Are you a designer? The thought of working on a freelance project always crosses the mind of a designer. It is always awesome to work with your own client. That feeling of independence and freedom is craved by all of us.
So I am going to tell you a way how I landed my first job.
To land your first client the most important tip I would tell you is always be ready with your portfolio to show to your client in case he/she asks. Then after getting your portfolio ready, you need to think who in your friends, family and relatives can use your help. And then contact them upfront and explain to them how you can help them and what you can do for them. Later in this article, you will find it in detail the exact way of convincing them to hire you.
To start your expedition to land your first job you have your portfolio ready, and you are excited about your first work. I would like to tell you that money shouldn’t be the only motivating factor for doing the freelance goal, have a bigger picture in mind and commit yourself to the hard work and patience it might take to get your first client. Because to be honest sometimes you are going to land your first project very easily, but sometimes it might take you a while to get it.
How I landed my first client?
I was very fortunate in my journey I landed my first few projects as kind of a surprise. Which actually helped me why this way is best to get the work initially because the client you do not know it would be really hard to win their trust in that beginning phase.
No client wants to go through the pain of dealing with a freelancer who has no idea how to work with a client, because it might get tricky sometimes to communicate well with your client.
I Stumbled upon the best gift of my life called “Photoshop”
I would tell you my story as short as possible when I was in my engineering college I started using photoshop for my own websites and due to my curiosity and practice, I got kind of good at it. I designed everything for my site from different versions of the logo to the banners. And during that time a lot of other students were making their own sites, and because my site looked a lot more professional, thanks to my photoshop skills. My friends started appreciating it, then one day one of my friends asked me to help him with his logo.
My first payment
Obviously, he was expecting it to be free but thanks to a quote that I read somewhere which said “people don’t value free stuff” I don’t remember the exact words, if you remember the quote and who said it please mention it in the comments, I would be really grateful. So, just randomly I said I would charge this much of amount to which he was a little surprised but he paid me, I am grateful for that move even today.
Now coming back to my story, I asked for a certain amount of money, and I never knew this decision would take my life on a whole different path.
Next thing is I did my best and created as best as I could, got paid, and it was appreciated by a lot of people. Other students from my class came to me as well for their logo design. then my friends started referring me to the people who wanted the help of a designer and so on. I started getting a decent amount of work.
fast forward, I started doing design work for the startups where a friend of mine got placed. And All this work actually helped me build up my confidence to work for a client.
Time for some more clients
With this spark and new found confidence in my skill, I started seeking the help of the internet about how can I get some more freelance work. I started bidding on freelance websites and started seeking some other ways as well. Got some clients who stuck with me, which resulted in a steady income.
I loved working on creating designs to solve the problems of my clients, and at that point, I knew I wouldn’t like to work as an engineer then right after my engineering college I started my journey on becoming a graphic designer. I got into a design college.
Actually, I forgot to tell you one thing, until I got into my design college, I had never worked on illustrator, It was after my college when I learnt how raster is different from vector and what is the importance of illustrator in the life of a graphic designer, I made all my logos in photoshop before this. It expanded my realm of designing and creating stuff.
A lot of things happened after this but leaving all the details I now work as an Art Director in an advertising agency.
I could have done that first work for free but I think that would have undervalued me and any of this wouldn’t have happened to me. I would say have confidence in your work and never undervalue it even if sometimes you would have to take a stand for it. You should know where you stand and ask accordingly.
Take away from my story to help you
Now, you can easily take some essential tips from my story to land that first client of yours, the first thing that you need to do is create a good portfolio because no matter even if someone in your friend circle is hiring you, they need some real results. They want to have confidence in your skill before starting to work with you, they want the full value for money that they are going to pay you.
And then you need to find that person in your circle who is having a small business or an online blog or even something else which can need your service.
Once you have found that person, don’t just send a message or a mail that you are looking for work, you need to be a little more detailed. Tell them that you do branding or other design work. And you saw that they are doing their own stuff ( mention what they are doing ). And then tell them with enthusiasm that you are really passionate for what you do and you would love the chance of working with them if they want to get their logo to be redesigned or you can do some other design work that you do. In the end, ask them “Let me know if you would like to see my portfolio”.
Please remember you are not going to send your portfolio in this introduction message, you need to wait until they respond and tell you that they want to see your portfolio. This way, chances are a bit higher than you would land the job as compared to sending the portfolio right away.
