Want to scale your freelance business? Try Current Clients

As I celebrated the holidays with my family, I thought about the progress I have made over the previous year. I didn't hit my income goal, but I had made more money this year than I had last year. I was disappointed about not meeting my goal, but progress is better than stagnation or regression. 

Now that 2019 is in full swing, I'm continuing to pursue long-term investigative projects that will hopefully inform the public as well as open up more opportunities for me to do substantive work. But as any journalists will tell you, working on long-term features is a hassle both in terms of the workload and the long wait until you're paid. For freelance journalists, it can be months if not years before a fee for an article is paid. 

This is why it's so important to have anchor clients that sustain me as I pursue the meaningful projects. As of now, I'm pursuing one to two more clients to add to my roster, so that I have a better shot at reaching my income goals this year. 

But is any season freelancer will tell you, finding new clients is hard. In addition to reaching out to your networks and staying on top of pitch calls, it occurred to me that there's another source of clients that are often overlooked: sister publications. 

Say you have a long-term relationship with a client that you love and they run a separate publication that covers another top rake you're interested in. You might consider pitching that outlet to see if they're looking for a steady contributor. Often times, publications will have sister outlets that are also looking for regular contributors. Unlike other freelancers who are pitching publications cold, you at least have a sense of how the company works as well as internal advocates who can speak to what it's like to work with you.

This is a strategy I'll be pursuing with contacts my anchor clients, because I find that it's easier to scale within a company if you have already built a solid reputation and internal advocates.

I imagine that for more talented freelancers, this could take multiple forms. For example, if you have a long-term relationship with the magazine as a fact-checker, you could also pitch stories or photography services, especially if you work outside of New York City, Washington D.C. or Los Angeles. Perhaps you have can serve as a translator if you speak a foreign language or as a sensitivity reader for stories concerning marginalized communities. Artificial intelligence has a long way to go before replacing human transcriptionists, so you may be able to provide publications with transcription services.

Whatever your skillset is, it's worth pursuing a strengthened relationship with sister publications or departments within a media company or perhaps the content marketing client. Journalists are scrappy breed. I'm hoping to tap into my skill set and network to build my bank account this year, and I hope you are, too.

Have you ever converted a sister publication or corporate client into an anchor client? What was your experience like? Tell me in the comments or email me at contact@thefreelancebeat.com.