by Leo Wiles
04 May 2016
I am now in my third year of freelancing and while I make enough to keep afloat, I’m thinking there has to be an easier way. Previously I’ve been led by my passion for certain fields – that is, I’ll often choose a topic and then pick an outlet to pitch to. While this has been incredibly rewarding creatively, I’m looking for a more lucrative approach and wondered if you had any suggestions. Should I be aiming to have a lot more clients or do more for fewer clients? S
It’s a decision that every freelancer has to make at some point in our freelancing career: Will we charge a lot so we can write less more intensive piece, or charge a little and end up needing to write more frothy articles. Do you want a large number of clients and diverse workload, or to put all your eggs in one basket and write for a few outlets in a niche? Everyone’s different; in fact, our recent survey results shows that most Rachel’s List members have between 1-7 go-to clients, with only a few writers having more than 20 clients in the past financial year.
In the past I, too, have balanced a diversity of genres with the security of one outlet per field. Foremost however, I have always had regular marketing goals concerning the acquisition and retention of clients. I believe this to be the cornerstone of an important business. So while your decision is a personal one, my belief is that it is easier and potentially more fruitful to manage and maintain fewer relationships than constantly be trying to attract new ones. Which is why, as a working mum and in this current climate, I’ve been considering a move towards a larger volume for a smaller client base.
With this in mind, you can rid yourself of high maintenance clients who may not value your professionalism – and ignore casual ones who take the same amount of energy to attract but end up giving you less work (or more heartache).
Listees: do you agree? Is it better to have a few big clients or a smattering of many so if some clients drop off your radar, you always have another income stream to tap into?
