When a Freelancer Loses a Client

Photo by Steven Orr

I lost a client the other night.

I was heart-broken. I had a sick feeling in my stomach. Not only did I lament the loss of income – she had been my steadiest and biggest client. Worst of all, I feared that she had been unhappy with my work.

Because of this experience, I resolved to do three things from now on:

1. Make sure that I make my clients happy by over-delivering.

This is something I have learned from Jimmy Brown, a top Internet marketer and one of the few whom I pay to learn from. Jimmy sells his products and services for reasonable prices while other successful Internet marketers charge an arm and a leg. Yet Jimmy always, always gives you much more than you expect. Even his free e-courses and e-books provide valuable information.

From now on I resolve to give my clients at least 100% of my effort — more, if I can manage it. I will only submit work that I am proud of. I will under-promise and over-deliver and always surprise my client by doing a little bit more to help them succeed with their business goals.

2. Diversify my income sources.

Investment experts tell us to do this all the time: diversify, diversify. I took a risk by relying on that one client too much. Sometimes it just happens that one client will give you more work more often than others. That’s fine. However, you should still be actively seeking other clients, or at least giving yourself exposure for potential clients to find you. Freelance switch has a list of 101 ways to find new clients.

3. Explore ways to earn passive income.

I’ve started getting into this by acquiring a niche website, natural-moms.com. It’s a mature website with lots of content. Even though I haven’t done anything yet to promote it, it’s been getting quite a steady number of daily visitors and some daily income. With the help of my online mompreneurs support group, Mom Masterminds, I’m learning how to boost the income of natural-moms.com.

If I get good enough at Internet marketing, I plan to phase out my freelance writing services. Why? Because as much as I love to write, freelancing only earns you money while you’re working. On the other hand, with Internet marketing, your work keeps earning money even while you’re sleeping or on vacation. Jimmy Brown earns a six-figure income through Internet marketing and he only works 3 hours a day. It’s not about being greedy and lazy; it’s about knowing how to “work smart”.

So there you have it. Another life experience, another lesson learned. When I was still feeling down about losing a writing project, I heard my mentor’s voice in my head saying, “when a door closes, another one opens.” I can’t wait to see which door will open next.

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