Winning over clients is crucial for a successful freelance career, and becoming the go-to professional that everyone wants to work with can be a game-changer. In this article, we'll explore six essential tips to help you stand out from the competition and become the freelancer that clients are eager to collaborate with.

1. Ask questions about the requirements

Before starting programming, thoroughly analyze requirements from all the different scenarios.

Many times, the client misses some scenarios in the requirement itself! Do not assume anything about the requirements.

It is better to share a single list of questions with the client rather than asking them one by one when the question arises in your mind.

So, prepare a list of questions as mentioned below and share it with the client.

• What should be the expected output in those missing scenarios?

• Doubts regarding existing requirements

• Confirmations regarding your assumptions about the requirements etc.

2. Be the solution provider and not just a programmer

Try to understand "the purpose" of the requirement. The client has domain knowledge and you have technical knowledge. So, when the client gives requirements, it is only from his/her perspective.

When you think about the solution from a technical perspective, you may find many enhancements which provide better UX to the users!

Share those enhancements/changes with the client and believe me, clients love this

Because you are helping them make their product better than what they thought!

3. Be proactive in sharing progress

Clients always like to see how their project is progressing. Always be proactive in sharing the progress of the project at fixed short intervals. If possible, share a live link of the functionalities or a video demo with the client.

This helps the client in providing early feedback.

Also, it helps in avoiding any time wastage if you are going in the wrong direction!

4. Deliver high-quality features

We need to make sure that we have self-tested all the different scenarios before delivering the project to the client or submitting Merge Request (MR).

5. Proactively help with finishing tasks

Once all the features of the project are developed, you can proactively make an offer to the client to do other finishing tasks such as:

• deployment to make the project live

• add analytics

• add better error logging/notifications etc

If it needs relatively very less effort from your side, you can do these for free as a complimentary.

Though the smart way is to include the estimated cost of such tasks into your project price from the beginning 🤩

Clients love this gesture as you are helping them deliver their projects from start to end.

6. Be responsive after project delivery

Once the project delivery is done, sometimes the client may need to ask you something or need little help.

Always respond to such communications. This makes the client feel that you are very reliable.

If you follow these tips, you can be an awesome freelancer with whom client wants to work again and again ✨

In the freelancing business, money really comes from long-term relationships. So, always try to create a good relationship with good clients.

Credit: Shripal Soni