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Every day I get a fresh wave of emails in my inbox from new freelancers asking me how they can find freelance jobs when they have absolutely no experience.

Perhaps you can relate. These new freelancers see the hordes of other freelancers already out there doing their thang and they cower away in panic.

The competition is high. It’s like a scrappy dog-eat-dog world out there (or so some freelancers would have you believe), so how can you possibly land a single job when you have no experience?

First of all… Let’s set the record straight.

There’s no such thing as no experience when it comes to getting your first freelancing writing job.

Sure, you might never have written a piece for money before, or you might never have had a client, but the “skill” you’re selling? That’s likely something you’ve done before.

You’d be mad to become a freelance writer if you’ve never written before or if you’re terrible at writing. Chances are, if you want to be a freelance writer, you’ve written tonnes of stuff before (even if it’s just for your own pleasure) and you’re good at it.

There. You have experience.

Remember that no one starts freelancing with experience of freelancing. It’s a new industry to us ALL when we start out, which means we all start in exactly the same place – the beginning.

There is no shame in that. It’s actually quite refreshing, because you can almost see the ladder stretching up in front of you, it’s just a case of grabbing hold of each rung and dragging yourself to the next level.

So first things first:

There’s no such thing as no experience when it comes to freelancing

You’re starting out with exactly the same amount of experience as everyone else at the start of their freelance career

It doesn’t seem so scary now, right?

I want to just give you a little example of this in action, just to really hammer home why it’s important to realise that you DO have experience, you just don’t know where or what it is yet.

Let’s say there’s a company looking for a finance writer. They need someone who has a good understanding of the industry and the lingo so they can write about trends and news.

They get one application from a freelance writer who’s been in the business for five years. They have loads of published pieces to their name, but nothing specifically in the finance field.

They get a second application from a new freelance writer who has worked a full-time position in the finance industry for ten years (so knows all the lingo), but doesn’t have any published pieces to their name.

Who do you think they’re going to hire?

If you said the second freelancer, you’d be absolutely right.

Why? Because it takes a whole lot longer to teach someone an entire industry than it does to teach them the style you want them to write in.

5 Ways You Can Show Clients Your Value When You’re New

So let’s look at how you can show clients that you have knowledge already and that you have something to bring to the table, even if it’s not professional freelancing experience.

Once you’ve got those under wraps, you can start showing off your talents and skills to potential clients by:

1. Writing Bespoke Pieces

So many new freelancers freeze up and don’t apply for jobs because they don’t have any samples.

If this is the only thing stressing you out – stop!

Clients simply want to see that you can string a sentence together or that you can make a design look nice. Most of the time, they don’t care whether you’ve written for anyone important before, so unpublished pieces will suffice.

You can either:

Create a couple of bespoke pieces (designs, blog posts, Tweets etc) to share with applications. These can be saved as PDFs to send.

Guest post on other blogs, just to get some links to pieces you can send to clients. You really want to make sure that these pieces are in the niches you plan on pitching in, as that will make your job 10x easier.

2. Share your past experiences and skills

I mentioned earlier that it’s highly, highly unlikely that you have NO experience. You might never have freelanced before, but I’m willing to bet my mum’s dog (her pride and joy) that if you’re a budding freelance writer you’ve written things before, and if you’re a budding freelance designer, you’ve designed things before.

Things like old essays are all you need; things like fake logos you designed during college will suffice. You simply need to show clients you have the skills they’re looking for and that you’re capable of doing the job they’re asking.

You can easily share this in a sentence or two with potential clients when your writing cold emails, just so they know you might be new to the business, but you’re absolutely not new to the craft.

3. Start a blog

This is more of a longwinded way to find freelance jobs when you’re starting out.

Setting up a blog can be done in half an hour, but it takes a while to build it up. I’d recommend starting with five pieces of content to put on it that showcase either your writing skills or designing skills or whatever skills you’re bringing to the freelancing game.

This deserves a whole post of its own (and, oh look, I wrote a whole blog post about it right here!).

