When building client relationships as a Catholic freelancer, as much as your endgame may be to make profits, you have to ask yourself if you’re delivering value to your clients. Freelancing, just like any other commercial venture, requires a level of engagement that focuses on client relationships. When you are communicating with your clients you need to dig deeper and find out some of their specific needs which will aid in creating better working client relationships. These few tips will help you foster healthy client relationships as a freelancing contractor.

1. Define the Scale and Scope of the Project

Before you start working on any project it is important to discuss the finer details of the undertaking which ultimately define the level of engagement. A meeting is recommended at this point so that you can understand what is required of you as a freelancer and also your expectations of your client relationships. Understanding each other’s objectives and standpoints on a project will make it easier to achieve all the expected objectives.

At this foundational stage, you should define the timeframe of the entire project and the expected date of completion. Making this clear will help iron out any issues and keep you and your client on the same page. After defining the terms of engagement you can decide to draw up a contract or agreement that will hold you both accountable.  

This initial stage will focus on the manner and method of engagement, with the main goal being client satisfaction.

2. Communication of Progress

Many clients seeking the services of freelancers are often afraid that their deadlines will not be adhered to. Sometimes freelancers, for one reason or another, become unresponsive or fail to report on the progress of assigned projects. This is very frustrating for the client. As a freelancer, you can alleviate a client’s worries by always keeping them in the loop. A simple email detailing the work you have done and the expected time of completion will give the client confidence that the project is progressing well.

Apart from issuing regular progress reports, it is also important to let your client know when you are available to discuss any issues regarding the ongoing work. Always provide your contact information and the specific hours when you are available. This is crucial especially when you are working with international clients who are in different time zones. Communication tools such as email, video calls, and instant messaging services make it easy to keep in touch, so use them wisely.

If you ever encounter a problem when working on a client’s project, keep them informed and mention all the steps you’re taking to correct the situation. Many issue end up being simple miscommunications and are cleared up with proper communication.

3. Be Cordial and Professional

The nature of client engagement has become less formal over time. Formal business communication has evolved to friendly, less business-like communication. However, as a freelancer, you should always strive to keep all your interactions respectful and professional. You can add some pleasantries in your emails but ensure that you still maintain a respectable professional distance. Getting too personal with your client is likely to setback any gains you’ve made at maintaining a business relationship.

4. Nurture Existing Clients

The gig economy is growing fast and there seems to be an obsession with growing your network. While this is true, it’s also just as important to nurture your ongoing client relationships. Always give your best to your existing clients and they will surely notice your dedication.

In business (and this includes freelancing too) it takes more effort and resources to seek new customers than maintaining your current clientele and keeping them happy. Statistics on customer retention show that approximately 65% of business income comes from repeat customers. This ‘Bird in Hand’ concept is valuable if you are looking to cultivate long term professional client relationships. So, even as you look for new opportunities elsewhere, make sure that your current clients are happy and well cared for.
And maybe it goes without saying, that it’s almost easier to network, by letting your happy clients share about the successes you’ve had together.

5. Add a Personal Touch

I know I mentioned earlier the importance of maintaining a professional demeanor when interacting with clients, but it is sometimes okay to build an interpersonal rapport. For instance, you can wish them a happy birthday or ask how their family is doing. If, for instance, the client hits a major milestone in their life, you can go ahead and congratulate them. Some of these thoughtful gestures help in creating a healthy professional relationship that is not only about work.

You can note down important dates or events in your calendar and reach out to them when it counts. You could also set Google alerts for any relevant info that will help in your future discussions.

Please note that this does not apply to all clients. It is important to follow the lead of the client. Take cues from your interactions to find out if your client is comfortable engaging in friendly banter from time-to-time. 

6. Give Back Whenever Possible

Show gratitude for your client’s loyalty by offering some tokens of appreciation. You could give some discounts to your long-term clients or those who always pay for your services promptly. You could also offer a referral discount if your services are recommended to new clients. By doing this, you are showing your appreciation and at the same time building brand loyalty. Everyone loves a discount, don’t you think?

7. Always Ask

Whenever you’re in doubt, never hesitate to ask questions. Never assume that your clients’ expectations will always align with your viewpoint, especially if you are not clear about a particular issue. Some clients may have some reservations about certain topics so before you use your initiative to complete a task, always ask for direction or consent.

