How to find clients when starting out as a freelancer

Hey, everyone, my grammar might not be the best & this is my first post like this so be nice =) - Dylan

When you decide to pursue freelance work, you might not have a clue how to actually find clients. In the beginning, I didn't have a clue at all how to find any clients. But when I started researching and asking photographers what they look for in freelancers, as well as asking people I sort of knew from the industry. My network started growing and after asking all of these people, I knew what clients were looking for.

Most freelancers start out their business like this:

- They decide to pursue their passion and try to get great at what they do.
- They build a website that talks about their expertise or started building a portfolio of work.
- They set up their social media profiles and started promoting themselves.
- They wait for clients to come to them.

If you are serious about retouching, I would look into freelancing for retouching studios/houses.

Here are a few retouching houses that you should take a look at

- Touch Digital (http://www.touchdigital.co.uk/)
- Upper Studio (upperstudioinc.com/)
- Box Studios (http://www.boxstudios.com/)
- Velem (www.velem.com/)
- LoveRetouch (www.loveretouch.com/)

Here is a few, there are many out there you just need to google search and find the one you would like to work for. They will probably get you to do a retouching test, I did this for a number of different studios, so you don't need to work for photographers to start off with. I would really recommend doing this to gain some experience and also, some of them like to do remote work so if you are not based where they are it still ok. But the top studios do like in-house so you might need to go into their studio if you are serious about working for them.

People think because they are good at what they do it is enough to have clients knocking at their door wanting to work with them. But you need to be more than good to get attention and start working.

I would start by researching and looking for people who have already hired a freelance retoucher that use the same skills as you and has been hired by a photographer or someone who needed them skills.

Send them a quick email, to see if you can ask them for their advice. I still do this every week and mainly ask higher end photographers I get some replies but not a lot. You're not necessarily looking to get hired you're trying to learn why they hired that retoucher to do the job.

Some people don't know who to ask, I would ask the people who are educators and people who are teaching I find them to tell you the most.Also, look at the retoucher's who have already made it and go to their clients list. You are not trying to steal anyone's clients, you just want to ask them some questions here are a few questions I think you should ask.

There are a few questions that you can ask to get some helpful information:

- Why did they hire that specific retoucher to do the job?
- How'd they find out about the retoucher they hired?
- What are the results they expect from hiring the retoucher?
- Did you use a freelancer or a studio to do the retouching if so why?

I would ask about 5 - 7 people these questions to get a good understanding to what they want from a retoucher.

Here are a few other things you should be doing if you are not already.

Utilize the job boards for freelancers these can be websites like Elance and Up work there are many others use these when you are starting out. I will just give you a few point to help you out =).

Here are a few I think you should check out:
- Up work
- Craigslist is also a very good place to find work but no so much retouching.
- People Per Hour this is a good one this has a few retouchers on there
- freelancer.com

These are just a few but as I said there are many more out there so just search on Google to find more.

- Use your existing contacts in the industry and look for new people
- Talk to other freelancers/retouchers in your field
- Network with people use websites like Linkedin and this group
- Create diverse content and make yourself know (Create a blog, start a youtube channel that sort of thing)
- Start working for free in the beginning I know this is a thing that people don't want to do be this can get you that first client
- When you have some clients look into teaching and creating courses to help other people get started we are all friends in this industry.
- Find someone to work with like a retouching partner
- Make a list of people you would like to work with in the future

Hopefully, this post helped you in some way, I'm still doing all these things now and it work's most of the time =). Anyway thank you all for reading, I will be doing more in the future if people enjoyed it. Also, tell me what you thought in the comments and what you would like to add.

- Dylan