Being self-employed is interesting as you’re the boss but not the boss. You work for yourself, yet you rely on other people paying you for your services. It’s a strange one because you have to go out seeking clients, which can be somewhat like applying for jobs. Loads of people post jobs online for self-employed people to ‘apply’ for. However, a more effective way of getting work is by encouraging clients to come to you. This puts all the power in your hands as they have come to you asking for work, not the other way around. 

Clearly, you want to know how to achieve this. Well, here are three strategies that’ll help you do exactly that:

Create a website & use SEO

Start by creating your own website and optimizing it for SEO. This will mean that your site appears in search engines for people that are looking for the services you provide.

As an example, if you offer content writing services, you want to be near the top of the results when people are searching for things like ‘content writers’, ‘content writing services’, ‘freelance writers’, and so on. This is only achievable if you have good SEO, which could mean investing in some SEO services to give you that extra boost. If you don’t have enough money to do this, you can improve your SEO alone, it will just be slightly harder and may take longer to see the results. 

Advertise yourself online

Adverts are always effective at putting yourself out there and encouraging people to come to you. Again, search engines are probably the best place to use adverts. R

un a Google Ads campaign that ensures your ads appear for the relevant searches. When you combine this with good SEO, you see a phenomenal effect. Your ads are one of the first things someone sees, then they see your website high up in the organic searches. It reinforces the idea in their mind that you are one of the main people within your industry, and that you can be trusted. Thus, there’s a bigger chance of them coming to you. 

Create free content

Regardless of what you do, creating free content will always attract new clients. You can write blog posts or film videos – maybe even make a podcast.

In any case, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate what you’re about. Prove yourself to be knowledgeable and talented in your domain, showcasing your capabilities for all to see. Of course, the people engaging with your content are likely to be your target market as they’re interested in what you’re talking about. So, they get a glimpse of your talents, encouraging them to make the first move and contact you. 

Bringing clients to you is always going to result in more work than applying for different jobs. The more clients you get, the more you’ll see lining up. Why? Because you have existing and previous clients that can promote you even more, further enticing new people to your website.

Realistically, the strategies above are all geared towards the same thing: building an image of yourself as a trustworthy and highly capable professional in your chosen field.