8. Clear Payment Procedures

Make it a point to specify all the payment methods from the start to avoid future disagreements. This should include issues such as up-front payments, payment deadlines, extra fees or surcharges, invoices, and how to deal with late payments. Ensure the invoicing process is consistent as well to ensure that your business processes are as reliable as possible.

Some payment gateways have invoicing features as well as automated payment requests to make funds disbursement easier.

9. Go Above and Beyond

It’s not enough to give minimal effort to your client’s work. Always strive to add value to everything you do. For instance, if you’re a freelance writer you can increase your word count, add infographics, and even search for appropriate images even if the client had not requested this. It will prove your dedication to your work and endear you to the client.  

Try as much as possible to make suggestions that will improve the client’s work and make it stand out from the rest. 

For example, if you’re a web designer, always make it a point to highlight some of the new trends and improvements that would enhance your client’s website. Remember, it doesn’t cost much to over-deliver and the returns are likely to be much greater than you can imagine. 

10. The Bottom-line

As your freelancing career grows, you’ll get better at implementing these strategies and you will execute some better than others. These concepts may take you out of your comfort zone and it’s a good thing because this is the only way to improve your craft and grow your business.

Be mindful of your client’s needs. Always keep this in mind; the more challenging the task, the greater the reward. It doesn’t matter what the business is, people will always matter most. Seek to provide value first and the benefits will always follow.

Submitted by the Editor

Search here for Catholic job postings, or Catholic Professionals you can hire.

The post Client Relationships – 10 Tips for Catholic Freelancers appeared first on Catholic Professionals.

Well I’m guessing you’ve already started your freelance career. You might even have a couple of Catholic freelancing clients who are keeping your business afloat. Freelancing is a fascinating job, but its alluring flexibility and freedom only exists if you manage to grow and maintain your freelancing business.

It’ll be necessary to maintain high quality if you want to build self-brand credibility and attract many Catholic freelancing clients to work with on a regular basis.

Here are some sure-fire methods that you can use to find and keep new Catholic freelancing clients.

Professional Development

If you want to grow your network, often you’ll need to start with yourself. Professional development is crucial as a freelancer, because your clients have many contractors to choose from. If you want to attract new Catholic freelancing clients and keep the ones you already have on board, you should constantly work on your skills. You want to stand out from the crowd. There are two key perspectives to keep in mind:

Self Analysis

Whether you just started out as a freelancer or you’ve been doing this for a while, there should always be time for you to take a step back, analyze what you’ve done so far, and find your strengths and weaknesses.

While reviewing your work, ask yourself: What am I best at? But also, what are the things I need to change to improve my services? Use this information to evaluate your lows and your highs, and make a list of things to improve in the future. You obviously want to provide the very best service you can.

The longer you are in this business, the more hands-on experience you’ll get, however regular self analysis will speed up your progress.

Client Feedback

As you evaluate your own work, it’ll be crucial to ask clients for feedback about what it is that they like about your work and where they think you could improve. Use their positive and negative feedback to focus your services on what you do best, and then pay close attention to mend the areas where they suggest improvement.

In the Catholic world, humility is an attractive thing. When you recognize your own weaknesses, and ask for feedback, your Catholic freelancing clients will appreciate it and surely be willing to offer kind advice.

Service Optimization

When you start doing freelance work, you usually focus on what you already know. After a while there may come a point where you’ll need to discern how to grow in order to optimize your services. There are two directions you could take.

Specialize

Specialists are those who know more and more about less and less. That is, your scope is more focused, and that allows you to be better at what you do, and usually you can also charge more for your services. Expertise comes naturally as you gain experience, however dedicating regular time to update your knowledge with the latest best practices will set you apart. Today there are many resources at your fingertips that can help you to improve regularly. Make sure your bedside stand has a good book or two on your areas of expertise, or find online courses that can keep you up to late on the latest developments in your field.

Grow Your Services

Sometimes the very fact that you are working forces you to learn about related fields. As this happens, you can increase the number of services you offer based on what you’ve learned since you started the career. If you’re a content writer, you can collaborate with book editors or graphic designers to offer a full package to clients. If you’re an e-book writer or editor, you can also work on your SEO skills and establish yourself as an SEO expert. 

Marketing

Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Referrals are a freelancer’s most powerful tool in attracting new Catholic freelancing clients. It doesn’t hurt to ask clients to talk about you, but the most powerful tool for referrals is to actually care about your clients, and to do everything possible to make sure they know that, I would almost say, that they feel it. If they are impressed, it will not be because you did what you promised, but only if you go beyond what you promise. You have to break their expectations if you want them to be surprised and to talk about you to their friends.

