As a freelancer, your clients are the lifeblood of your business. Therefore, it’s not hard to understand why you would want to build great relationships with them.

Like any relationship, building a strong relationship with your clients does require some work. However, if you are intelligent about how you go about it, you will find that it’s actually not as difficult as you might think.

To help you get started on the right track, here are five concrete tips that you can actually use to build great relationships with your clients:

Be Professional

While this may sound like common sense, you would be surprised by how many freelancers fail to follow this simple piece of advice. For example, when you send a client an email, make sure that it looks like it was written by a professional freelancer instead of a thirteen year old who is text messaging a friend. Referring to your client as “u” or “ur” isn’t going to inspire a lot of confidence about your ability to handle a major project.

Additionally, if you take on a freelancing gig that requires you to meet with a client in person or via video chat, make sure that you present yourself well. While clients aren’t going to expect a web designer to show up to a meeting in a suit, there’s no reason not to look well-groomed and put together, Brand Levitra regardless of the specific articles of clothing that fit your personality.

Learn How to Handle the Different Types of Client Personalities

From low maintenance to high maintenance and everything in-between, there are a lot of different types of client personalities. Because you can’t expect all of your clients to have the same type of personality, it’s important to view each one as the individual that they are, and deal with their specific personality accordingly.

While this may sound extremely complicated, all it really means is that you need to pay attention to each client. For example, some clients worry if they don’t receive a daily email from you (even if it’s only a one sentence update), while others only want to hear from you when you have something significant to tell them. Another example is that some clients love to chit-chat, while others will feel uncomfortable discussing anything that isn’t strictly professional.

By taking the time to pick up on the clues that show what type of personality a client has, and then handling them accordingly, you can ensure that they feel as comfortable as possible when they are interacting with you.

Don’t Be Afraid to Turn Down Clients

This is an especially important lesson for new freelancers. While it can be tempting to take on every project that is offered to you, this is almost never a good idea. When you are corresponding with a potential client, if you get the feeling that your personality is going to clash with theirs, you can save yourself a lot of problems by simply letting them know that you don’t feel you are the best fit for their needs, and that they will be better off selecting a provider who is more compatible with what they need.

The reason that turning down clients can be a very good thing for you is because of the simple fact that if you realize you don’t get along with a potential client, things are only going to get much worse once you enter into a working relationship with each other. Regardless of what you do, there is a very high chance that you will never be able to establish a positive relationship with that person. Worst of all, a bad relationship with one client can take a significant toll on you, and as a result your entire freelancing business can suffer.

Make Your Clients Feel Special

In order to retain long-term clients, many freelancers think that they have to lower their rates. While there are times when it may make financial sense for you to lower your rates, this isn’t your only option. In many cases, you can successfully retain long-term clients by just making them feel special.

In addition to not requiring you to sacrifice any percentage of your income, making your clients feel special is fairly simple. For example, if you finish a project for a client, in your closing email to them, you can say that you really enjoyed working on their project, and if they have any projects in the future that need to be completed, you will be happy to make time in your schedule to accommodate them. While this is just one example, it highlights the fact that you can successfully foster long-term relationships with clients simply by showing them that you truly value their business.

Be Polite

Although this is the last item on the list, I personally feel it is the most important one to discuss. If you only take one tip from this post and put it to use, it should be this one. The great thing about this tip is not only is extremely effective, but it so easy to do. While it sounds cliche, all you need to remember is to treat your clients like you want to be treated.

As a result of the fact that so much business is handled through email, it’s easy for people to be less polite in their writing than they would be if they were speaking to someone in person or on the phone. Because of this, you can set yourself apart from others by following this simple tip. All you need hair loss propecia to do is start making a conscious effort to always be polite in your emails with clients, and it won’t take long for you to notice that almost all of them will treat you with the same level of respect.

Author Bio: Matt Bronniman is CEO of Globalnite.com, a “Business to Business” dating Cialis website, we put businesses in touch with real people worldwide who can complete your advertised tasks

Category: Career
Keywords: freelance tips, freelance business ideas, freelance opportunities, globalnite