I remember back to when I was first out of college and looking for a job, I faced the same problem that many new job candidates face: Jobs want people with experience… but how do you get experience without a job? It’s a catch-22 situation and it doesn’t get better when you’re freelancing.

Early in my freelancing career I wanted to write press releases. Then someone would ask “can you show me what press releases you’ve done?” And later, when I wanted to write business plans, someone would ask “can you show me what business plans you’ve done?”

The option is, of course, to offer really cheap service by people on an extreme budget and have them pay you a pittance to do the work, but that was never my style. I figured that people with low budgets may not care if I got their press release or their business plan exactly right (they were just happy to get them at such a steal).

So instead, I offered it for free.

That’s right, I offered it as a free bonus to clients who needed something else from me. For example, if I were putting together a proposal for an ebook for someone who was just starting up a brand new business, I’d say to them: “I’ll write your ebook for $X,XXX.XX and as a free bonus, I’ll also include a business plan for you.”

This was advantageous to me for a few reasons:

* The free bonus would often win me additional jobs because it set me apart from others.
* The plan was appreciated more than if it were a cheap plan written by someone on a budget. (It’s funny how that works).
* I’d have an extra job from them which would make me “embedded” into their business and I would become the go-to person for future projects.
* I got all of the experience I needed and could simply stop offering the free bonus whenever I wanted to.

This turned out to be enormously positive in my business! I won a variety of really lucrative projects because I offered a free bonus but also because I quickly gained the experience I needed and built up a pretty powerful portfolio.

So, how can you do the same?

First, identify 2 or 3 types of services you’d like to offer your clientele but can’t because of a lack of experience.

Second, determine how you can incorporate that service into your next proposal as a bonus. For example, the new service needs to somehow be related to the current offering you’re proposing. This won’t work if they are completely different with no relation whatsoever!

Third (and I shouldn’t have to say this but I will), make sure that you know the fundamentals to the service you are providing for free so that you can still deliver something of value even though you are learning the ropes!

Once you’ve done it for a few times and have built up your portfolio, stop offering it for free and start offering it as a service. Then find something else you want to offer and repeat the process.