Testimonials

Most people don’t have the natural habit of leaving comments or providing feedback, even if they worked with an amazing freelancer. Get in the habit of asking your Catholic freelancing clients to give you a quick testimonial or review and make sure that your new clients can find these easily on your portfolio or website.

Work on Your Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve built a portfolio, you can show people what you can deliver by providing them with actual proof of your capabilities. Figure out where your target clients hang out and get your work out there. Create a LinkedIn profile, pay for ads on Facebook and Instagram, and join websites like Upwork and Freelancer to find work. 

Technology, online marketing, and social media give freelancers many opportunities to widen their reach. As a Catholic freelancer, you can look for clients on many different websites, place ads on social media, and even ask for assistance from marketing professionals.

Make Connections

Connections open doors you didn’t even know existed. Networking should be one of your top priorities if you work as a freelancer.

Set up a profile on Catholic Professionals to let people know what you can offer them. Scour platforms like LinkedIn to find people with similar interests, as well as potential clients that might want to hire you.

Don’t just reach out to people that can become your Catholic freelancing clients. Work on your connections with other freelance writers and professionals. Join groups for freelance writers and Catholic professionals, write on forums, and share your expertise and portfolio with other experts in the field. You never know where an opportunity can come from.

If you leave an impact on people simply in your interactions with them, they are much more likely to remember you and possibly reach back out in the future, or even share your work with a friend.

Final Thoughts

Building your clientele takes time, effort and a long term strategy.

If your heart is in the right place, then you will begin with yourself and strive to become better and better at what you do. You will also genuinely care about your Catholic freelancing clients and will put their success as your top priority.

These two strategies alone will bring you to stand out, and with time, people will notice your heart, and your efforts will be rewarded.

Submitted by the Editor

Search here for Catholic job postings, or Catholic Professionals you can hire.

The post Catholic Freelancing Clients: How to Grow Your Network appeared first on Catholic Professionals.

To begin with, the last seven years in the US have seen high and stable rates of entrepreneurship overall. The majority of Americans say that their city is a good place to start a business, according to Babson College’s 2017 report on entrepreneurship in the U.S. This is the highest number since Babson College started conducting the survey in 1999.

With the rise of the side hustle, Catholic entrepreneurship is becoming a more accessible dream across the country. From small rosary shops to national ministries, Catholics are looking for ways to use their creativity — and their business chops — to spread God’s word, while making a living.

If you have an idea you’ve been sitting on, here are some tips for developing that idea into a business and launching your new product or service into the world – or at least into the Church.

Is It a Good Idea?

“I believe this is Heaven’s idea – from the promptings in my heart, like a restless spiritual nagging,” says Julia Miller, founder of FreshRosary. She was an established wedding florist, which she describes as a “hobby-gone-mad that came into my life as a young stay-at-home-mom,” when a friend of hers asked her to be the florist for her mother’s funeral. Among the floral creations she provided for the funeral was an eight-feet rosary made of roses. The rest, as they say, was history.

Of course, your idea might sound great. It might be something you’re passionate about and even something your friends and family find interesting. But if it’s not saleable (or, in the case of a nonprofit, fundraise-able), it won’t last. In a recent interview with HubSpot, entrepreneurship expert Jules Pieri said that “the critical first step” in starting a business is “to assess the potential market size of an opportunity.”

Do Your Homework

Internet research is a great way to start doing this research, from Google Trends (are people searching for rosaries?) to Amazon’s bestseller list (are people buying them?). You can also visit trade shows, talk to your regional Small Business Administration office and look for market data in your industry, Pieri says.

Experimentation is also a good way to know if your idea has merit. Samantha Povlock, founder of FemCatholic, says that when she created the online platform, she didn’t know at first whether it was a good idea, “except that I knew the mission was authentic to ME. As it grew, I read a lot of business advice that recommended ‘talking to your customer,’ and as I continued talking to women about the platform, I realized, this is genuinely making a difference in people’s lives. That was evidence to me that I wasn’t the only person who needed something like this to exist; other people did too.” She says when she opened the first call for contributing writers and received 50 applications, “That was the first time I thought, wow, there really is interest in not only being part of the audience but in helping move this work forward.”

