How I’ve recently found new clients

Last week, Austin Church (author of Free Money) wrote a really great LinkedIn Pulse article, 7 ways freelancers are finding clients right now. And this got me thinking…how have I found new clients in the last year or so, or at least post-ChatGPT? P.S., none of this is an affiliate deal but you might also want to check out Austin’s free summit for advanced freelancers, running today through Friday. 

Your mileage is going to vary. I may do totally different things than you do, but I’m going to try to frame these as general concepts, rather than specific finds, in hopes that they’ll be helpful in your own business. 

I don’t have all the answers. Far from it. It’s a weird time in the world in general, and definitely a weird time in the world of any kind of freelance knowledge work. And yet, lots of freelancers are doing well, or even really well. In my case, I’ve been a freelancer since 2002, last year was my highest-earning year ever, and this year looks (so far) just as good, if not better, despite the fact that I’m working slightly less. 

Like most freelancers, I’d rather work than market. Mostly, I work for my regular clients. But I’m always on the lookout for better work (more interesting, higher-paying, more aligned with my long-term goals), and nothing in the business world stands still. One of my regular interpreting assignments was cut back from around 40 sessions every six months to around 10 sessions. One of my regular translation clients is less regular. Stuff changes, and we have to find new work to keep bringing in the same amount of money (or, hopefully, more!). 

In looking over my accounting records, I identified four ways I’ve landed new clients this year:

1. Same skills, new clients
2. Sticking with a fairly onerous interview process that seemed unlikely to pan out (but did!)
3. Using what the client could be doing better as a marketing pitch
4. Being more proactive on LinkedIn 

Again, this isn’t a roadmap. These are examples of what’s working for me, and hopefully you can adapt them for your own purposes. 

Same skills, new clients 

I’m always telling other people, “Before you succumb to shiny object syndrome, do more with what you already have.” It turns out, this is good advice (haha!). I’ve applied this principle to court interpreting. My main court interpreting client is the Colorado Judicial Branch (the state where I live), but it turns out that a) more states are primarily or exclusively using remote interpreters, especially for languages other than Spanish, and b) more states are using private-sector interpreting companies to cover their court interpreting needs, and (whether or not this is a good use of taxpayer money), they often pay a lot more than court systems do when you work with them directly. 

After discovering this, I asked court interpreters in other languages (so they’re not my direct competition) about private-sector interpreting companies that do this type of thing. This resulted in two new clients, one of which pays slightly more than the Colorado courts, and one of which pays significantly more. 

So here’s tip #1: What’s a skill you already have, that you could be doing more with? 

Sticking with a lengthy interview process

Patience and flexibility. Simple marketing techniques that have landed me two good new clients. We’ve all been through this: the potential client who requires a video interview, then they forget about the video interview, or it turns out that the job is totally different than what you thought it was. And sometimes, these things do just fizzle.

I had an interpreting company rep “forget” about the video interview twice, and in one case I had turned down a paid assignment to be there for the video call. Very aggravating. 

However, I’ve pushed through two lengthy interview processes that turned into some really good work. One is now an interesting and well-paying corporate writing client, a translation company for which I write the company newsletter, ghostwrite the CEO’s LinkedIn, etc. It took several months from start to finish to seal the deal, but I’m glad I stuck with it. 

Tip #2: If you need or want more work, or better work, you have to pursue some leads that may not pan out. 

Using the client’s shortcomings as a marketing pitch 

This is always touchy. You don’t want to come off as negative and critical, but these days it’s pretty easy to identify a potential client’s online content gaps. They have a blog, but they haven’t posted to it in six months. They have a corporate LinkedIn page, and the last update was in 2024. They’re supposedly publishing a bilingual newsletter, but the last time they published the Spanish edition was…never. 

Handling this delicately landed me a large new writing client. “So much great content in the Resources section of your website! And I couldn’t help but notice that you haven’t posted to your blog yet this year. Have you ever thought about using a freelancer to help you get that going again?” (Score: they had thought about that, they just hadn’t gotten around to finding someone yet). 

You can do the same with bad translations: “Really impressive that you’re reaching out to Spanish speakers with a bilingual website. As a professional translator, I noticed a few sections of your Home page that could use some different wording. I’ve attached a sample here, feel free to use it whether or not you’re interested in working with me.” 

Tip #3: Tactfully pointing out where you can immediately be helpful is a good marketing angle; the client may or may not be able to afford you, but they can’t really deny that they need you.

Being more proactive on LinkedIn 

I’ve been getting more active on LinkedIn in general, and I realized that I was missing a major opportunity. I receive a lot of LinkedIn connection requests from other translators and interpreters, I mostly accept them, but I never really do much with them. 

It struck me that these people are potential students for Training for Translators, but maybe they don’t know what I offer. So I started replying to them with a short template response, thanking them for connecting and telling them how to subscribe to my mailing list and view the upcoming classes. This has worked out well, with a lot of new subscribers and students. 

For me, this is pretty simple because I respond to everyone in the same way. But I would at least write a short message about yourself and what you do, with a link to your website, and send it to everyone who sends you a connection request. 

Tip #4: Make better use of LinkedIn connection requests from people you don’t know. 

I hope these tips are helpful! Have a great week!