How to get more clients without spending more on advertising

Things have been going pretty well lately. Translation, interpretation and copy-writing assignments have kept me busy during January and February. Surely, I felt tired constantly but the truth is, I have had the time of my life with interesting tasks, exciting new topics and two book translations. Every time I was asked by my friends or colleagues about how I was doing, I responded with a simple but true statement: "I could not enjoy my work more..."

Oftentimes in this profession, we get stuck with daily / weekly assignments and have no time left for other duties to fulfil, such as administration, handling invoices and yes, dedicating our time and money to self-advertising. Sometimes I wish I had the resources to hire some professional help, like a personal assistant or something. Then there are other days when I simply enjoy marketing duties and find it pretty easy to acquire new clients.

However, based on my previous experiences and my out-of-the-box mindset, I collected a list of different methods to get more clients without having to either spend a fortune or dedicate much time to the task.

• Increasing online presence (Are you on LinkedIn yet? How about Proz.com?)
• Networking (Not necessarily in professional events...)
• Newsletters (I know..."been there, done that...")
• Getting personal with clients (e.g. birthday messages)
• Word-of-mouth (Never miss an opportunity to tell about your freelance profession - and never think of it as self-indulgence!)

Using these tactics have gotten me 4 new and many more potential clients for March. Right now, I am testing how much I can handle. Anyway, I am up for the challenge! You should be too!

Effective time management

As someone who is constantly racing against the clock, I figured it was important to look for some time management tips on the Internet. Effectively managing your time is indeed a skill - a very important one in today's ever-changing, rushing world.

The next picture perfectly represents all the classic mistakes that have been made by many of us in the past. We all want to stay inside the productive zone which is there for the highest value in quality, though not frustrated by a deadline yet. Although I must admit that there are times when a slight push of a deadline that is coming closer and closer might give me a little more incentive. You see, I might enjoy a bit of challenge when it comes to deadlines.

The busy zone is the one we turn into when the deadline has come inevitably close and it cannot be denied anymore. No more hesitation is allowed: we are ready to get busy, though, our productivity is not at its highest.

A fruitless zone usually takes place when we feel like we have much time (and energy) left and we occupy ourselves with completely meaningful tasks such as hanging on social media, chatting with friends over the phone, spending time on Ebay, you name it. The worst part is that a fruitless zone is a result-less zone.

The crisis zone is the worst of all possible situations - this is when we are about to lose control. Deadline pressure is becoming higher and higher and so does the demand for quality. In this case, effective crisis management is needed to solve the issue.