This article will continue where we left off in Where to Find Clients at the Start of your Freelance Career. While the first article deals with the start of your career, this article gives tips on how to get even more clients and maintain the relationship for the long term, so that you get repeat business.

Make sure people like working with you

If you are good, you can get the job done, and the client likes working with you, then most likely they will come back to you for more projects. Sometimes the first job they give you is a small job, but the next project might be more challenging, after they get to know you and they have confidence to give you a bigger task. They will even suggest to work with you on a long term basis, like be their personal assistant to handle all the graphics related stuff for the company.

Caring attitude

In my case, my clients like working with me because I am nice and will do small things for them with no extra cost. Also I take the initiative to recommend them things that they are not aware about, e.g. installing a spam plugin for the blog, or helping them set up their emails. Of course, they also like my designs. Its all about having a good attitude, not a ‘Tidak Apa’ or ‘I don’t care’ attitude.

Building relationships

You have to love what you do and you have to enjoy working with the client. Business is all about building relationships and your client is like a friend. Sometimes they even buy you lunch, give you free gifts and chat with you. Its like a hairdresser that chats with the customers, and that’s why the customer keeps coming back. In my case, my clients will usually ask me about where I’m travelling next or how was my trip etc. (You don’t have to talk to much, mostly just listen to them)

Of course you have to be selective and trust your instincts. When you first encounter the client you can judge whether you like the person and whether you want to work with them on a long term basis. That’s why being self employed is better than working for someone. If you don’t like your boss or don’t like the job that they give you, you still have to do the work. But as a freelancer, you can choose who you like to work with and what projects to accept (of course depends whether you have enough projects or not otherwise you should grab any opportunity).

Be Informal

So, be nice. Actually, just be yourself. No need to pretend to be some professional and be too formal. Its like TGF Friday restaurant waiters, they sit next to you to take your order, smile, recommend food etc. When you write emails, be more human, be informal with the language that you use, like you are talking with the client e.g. say Hi! Or just say a short ‘Thank you’. No need to write a long formal email.

Excellent Service

People come back because they like you and they like your service. Simple things like, answering emails promptly, and picking up the phone, even after office hours or during weekends. All these small things will make some customers so impressed. Also take the initiative to complete the project fast and give some design options for the customer to choose. Also be willing to make changes for them. Some of my clients are just so happy and thankful that they managed to find a designer like me. They give me good testimonials and work with me for years. Makes me wonder how bad are the other freelancers or web design companies?

There are thousands of freelancers and web design companies out there and one way to compete and stand out from them is to provide excellent service.

Get your client to be your business development executive

Here’s how to save money on advertising. Let your clients promote your work.

You don’t have to purposely ask your client to help you to promote your business. If you are good they will automatically recommend you to their friends or clients. In my case, one of my clients who is in the aquarium business recommended me to his supplier and his overseas partner. He is sort of like a Business Development Executive for the company, so he will be meeting a lot of people etc. So if anyone needs a website he will most likely recommend me. I just stay at home and let my clients do the networking.

So you just get a few of these types of clients who love talking and meeting people and you can some free promotion. No need to waste money hiring people.

Say Yes !

I just saw the Jim Carrey movie, ‘Yes Man’. It’s a good movie about having a more positive outlook and taking a chance. Saying yes will lead you to more great things! So, from the freelance business point of view, accepting a project will lead you to another project. For me, even though it’s a small or low budget project I might still accept the job if I think I will enjoy doing the work and if I think it will lead to more contacts in the future. E.g. One of the cake business recommend me to a woman who recommended me to do the Pinglian.com website. And the Pinglian.com website leads me to do The Art Commune website. From one client it can lead to more and more business.

On a more personal note, saying yes and going for the Pakistan trip 3 years ago was a good decision. I didn’t know anyone on the trip but from there I have made new friends and I have gone on even more and more trips with them. One thing leads to another ! Take the chance !

