My experience with learning to serve freelance clients with a humble attitude.
Small businesses need creative and marketing services in order to connect with others so that they can generate more business, support their families, impact their communities and so forth.
People who provide creative services (e.g., graphic designers, web designers, video producers) need to be able to help these businesses so that… they make money and get paid.
Wait, did I say that right? Is the goal just make money?
Why freelancers should care about helping their client’s business grow, not just making money
“Success is not the result of making money — making money is the result of success, and success is in direct proportion to our service.”
Earl Nightingale from”The Strangest Secret”
If you haven’t listened to Earl Nightingale’s “The Strangest Secret”, I highly recommend it. Dan Miller of the 48 Days Eagles Community has mentioned how listening to this recording changed his life as a teenager.
“Don’t concern yourself with the money. Be of service — build, work, dream, create. Do this and you’ll find there’s no limit to the prosperity and abundance that will come to you.”
Earl Nightingale
So bottom line, freelancers should be focused on the big picture of helping their client’s business grow, not just producing products to make money. The interesting thing is that if we focus on helping our clients prosper, then we will strengthen our relationships and make more money in the long run.
How not to serve clients
So here’s how not to do it. These aren’t theoretical, but ways I’ve royally blown service opportunities either as a freelancer and employee.
10 great ways to blow service opportunities
- Throw away small creative opportunities and focus on “real jobs” such as scooping out roast beef at Arby’s.
- Invest more time in watching “Dukes of Hazard” and wait until your formal training is finished.
- Focus endless on tweaking your own website, thinking if you build it, they will come.
- Disregard what customers want, but only sell what you want to sell.
- Focus on work for “holy” purposes so that you forget to make a profit.
- Purchase a house first, then do some work because you’re in debt up to your eyeballs.
- When all else fails, max out your credit card to motivate you. When that doesn’t work, shift your attention to things that won’t generate income, since you’ve lost anyway.
- Don’t collect a deposit or send a monthly bill, because you might scare off a client.
- Don’t check in on your clients to see if there’s any ways you can serve them. That’s their job.
- Refuse “soul-less” work that might lead to more creative opportunities.
At the root of most of my service-oriented failures is pride. Even today I struggle with pride. I find myself not conforming to the image of Christ, who being in the form of God, humbled himself.
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…”
Matthew 20:28
“…I am among you as one who serves.”
Luke 22:27
Determining your service offerings and inventory what you can do
So if you’re starting off in freelancing, you might wonder what services to provide. Start with an inventory of what you can do and then examine what your clients need.
For example, I manage Google Ads campaigns and social media channels so several clients. I never woke up and decided, “Hey, I’m going to be an online marketer someday!” It just happened first because there first was a need. After discovering the need, I took some online courses on Lynda.com to get the essentials of how to provide service that would benefit my clients.
I’m not recommending doing whatever your client wants regardless of skills. For another example, sometimes clients have had some serious technical needs, things that I believe would be better done by a skilled web developer. Or there might be a client who needs quality videography done, and I know that I don’t have the best equipment. In these cases, it’s better to serve by referring them to experts you can trust.
Where you can’t serve, refer people
Over the years I’ve collected a long list of colleagues and friends and made note of their skills and willingness to work on side projects. I’ve compiled an “Aaron Recommends” page features many of them.
The benefit of referring people is that you can still serve even if you’re not directly involved in the project. I’m not speaking from a perspective of reciprocity or even affiliate marketing, but rather that when someone needs help, you help them. For example, who helps you more if you’re asking for directions to a store in Downtown Sacramento:
- Someone who says, “I don’t know”.
- Someone who says, “I don’t know”, pulls out his phone to search on the map app, then asks clarifying questions, and then directs the person which direction to take and what landmarks to look for.
Creating a process for following up
As I mentioned earlier in my list of blunders, one of my biggest has been failure to follow up. Again, pride gets in the way, because I don’t want to hear “I don’t need you right now.”
To improve my follow up, here’s two things I started doing this year:
- Scheduled a recurring monthly task in Todoist for each client, where I email them a snapshot of their website and online advertising performance, plus any recommendations. This keeps the channels open so that there’s no long periods of silence.
- Mark tasks where I’m waiting on someone with a WaitingFor label in Todoist. This principle is taken from Tim Challies’ “Do More Better”. As part of my daily review, I have a recurring task to check any tasks I’m waiting for. When I review these tasks, I can check the comments to see specifically what I’m waiting for and whether I need to do something or send an email.
How’s your follow up?
How do you follow up with clients or stake holders in projects? Please let me know your thoughts.