Issue #26

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business.

But cash flow requires clients. And clients don’t just appear on their own.

So how do I actually find work?

Truthfully, it’s not that I have a queue of people waiting to work with me (I wish I did). Instead, it looks more like this:

Posting on  LinkedIn a handful of times a week, which rarely leads to work right out the gate, but it does keep me front of mind — and it actually helped me secure the retainer client I have now.

What works better is reaching out to old clients and leads directly. I don’t wait until I’m out of work — around 6 weeks before wrapping a project, I start letting people know I have availability coming up.

This works because you’ve already built up some rapport with them and earned their trust.

Here are 3 examples from this year:

1. The lead that came back after 3 months

In December, I had a lead come in for some dev work. At the time, I didn’t have availability. As I approached March, I had some capacity opening up, so I reached back out.

I’d written it off completely, assuming they’d done it in-house or found someone else.

They hadn’t.

That project led to an extra £6.8k.

2. Three years of “not yet” with one agency

I worked with an agency about 3 years ago. Now and again, I’ve messaged the owner sharing recent work and letting them know I have availability.

Most of those check-ins went nowhere. But persistence with the right person eventually pays off — we finally lined up £3.2k of work starting next week, right before I head off on holiday.

3. Asking before they had to ask me

Yesterday I started thinking ahead to August capacity. So I let my retainer client know I have extra availability that month, before reaching out to anyone else.

Just like that, another $5k added to the year.

None of these came from chasing new leads. They came from staying in touch with people who already trust me, and asking before they had to ask me first.