Brand yourself

Instead of having a corporate sounding name e.g. Freelance Website Solutions Sdn Bhd, promote yourself. I use my own name. It gives more confidence to people and slowly builds up your reputation. Its like all the fashion designers like Zang Toi and Versace using their own names on their labels and celebrities like Britney Spears and Donald Trump are marketing themselves as a brand. I think names are easier to remember and you can relate a personality to the name. For instance, I’m using my name Jamie Soon to promote myself, on my website, the domain name, the invoice … everywhere is Jamie Soon. Something that people remember and when people ask who designs your website, they will say Jamie Soon.

Trust

Be honest, be trustworthy. Don’t cheat your customers. They won’t like it if they have been cheated. Again, business is all about building relationships. So like in relationships, you have to honour your commitments. Give quality work, not just making the design look nice. The backend html coding make sure it is according to the latest web standards. Don’t want the customer to find out later that you did a lousy job or give substandard work. Strive to provide the best to your customers e.g. get a good hosting service for them.

Who are you working with

I got my assistant, Lai Meng, who as been working with me for years. Some of my clients like her a lot and say she is nice. So I think we make a great team. In a small business, you and your employees (or freelancers that you sub out the work) will be in contact with the client. So not only you have to be good, the client also has to feel comfortable with working with the other team members.

The hosting company also has to be good. Imagine if the client likes your work and you provide excellent service. But if their emails go down and website is slow, it will also affect you. Your reputation could also be destroyed because of other people’s mistakes because you should also take the responsibility. So choose carefully who you work with. E.g. for me I have been hosting with Hostpro2u for many years because Helen, one of the consultants that deals with me provides good service. I can feel that she cares and tries her best. And just recently I found a new web hosting company that also provides good service and a good price.

So in conclusion, the people around you has to be supportive and be in sync with your style of doing business. You can’t do everything on your own. Also if you have someone to back you up if you are not available, then your customers will be more confident about doing business with you on a long term basis. Not like someone who is there one day but next week goes out of business and decides to do something else.

Master the language

Being good in English helps. Or if you are good in other languages like Bahasa or Chinese you can cater to your target market. Most of my clients like to work with me because my English is good. Because you are dealing with information. The website or any brochures has text and provides information. I sometimes check for spelling and grammar mistakes for my clients or recommend some words to use for the headlines. And I can grab a paragraph from the company profile and insert the website title and description and keywords for the website. All these small things matter, because if there is a big spelling mistake and it will affect the company image. After all, you are the designer and you are dealing with the public image of the company, and if your English is good (or any other language that you are designing your website in) then you can provide an extra service to your customers, and its less burden for them, then you can do the checking, or come up with some good titles e.g. for the banner or advertisement.

What else can you do for the client ?

Think beyond what is required. Think about your clients needs in the future. What other services can you provide. After I complete a website, my clients will ask what else can I do for them, brochure design, banner designs, leaflets and more recently, video editing! The more useful you are, the more people will want to continue using your service. After all, its easier to deal with just one person, who already has all the materials and knows the corporate style. So, learn a new skill and provide other services to your clients besides web design. Propose more services to sell to your clients.

Conclusion

To get repeat business and more customers, you gotta provide excellent service, small things like answering your phone and replying emails quickly, can make a big difference in how the client decides whether to come back to you for more projects or not. Other factors include, making sure the client enjoys working with you by being yourself and not too formal, be nice, be honest, and brand yourself in a way that clients will remember. Let your customers help you to promote your work. Give the client the confidence and the joy of continuing to do business with you.

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Ok, so you are a visual arts student who just completed a basic web design course and your lecturer asks you to create a website to showcase your work. Where to begin ? Below I’ll give you some ideas on how to start planning and creating your first website.

1. Create a sitemap

You might want to start of by creating a sitemap. Using a pen and paper, list down the pages that you need e.g. home, resume, portfolio, contact. The portfolio section can have different categories e.g. pencil sketch, web design, graphic design, illustration, or animation. If you don’t have a lot of work to put up, then a single page for portfolio should be good enough. Otherwise you can separate the categories into different pages, just in case you want to add in more artwork in the future, then things would look more organized.

2. Prepare the content : Building up your portfolio

Next, prepare your artwork, photos and text. Scan your work. Take photos. Compile your best work in digital format. Then you have to resize it and optimize it in Photoshop. You can ‘save for web’ so that the file size is not too big. Usually I will resize my artwork to about 500px width and height and save it as jpeg. You can also do small touch ups like improve the brightness and contrast, crop and if you are paranoid, you can add in ‘Copyright 2008 Your Name’, so that nobody can steal your work.

