As freelancers, why is it so difficult to promote ourselves? Why is it hard to ask for work or for recommendations from family and friends?  As a freelancer, you need to Get Out There and Face the World! You need to be promoting yourself and you need to be asking for recommendations and referrals from everyone you know.  You no longer have someone else to depend on for a paycheck, it is all YOU!

A personal marketing plan is the same as promoting yourself, only different.  A personal marketing plan is on paper.  Promoting yourself is all about YOU facing the world and telling everyone what you do or what you can do.  As a freelancer, promoting yourself is the KEY to success.  To get started you need to get out of your shell, your comfort zone and get used to the idea that talking about yourself is okay and it really isn’t obnoxious or considered bragging.  Well, most of the time it isn’t…you just need to know when to be quiet and listen.

Here are 4 steps to help you promote your freelance business:

1. Practice talking about what you do and what you are capable of doing with a few of your closest friends.  You know the ones that will actually tell you the brutal, honest truth.  Don’t bother with the ones that paint the rosy pictures all the time, they aren’t going to help you here.
2. Pass out 10 business cards everyday.  Leave them with the bill at a restaurant, give them to the teller at the bank, hand them to the checkout person at the grocery store.  Say, you may not need my services today, but you may know someone else who does.
3. Update your online presence.  If you have a weekly blog or tips for your followers, make darn sure you are updating it regularly.  If you can’t even do this, how the heck can you handle someone else’s projects?  Go the extra mile to make yourself look good, no one else can do this for you.
4. Tailor your resume for each job or project you are trying to secure.  Look at the key words in the description of the job and utilize those key words in your resume.  Have a cover letter that shows your personal side, your mantra if you will, this will give a prospective “employer” a better look at you without physically meeting you.

Getting out there and facing the world will become easier as you get used to talking about what you do.  Don’t downplay what you do, either, really talk about it, your passion for freelance work will show through your words.  Waiting for work to come to you is a sure way to fail as a freelancer.  Action = Success.

photo credit: rodrigomezs