pulls out tomorrow? What happens to our freelance business if something comes up that means you have to decline work from a long-term client and they go elsewhere?

Freelancing is notoriously unstable, but it really doesn’t have to be that way. It’s as stable as we make it. And, sure, when we’re kicking back with our feet up sipping a margarita because everything’s hunky-dory it might FEEL stable, but is it really?

Do you have systems in place that you can activate if a client drops out?

Okay, this might sound dramatic, but having SOMETHING in place is so important, both for your bank balance and your sanity. Plus, don’t you want to improve your freelance business? Don’t you want to get bigger, better clients and, ergo, more moolah in the bank?

Of course you do!

Improve Your Freelance Business Today!

You might want to grab this mini-business plan that you can work on while you read the rest of this post. I guarantee you’ll be feeling clearer about your freelance business by the end of it!

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1. Write a Quick Business Plan

The words business plan probably strike cold dread through your heart. Don’t worry, they did mine, too.

No one likes the idea of writing a novel-length manuscript about their business, but it really doesn’t need to be that hard.

In fact, it only has to be a page long if that’s all you want it to be.

There’s this idea that a freelance business plan needs to be really detailed, including all financial targets and goals, and KPIs, and this, and that, and a little bit of everything.

The truth?

There are just a few things you need to include in your plan to improve your freelance business.

Firstly, you want to include your target client. At this point you want to get really specific. It’s not enough to say “travel brands” or “finance businesses”. You want to dig deeper and keep on going until you have one distinct business in mind.

So, instead of simply stating you want to work with travel brands, you might instead write that your ideal client is a sustainable travel brand who helps travellers really get to know a place on a local level.

Seem too specific? Good. That’s what you want to be doing. You can then go one step further and outline a) what message your ideal brand is sending out (or wants to send out), b) what they believe in, and c) what their goals are for their business.

Secondly, you want to include what services you offer. All of them. Right down to the last detail. Whether it’s a combination of copy and blog posts, or logos and branding projects, you want to list everything you’d like to offer potential clients. And their prices.

Thirdly, you want to define your brand message. So that’s who you are, what you do, who you do it for and why. For example, my brand message is: “I create shareable content for travel and lifestyle brands so they can connect with their audience.”

Simple, see?

Lastly, you want to delve into your goals. Where do you want to be in six months time? A year? 5 years?

But more importantly than simply stating where you want to be, list out 3-5 mini checkpoints and goals that will help you get there.

For example, if your goal after a year is to have 5 steady clients, you could say you need to land one new quality client every two months. Seems much more reachable now, right?

byRegina has written a great post on writing a more in-depth plan to improve your freelance business if you have a bit more time on your hands.

2. Solidify your marketing plan

Oh look, another phrase that puts the fear of anything in you, right?!

A lot of people think marketing plans are these jargon filled documents packed full of black-hat SEO practices and other unethical sales-y things. But in actual fact they can be pretty fun!

Hear me out.

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. It just has to be a schedule you can stick to consistently so you can measure and improve your freelance business.

What can you include in your marketing plan?

Social Media

Social media is a great way to improve your reach and find new clients and, more importantly, put yourself out there so brands and business can find YOU.

It’s worth finding your groove with one or two platforms (because, let’s face it, aint nobody got time to be updating every single social media platform, right?!).

For example, you might choose Twitter and Facebook. Each week you might dedicate an hour to schedule tweets for the week and another hour for networking in Facebook groups.

Direct Contact with Clients

One of the best ways to market yourself is to put yourself in front of potential clients so they have no option but to notice you (in a good way, of course). This is something I like to call Direct Contact Pitches, and you can read more about them in this blog post.

Basically, this involves reaching out to potential clients by email after you’ve scouted them out on social media, Google, or on a local billboard. Perhaps in your marketing schedule you’ll note down that you want to reach out to between 3 and 5 brands each week to offer your services.

Guest Posting

There’s a lot of humming and hawing about guest posting at the moment, but I still think it’s a great way to connect with new audiences and put yourself out there.

You get a cheeky little byline that links back to your site, and you’re exposing your work to people that might otherwise have missed it. In your marketing plan you might want to pop in a little bit about guest posting – maybe you want to land one guest post a month on a quality site with a large audience.

Blogging

Content marketing is absolutely one of the best ways to land new clients. Not only does it showcase your expertise, but with every blog post you write and publish, you’re upping the chances of someone stumbling across you from Google or some other dark corner of the web.

You don’t have to go crazy with blogging, but providing 2-4 really great posts each month is a great way to make yourself stand out in the crowds. Firstly, because awesome, in-depth useful content will rank well on Google (and help people find you), but it’ll also get shared on social media too.

You can pretty much include anything you want in your marketing plan, but remember that what works for someone else might not work for you. It takes some trial and error to find a system that’s right for your business, but once you find it you’ll see a huge boost.

So, your weekly marketing plan might look something like this:

• Monday: Schedule tweets for the week
• Tuesday: 1-hour networking on Facebook groups
• Wednesday: Blog post
• Thursday: Reach out to 5 potential clients
• Friday: Blog post

3. Audit Your Social Media Profiles

Social media is one of the easiest ways for potential clients to find your freelance business. You’re basically putting yourself out there for the world to see (and get in touch with).

This is good and bad. Good, because, well, potential clients! And it’s bad if your social media profiles are letting you down.

I’ve come across tons of freelancers on Twitter who don’t actually SAY they’re a freelancer in their bio. This is a seriously easy mistake to turn around.

If you have a moment, ask someone you know to look through your social media profiles and come up with 3 things they think you could improve.

It might feel like they’ve kicked you in the teeth and then some, but in the long run it’ll be so much better. You see, it’s easy for us to love what we’ve written in our social media profiles (teehee I love puppies and kittens omg wow yea), but what does it look like to someone else?

Do our social media profiles convey what we do? Who we do it for? If not, it’s time to spice things up!

Okay, so even if you’re feeling smug with a comfortable client load, it’s never too soon to improve your freelance business. And, if you have a spare hour today or at some point this week, I highly recommend you crack on and do some of these things to improve your image, your productivity, and schedule.

Up to the challenge?! Of course you are!

Your turn!

What steps do you take to ensure you’re improving your freelance business every day?