Asking for Work

Don’t be afraid to ask for work from your client.  This is a great way to have plenty of work and get referrals.  When you are willing to see if your clients have work for you, it shows you are up to the challenge.  Eventually you will have some you will just come to you when they have work, you won’t have to worry about asking them for help.

Some things you can do would be to give suggestions on what you can offer them based on what the company does.

When asking for work you don’t want to sound desperate either.  You could say something like, “I haven’t had any work from you lately and wanted to see if there was anything I can do for you.”  Or, “You said you would be getting back with me on the next assignment and I haven’t heard from you.  I just wanted to see how things were going and to see if I can do anything for you.”  It could be they got busy, thought they sent the next assignment and didn’t or they thought someone else was going to and didn’t get it sent.  You reminding them will help them get it too you.

I have a couple of clients where I touch base with them every so often if I haven’t gotten any assignments from them in a while.  The amount of time varies based on the client.

Also, I have one client who lets me know when she has work and asks me if I want the new assignment.  A great example of this would be today one of my clients asked if I can do a job quickly.  She had hired another freelancer to do the work and they weren’t able to finish it last night.  I had the time and got it done rather quickly.  Because of that I will more than likely get those kinds of assignments in the future because of my ability to do it so quickly and well.  The client was happy with the work.

It is also a good idea to find out how often they want you to check with them if you haven’t heard back from them.  Sometimes if things are slow they may want you to touch base with them once a week, once every two weeks, etc.

But also remember, if you have people who keep telling you to check back with them and never give you work, you might want to stop checking in with them.  You can spend your time working for your clients who actually give you work or to look for other clients who will give you work.

There is nothing wrong with asking for work.  Many of your clients actually are happy when you ask if there is anything you can do to help them.