Show me a successful freelancer and I’ll show you someone who knows their ideal client.

Being able to clearly state the person or business your services bring the most value to makes your life as a freelancer much easier...you’ll learn things such as what services to market, what your website should look like, how and where to advertise (and whether you should advertise at all.)

Figuring that out is a process though.

If you’ve got some experience, look at some of your most lucrative and successful projects and which clients were the happiest with your work. What do they have in common? Did you help them all with the same business problem? How did you find them in the first place? Did you perform the same services for them? Look for patterns and you’re one step closer to quantifying your ideal client.

If you don’t have experience...no worries! That just means it’s time to start trying something...anything, so that you can start on your way toward getting some clients and outlining your ideal. One of the best first steps is to find, or choose your specialization. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Deciding On A Specialization, put it on your educational list...you’ll be done in less than a day and will have one of the most important aspects of your freelancing career checked off.

 If you haven’t posted your September goals in this month’s meetup, come on by! We’ve got people working on marketing, bringing in recurring customers, and deciding what to do with a client...what one thing do you want to accomplish this month?

Business mistakes are opportunities for you...a dissatisfied business means an opening where you can come in and suggest your services. These mistakes are everywhere, but they’re most obvious for Internet content creators (writers, photographers, video producers, etc.)

A really big one went down this week at Mashable and I shared a little bit on how I would take advantage of their ignorance around Black skin color as a writer. Check it out and maybe you’ll get some ideas.

That’s all for this week, as always, if you’re having any bumps or stagnant points in your freelance life, shoot an email over and we can talk it out. Have a great week!

Megan.