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This Week's Breakaway + 10 Things to Land Your First Freelance Client
Go from “aspiring” to “hired”
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Welcome to 2025 with NotSo9to5!✌️A new year means fresh opportunities to redefine work, life, and everything in between. Let’s make 2025 your most flexible, fulfilling and productive year yet. And we’re starting right away with this week’s issue on how to land your first freelance client!
But before, let’s take a brief moment to appreciate this week’s sponsor. HoneyBook is an amazing client management platform for freelancers. Highly recommend to check them out (they have a HUGE giveaway going on right now)!
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Excited how to land your first client? Me too! So let’s get right into this week’s issue:
Getting your first client… That’s the hardest part of freelancing. I think we can all agree on that!
It’s like starting a fire with two sticks - feels impossible until you see that first spark.
Once you land that first gig, everything changes. And with everything I really mean everything:
Confidence and excitement builds, your portfolio grows, and word-of-mouth referrals start flowing. But getting there requires strategy, courage and most importantly persistence.
Me finally signing my first freelance contract after sending 100 pitches.
Keep this in mind: You don’t need to be perfect or have years of experience. What really matters is showing up, offering irresistible value, and creating opportunities for clients to find you!
This Week’s Breakaway: Your first freelance client is out there waiting for you. It’s time to make your move.
10 Things to Land Your First Freelance Client 👇
“16 Tips for Landing Your First Client” (article)
Check out this amazing thread on r/freelance
Here are 5+ email templates to pitch to new clients
Keep in mind: “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them”
You love podcasts? Here you go (Freelance Friday on Spotify)
Portfolio Hack for Beginners: Don’t have past work to showcase? You can create mock projects: Design a logo, write a blog post, or build a demo website for an imaginary client.
Join freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork (even though they’re crowded, they can be great for beginners)
Here’s a complete beginners guide to freelancing (YouTube video)
A video on high-value skills for freelancers
Can’t wait to see you in the next one!