Your decision to taken on work on a freelance basis must have surely made you feel liberated. And the high that you have from landing your first few projects and especially on receiving those initial payments would surely be memorable.

But once the initial euphoria wears off, the reality of having to find enough work on a regular basis strikes home. You realize that there are innumerable people like you possibly bidding for the same projects. How do you compete with them? What can you do to set yourself apart from them?

Given below are a few suggestions:

1. Perform quality work – Quality performance will necessarily lead to more work and referrals. So stick to the quality mantra- better quality, more work, more money.
2. Charge by the hour – Unless you are absolutely certain that you will be able to make a margin on the budget allotted to you, it might be a good idea to charge by the hour.
3. Price smartly – While healthy margins are always welcome, one should not let greed come in the way of a project, especially when there are so much competition.
4. Timely delivery - Nothing will want the client to come back to you more than timely delivery. Timely delivery or better still ahead of time delivery will earn you maximum brownie points from the clients and get you repeat orders and projects.
5. Charge extra for extra support - It is always nice to support a product with extra work, but be sure to charge for the extra work or it will tantamount to your taking on an additional project for gratis. What’s more think of the opportunity cost accrued in terms of other work or projects not taken up by you in the same time period.
6. Communicate with the client - Be available on phone, fax, email or IM. This is the best way to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations which can be catastrophic for a business relationship.
7. Spread the word - There is no such thing as too much publicity. Take the help of your family and friends to advocate your cause. Let everyone know where your expertise lies. You might even send an email to everyone in your address book, informing them of the products or services that you offer.
8. Get referrals from your clients - A glowing testimonial from a satisfied client will always help you in landing more business. So go ahead, ask your client to recommend your name to others.
9. Pay for leads and referrals - Nothing will push prospects your way faster, than incentivized referrals. For a little consideration you could source a host of quality leads.

Growing your business and obtaining new projects always requires a lot of hard work and smart networking. If you pay attention to the above inputs and research your market thoroughly, you will see your business grow manifold and your returns multiply.

Despite our best intentions, we can’t do everything.

In trying to raise awareness of Mejia & Jones Cost Associates, my new Quantity Surveying & Estimating business venture, I am guilty of trying to do too much, which in turn leaves me accomplishing little. I find myself fluttering from day-to-day without a real plan, trying little things and ending up wasting time.

Although there has been virtual silence on this blog for over a week, I have used the time wisely. I have been busy doing things that will benefit the site in the long run. A marketing plan to raise awareness and improve online visibility is in place, and a roadmap to success developed.

One major aspect of the success of the plan is outsourcing the things that other people can handle more efficiently than me. This is where my new Virtual Assistant will help. Search Engine Optimisation and raising awareness of the site, whilst not difficult, is time consuming. If I so choose, I could spend hours writing a beautiful article, flare it up, find some lovely pictures to go with it, post it, submit links to Twitter, Digg, Reddit and others. I could then re-jig and post it to 100 article submission sites with my author bio linking back to the site.

The problem is, I reckon to do all this would take me about 12 hours! This 12 hours could be better spent doing something more productive. A specialist web marketing VA can submit my article to various sites in a fraction of the time it takes me, plus at a cheaper hourly rate than I would charge. In other words, it makes economic sense to hire out the work.

This is just one of the facets of the business I am looking at outsourcing. There are lots of other aspects which I will look to outsource as time progresses. As part of a marketing effort, and in order to help potential customers, I am writing an ebook which highlights some of the various ways in which it is possible to save money on construction projects. The writing and content I have covered, but making it look pretty and professional is a bit more tricky, and after all, although content is key, an attractive appearance never hurts.

The potential benefits to outsourcing are numerous – after all the Mejia & Jones business model is based upon outsourcing a set of skills, so it seems reasonable to outsource skills
I don’t possess to be able to better focus on those that I do.