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When it comes down to working as a freelancer, you truly only need to establish a client base. With clients, you’ll continually get jobs. With jobs, you’ll get the paychecks you need to stay on your own and continue to freelance. That’s really all it takes.

When you are starting out, well to be honest, at all times through your career as a freelancer, this finding clients thing will be a big focus. The really good freelancers, contractors or consultants will never leave a job until they have the next one lined up. Therefore, the really good operators will have a constant source of income.

Finding the clients is the goal of anyone who wants to succeed as a freelancer. Several different client-grabbing strategies exist and we have outlined the most effective ones below. Certainly each individual will take to a method in a specific way. Remember that each method could fill a book’s worth of ideas, but here is a basic rundown.

1. Cold Contacting. Instead of the classic phrase “Cold calling,” this phrase is better in an era when methods of communication extend far beyond the telephone.

The concept is simple. You make your way around, trying to contact anyone who might turn out to be a client and offer your product or service. It can be unpleasant to many people, as you will experience a fair amount of rejection with cold contacting. As they say, it may take ten or more “nos” to get a “yes.” Finding clients with this method requires a very thick skin. Nonetheless, those who are good at it are always successful. Once you have it down, you can use it in any line of work. Therefore, you can use this skill for more freelancing.

2. Marketing and Advertising – This is the most expensive method of client acquisition. It simply entails that you put a sales message somewhere where your potential clients will see it and do it in a way that will make them call you. If you get this right, half the time the client has already made up their mind to use your services before they call you, so you do not have to sell at all. One big benefit of this type of client acquisition is that you can reach a much larger audience, than you can cold contacting people.

Putting out the right ads is not a simple thing. Besides having the right medium, you’ll have deliver a convincing argument backed up by a savvy blend of words and pictures to put your name on the minds of clients. While you’re trying to figure out the best approach in a advertising, it’s costing time and money. Once you do it right, though, you’ll see the benefits.

3. Referrals. Asking around for referrals is similar to cold contacting, except you’re contacting people you know first and asking for an introduction. That difference makes referrals much more attractive and much more effective. The number of rejections experienced is much fewer.

Using referrals means you need to contact your entire network to see if there is anyone your family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, friends of family and family of friends may know, who may need your services. Once you find people who need your services, you can use the person who told you about them, to give you an introduction and recommendation. The reason this works is that you are leveraging off the trust your friend has in you, and the trust your potential client has in your friend, to generate an element of credibility in your skills. That way, the potential client has a much easier time deciding to use your services, than those of someone that no-one has recommended

This can be particularly effective when you have some clients already and they give your referrals. This is the case as they have a “story” of your skills at work, which helps further build the credibility in you.

4. Team up with a company who’s already got the clients. In 2003, after leaving the Superannuation industry in Australia, I went out on my own, parting ways with the database software developing firm which had employed me. After some time working on new projects, it was obvious that I ought to keep going in the same industry, as my expertise was in superannuation. So, while I could have tried to contact all the big industry players, instead I got back in touch with my former employer. The relationship was already established and the clients were all there. We figured out a new type of arrangement, my old employer and I, which would make them extra money while I supported myself for the long haul.

Continuing in this way, I have been busy for years with all the contracts I’ve received from my old employer. I actually don’t work nearly as many hours as I used to, while the pay I take home every month is greater. The company likes it, too, as they are not responsible for big overhead costs that come with employees. They are paying for work only when it gets completed, on a for-hire basis, so there is never any questioning of the viability of a job.

It won’t always be so smooth a transition for freelance workers. You have to have some luck along with a great work ethic and timing. Some employers will not start working with someone who left them to pursue different enterprises. They may remind you of who wanted to leave. However, a competitor might be more than willing to try your hand, so remember that there is never only one option.

As your freelance career continues to develop, you’ll see that there is no single way to do anything, especially when it comes to finding and winning clients. Everything listed above will work if executed in the proper way, but if you talk to freelancers who have been at it for a while, you’ll see that it’s usually a mixture of several different methods to get the job done. Experiment: after all, that’s the essence of freelancing.

Damian Papworth works from home as it gives him quality time with his baby daughter. He recently undertook some analysis on baby high chairs as he required new high chair pads.