We asked and you answered! Find out how these girls got their first online client!
One of the goals of the Digital Nomad Girls Community is to educate and inspire other ladies to join us on our Digital Nomad journeys. We aim to provide you with relevant, useful and inspiring content about what jobs are available and how you can get them. That’s why I decided to ask the group how they got their first ever online clients!
Facebook posts can get totally lost so I wanted to then turn that into a blog post that can inspire others to put themselves out there and know where to look for those online jobs they dream of. It was interesting to hear the results and I am going to share a bunch of those with you today!
I will start with my own story, I got my first ever online freelance gig through friends I met in Chaing Mai. I was hanging out with a bunch of travel bloggers at the time and two of them ran their own media company. They hired me to write SEO articles (they were $7 a piece, but after a little while I could write 3-4 an hour). It was not the most glamorous, but I was so so happy!
We have a post about pricing yourself as a freelancer which you can read here.
Justyn got her first ever client through Upwork but was then able to grow her business from the many referrals of a girl she ended up living with and working for in Bali. She has since gotten over 20 clients from referrals of friends and family members and has been able to grow her own business this way!
Marielien got her client by asking around in her own network. “Do you know anyone who has XXX need and may need my help to achieve XXX.”
Esther got her first client face to face through a skillshare event.
Esther’s first online client reached out to her out of the blue after she read a post reply in a Facebook group.
However, Leah’s answer might have just been my favourite! She found her first ever client on Okcupid. “My first client was a guy I had previously dated. I met my business partner on OkCupid too, but we never actually dated.”
Mia told us that her first client was found through a Facebook ad. “I was just looking for something to do for couple of months until I move to Greece to do my Master. I wasn’t really passionate about it but I just wanted to move. After I resigned from 9-5 job and two Skype interviews later I got a long term project which made me go to Asia. I never looked back”
Ina shared with us that she used the platform Meetup to find out about get-togethers and conventions that interested her. She looked for things like Sustainability in fashion and simply got chatting with people once she was there. She was just originally just looking to connect with likeminded people and find her tribe. Someone she met there later called her and explained that she was planning to set up an online shop for her fashion brand. She wanted to know if I knew anyone that could help her with that. Ina’s response was simply, “Oh sure, you’re talking to her”.
Lastly, Susan offered to share her story. She told us, “In 2010, I was watching one of the morning talk shows on TV, and they were discussing this new “freelancing” movement, where people were working from home as independent contractors, rather than employees. They discussed various freelance websites and the different projects available – and Virtual Assistant was one of the careers mentioned. That perked my ears up, as at that point, I had over 25 years of office management/administrative experience.
I started looking at Elance (no longer exists, now part of Upwork, which I don’t use) and within a week of putting my profile out there and dropping some proposals, I had my first client – and then another, and another. My first project was simple web research, but it branched out from there. In January of 2011, I was laid off from my full-time job. Within 2 weeks, I had built my client list to a full-time level. I never went back to my job. Now, over 6 years later, I’m a full-time Virtual Assistant. I help coaches, authors, small biz owners and entrepreneurs find more time in their day. I take the social media, marketing and other admin tasks off their hands.”
Where else do ladies find their clients?!
While those are a few of the personal stories that we got from the ladies, the rest tallied up to be a mishmash of Referrals, platforms like Upwork and various other remote work platforms. Once you know what you want to do, all you have to do is put yourself out there. Create an ad, or even just let people know what you are doing now! You never know who could become your next contact! I know someone that once got a huge client just from going to a family Christmas party! There’s plenty of places to get your first online client!
If you have any questions, just comment below or add a post in the Facebook community!
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