4. Create a landing page about THEM

The thing a lot of new freelancers get wrong ISN’T thinking they don’t have any experience, it’s talking too much about themselves.

I put an ad out for some help a few months ago and I could instantly tell which freelancers were new to the game.

How? They reeled off paragraph after paragraph about themselves. Some of them dated back to their childhood, listing every single thing they’d ever written and why they loved writing so much.

I’m sure there’s a cute story about why you started writing or designing or whatever, but as a client? I’m more concerned with how you can help me.

I recommend new freelancers create a simple landing page that quickly highlights how their past skills and experiences can help clients.

Used to write novels in your spare time? That means you can turn dry topics into engaging stories that keep the audiences’ attention.

See what I mean about using what you’ve got to sell your services?

I talk more about what you need to include in a landing page in the Client Boost training.

5. Go to local meet-ups

The thought of going out there on your own, meeting people you don’t know, and talking business is terrifying, right?

Heck yes, it absolutely is. But if you want to grab some clients in those early days when you have little freelancing experience? It might just be necessary.

You see, clients are more likely to hire someone they’ve met in person. Even in this interconnected, digital age, people still crave human connection, which means you’re ten times more likely to land a gig if you’ve physically shaken hands with the client and swapped a few words over a bevvy with them than if you simply shot them a cold email.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never had a client before. If you’re personable enough and can hold a decent conversation, people will want to give you a chance.

See? There are five different ways you can already find freelance jobs without having to have a single client to your name.

Remember: you might not have any experience freelancing, but that’s not what you’re selling. You’re selling a skill, like writing, designing, yoga, whatever – and I’m willing to bet my mum’s dog (remember he’s her pride and joy) that you’ve got experience in that.

Having no experience is no excuse!

And if you STILL think you have no experience or that you’re at a disadvantage because you’ve never had a client, remember that the quickest way to stop having no experience is to get experience.

That means putting yourself out there, trying the things above, and landing your first client.

Remember, if you want to climb those ladder rungs…

1. Constantly learn

Freelancers never stop learning.

Every day we pack our mind full with new information. It’s vital if we want to keep ourselves in business, because we need to be on top of current trends, expand our knowledge base so we can expand our client base, and give ourselves more collateral to draw from in applications and pitches.

2. Put yourself out there

You’ll get nowhere if you don’t try. The early stages of freelancing are hard, but every successful freelancer has been exactly where you are. We all started in the same place.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success in the freelancing world, it’s just a case of putting one foot in front of the other, doing small things to move forward, and putting ourselves out there.

3. Admit your weak points

No one likes a know it all – especially when they don’t know it all. I’ve found the most success with clients when I admit my faults and tell them when I simply don’t know something.

You know – it’s totally okay to not know. Don’t let fear of being wrong hold you back because, believe me, you will get it wrong at some point. It’s just the nature of the beast.

4. You don’t need to be an expert

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking freelancing is all about niche. You need to be an expert in this industry if you want to be the best, or you need to know all about such and such if you want to land any work at all.

Remember you’re selling your craft (writing, designing, calligraphy, dance, whatever). THIS is what you need to be an expert in, not finance or digital marketing or whatever it is you write about or design or hand letter.

Clients are paying you for your freelancing skill, not how much you know about their industry. Once you’ve got that firmly tucked away in your pocket, things get so much easier.

There you have it.

The next time you struggle to find freelance jobs because you (think you) have no experience, just bring yourself back to this post and remind yourself that you do have experience, it’s just a case of showing clients that when you have no published work.

Free webinar…

I’m hosting a free webinar next week that digs a little bit deeper into how you can use your past experiences and knowledge you already have to land clients. In the 1-hour session, I’ll show you how to:

Identify skills and knowledge you already have so you don’t have to start freelancing from scratch

Leverage those skills to attract high-paying clients and win against your competition (even if they have years more experience than you)

Showcase your skills and knowledge in your pitches and applications (even if you have ZERO experience)

Find work in niches that pay well and that you only dream of working in

Grab your seat by entering your name and email address below (I’ll send you a little reminder beforehand so you don’t forget about it!).