Discerning Your Calling

How do you know if starting a business is something God is calling you to do? Prayer, listening, talking to trusted family members and friends. Discernment is an important part of every aspect of our lives, including Catholic entrepreneurship. For instance, Cecilia Escobedo, founder of Hair Bows 4 Life, says that she asked the Holy Spirit to help her name her business.

“Discernment of spirits is so incredibly easy to overlook but it is absolutely nonnegotiable,” says Povlock, “because you are going to get all sorts of advice – both Catholic and secular – and ultimately, you have to decide what’s right for you and your organization.”

The Side Hustle

Unless you have a pile of cash set aside, starting your new ministry or business as a side hustle is a good option. This approach to Catholic entrepreneurship gives you the security to experiment while still being able to make next month’s rent. If you do decide to start a side hustle, time management and self-discipline will be key. When your projects don’t have external deadlines, set your own (and stick to them). Have a detailed calendar, whether on paper or online, that helps you keep up with tasks and deadlines. (Color-coding is always great, especially when you’re separating your day job from your weekend gig.)

Side hustling can be disruptive to your personal life. Carve out time to be with loved ones just like you carve out time to work. It may be that you can sometimes combine the two. If your side hustle is in marketing, ask your boyfriend to join you at your favorite coffee shop and read a book while you write copy. Are you a craftsman? Skype with your parents while you’re working on your next project. Multitask when you have to; be fully present when you can.

Networking: Connecting With Other Catholic Founders

If you’ve been working for any length of time, you’ve probably heard the advice that networking is important to professional success. When you’re starting a new business or nonprofit, it’s especially critical to connect with people who have similar interests, as potential customers, partners, word-of-mouth marketers or simply friends who can offer sound advice.

The key to good networking is authenticity. When it comes to Catholic entrepreneurship, potential founders are frequently warned not to use people, and networking can often feel negative like that. But when it’s approached with authenticity and generosity, networking is simply building relationships. Don’t approach other people with the goal of finding out how they can help you; approach them with the goal of learning about them. You may find business opportunities there, or you may just make a friend. You may have a brief conversation and never talk to them again. Regardless of the outcome, you’re getting your product or service “out there,” and you’re treating people with dignity and respect. It’s a win-win.

Here are some ways Catholic founders can connect with each other and with potential customers or volunteers:

Join an association.

Escobedo recommends finding or gathering a group of like-minded founders in your niche and supporting each other with ideas and advice. “I found two groups in the last three years,” she says, and “I wish I had such groups from day one!”

“It is so important for us to constantly nourish our own soul while we try to nourish and inspire the souls of others,” says Amy Brooks, the founder and president of Catholics Online. “If our ultimate goal is to become one with Christ in heaven, we should start here and now. Connecting and supporting one another unites us, and hopefully gets us closer to be one with Our Lord.”

Talk to people at church.

You probably go to Mass every Sunday. Do you talk to the people sitting in your pew? Have you found a ministry to volunteer with? Community is vital to Catholic entrepreneurship, just as it is to Christian life in general. If you have a Catholic business, your customers are also your spiritual brothers and sisters. Get to know them. Attend those fish fries during Lent, or get involved in a ministry that you’re passionate about. Connecting with other people will help you grow as a Christian while growing your business.

Have friends.

Catholic Entrepreneurship can be lonely, especially once you move from side hustle to full-time gig. Don’t neglect your relationships; they will keep you sane and motivated. Povlock says she’s met some of her best friends through FemCatholic. Use your business to meet friends, but don’t lose track of the old ones, too.

The Rule of St. Benedict states, “Whenever you begin any good work, you should first of all make it a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection.” Catholic entrepreneurship should start by dedicating  your business to the Holy Spirit, and whether or not it’s a financial success (we hope it will be!), God will use it to touch lives.

About the Author

Taryn Oesch DeLong is an editor and writer in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and works in digital media. Passionate about supporting women in work, in life, and in health, she is the managing editor of Catholic Women in Business, assistant editor and contributing writer at FemCatholic, a contributor to Live Today Well Co., and an almost-certified fertility awareness educator. When she’s not helping writers craft stories and writing her own nonfiction and fiction, you’ll find Taryn reading Jane Austen and drinking a cup of Earl Grey tea, playing the flute or the piano, or volunteering. You can follow Taryn on Instagram and Twitter @tarynmdelong, on Facebook, or on her blog.

Search here for Catholic job postings, or Catholic Professionals you can hire.

The post Catholic Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Execution appeared first on Catholic Professionals.