Getting Your First 10 Clients
The price on that invoice is the freelance rate. If the only buyer is a former employer who still sets your hours, read employee versus contractor before you celebrate. Registering the name can wait until the name on the invoice is not your own: how to register. Raising the price once those ten exist is raising prices.
- List 30 people who have seen you do the work. Ask 10 of them for a conversation, not for a favour disguised as a coffee.
- Sell a bounded offer: a deliverable, a date, and a price. "Pick my brain" is not an offer.
- Get paid on an invoice with a due date. A kind delay teaches the client that the due date is optional.
- Stop at ten paid engagements and write down who they were. The pattern is your next pitch. The absence of a pattern means the offer is fuzzy.
Where the ten come from
Start with people who already trust the work: former colleagues, a past manager, a client from the job you still have if the contract allows it. A moonlighting clause can forbid that. Read it before you email the office. Then one circle out: people those ten can introduce, with a sentence you wrote for them so the introduction is easy. A public posting is a later channel. It is a slow way to get client number one.
The message is short. What you do, who it is for, and one result. Then a question: "Do you know anyone who needs this in the next month?" Not "let me know if I can ever help." The first is a request. The second is a greeting card.
The offer they can say yes to
Write the first offer so a stranger could forward it. One outcome. One time box, often two to four weeks. One price, taken from the rate worksheet, not from what you think they can afford. A discount for the first three, if you use one, is a dated discount with the real price beside it. An open-ended "mates rates" becomes the only rate you have.
Scope in writing. What is included, what is not, and what happens if they add a third round. The invoice goes when the milestone goes, not at the end of a vague relationship. If they want net 60 and you are on client number two, you are financing their business. Say so, and ask for a deposit.
After the invoice is paid
Ask what they would tell a peer, and ask for the introduction while the work is fresh. Keep a list: name, what they bought, what they paid, whether they came back. Ten rows is enough to see whether you have a service or a series of accidents. If every row is a different offer, you do not have a business yet. You have availability. Tighten the offer before you chase client eleven. The price increase, when the ten are real, is a separate conversation and a separate article.
Frequently asked questions
Should I build a website first?
A page with the offer and a way to pay is enough. A brand project before client one is a way to avoid asking for the work. Ask first.
What if my employer forbids outside work?
Then the first client cannot be a secret from that contract. Conflict, confidentiality, and who owns the work product are employment terms. Read them. A side practice that uses the employer's clients or the employer's time is how people get fired and then litigated.
Do I charge GST/HST on client one?
Not automatically. The small-supplier tests are in the side-hustle tax article. Charging tax before you are registered, and not charging it after you must, are both mistakes. The rate article keeps the tax off the "what I earned" line either way.
