Do You Care About Your Clients' Business?

At first glance, this may seem like a bit of a silly question. Your answer may be something along the lines of, “I care if my clients are doing enough business to make sure I get paid, so yes….”, or some such thing. What I am getting at is something that is much deeper than that. Do you have an understanding of what your clients’ goals are and what they want to achieve through your writing?

Here’s the thing. There are a lot of people out there who are working (or at least trying to find work) as freelance writers. When a potential client puts up an ad looking for writers, they get a flood of applications. In some cases, hundreds of people throw their hat into the ring to be considered.

Just about every freelance writer is going to explain how they are reliable and can turn in clean copy every time. That’s a given. If you don’t take your work and your deadlines seriously, you aren’t going to get hired.

Pricing for the project can be negotiated to some extent, and clients know this. If a freelancer can show the client that they are getting value for their money, they may be prepared to go to the top of their budget range or even spend a bit more. The client and the freelancer both know that if money is the deal breaker, the client can always find someone else.

When someone is making a hiring decision about which freelance writer they want to work with, it’s as much a matter of chemistry as the freelancer’s technical abilities. The person who is making a decision is concerned about how much you know about their business and what they are trying to achieve. This is a clear case of WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) from the client’s point of view.

If you present yourself as someone who understands your clients’ business and what they are trying to achieve, you are much more likely to get hired. You are not just someone who strings a bunch of words together; you are a problem solver. Figure out what your clients want to achieve from the project and explain how you can help them succeed. You are more likely to get hired if you care about your clients’ business, as well as your own.