Put up not only your college work and final projects, but other stuff like your personal projects, rough drafts, unfinished work e.g. if you have done any sketches during your free time for fun. Just finish it up and do some touch ups. You can also put up freelance work. At least it will make your website look more interesting, like there are lots of things to see.

You might also want the user to click a small thumbnail image before viewing the larger image of your work, so you have to prepare the small thumbnails e.g. it could be 100px width and height.

Next you can write a short welcome message for the homepage and prepare your Resume / CV. The resume doesn’t have to be too detailed. One A4 size page should be enough. Its not necessary to put your complete home address on the web for security reasons. If a potential client or employer wants more information they can always call or email you. Make sure you add in your contact number and email address. You could also prepare a pdf version of your resume for people to download and print.

3.  Design

After that you can start designing your website in Photoshop. Actually before you start you can decide whether you want to create your website using a blog or you want to design your website from scratch. If you are using a blog (e.g. from wordpress.com) then you only need to select an existing blog template and design the blog image header. The advantage of using a blog is that its free and you can set it up almost immediately whereas designing the whole website yourself will take a longer time.

Let’s just assume you are going to design the website yourself, since your lecturer will most likely want you to apply what you have learnt in your web design class.
Usually, how I start is go to Photoshop and create a canvas with 770px or 880px width (just to make sure it fits nicely in the browser).

3 things you can keep in mind when designing your website :

a) Keep it simple – You wouldn’t want to have a headache later when you transfer your design to html. Over designing your website template might also take attention away from the important stuff, your portfolio. Since most of your content will be images of your work, the content itself would be part of the design. Keeping the design simple also makes it easier to make changes in the future, for instance, if you want to add an extra button or page. Make room for expansion.

b) Usability – Make the navigation bar look clickable. Make the links look like links. Make fonts large enough to read. Be consistent. Don’t sacrifice usability for the sake of making your website look ‘nice’. For instance, you may think that blue underlined links look ugly, but its the standard you see when you use the Yahoo and Google search engines and even Facebook. The user should know immediately where to click to go to a certain page. You could still do a creative looking main navigation bar with icons etc but have an additional normal text navigation bar at the bottom just in case. Give options to the user. One way to make sure your website is user friendly is to ask your friend to test it out and observe her when she views your website for the first time. Also, you have to make sure your website works in different browsers e.g. Internet Explorer and Firefox.

c) Personality – Well, since its your personal website, and you are trying to market yourself, you should design your website so that it shows of your personality or preferred design style. Every artist has their own style. For instance, in American Idol, some singers you can tell straight away that they are country singers, some are rockers and some are good at singing slow romantic songs. Then Randy would say, “I know exactly the kind of album you should make and this style suits you …etc”. So, you as a designer should know what kind of design style you are good at e.g. for my style can be cute very pink girly style or clean and simple corporate look. So I try to reflect that in my personal website. Create something that you can be excited and passionate about. The actual design and look of your portfolio is one of the most important examples of your work. You could also create a logo or branding for yourself.

4. HTML and CSS template

So after you’ve designed your website in Photoshop, try to convert it into a html template. You can use Dreamweaver or Textpad if you are good at coding. I won’t cover in detail because you probably already learnt this in your web design course. Basically, the process involves alternating between Photoshop and Dreamweaver (or textpad) e.g. slicing the images in Photoshop or sampling the colour using eye dropper tool and entering the colour code in Dreamweaver.

When you are done with the template you can add in the content for all the pages, including your artwork and resume. So that’s it. By planning your website and preparing your content, you’ve already done 50% of the work. For me, the difficult part is designing and creating the HTML and CSS template. Once you’ve done that everything will be smooth and you just need to add in your content. Don’t forget to make your website user friendly and show of your personality and design style.

Additional touch-ups and frills to add to your site include adding a page counter, favicon and adding meta tag keywords and description. If you are just planning to show the website to your lecturer to be graded, you can just burn it to a CD.

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