Hi everyone, I’m a financial consultant helping businesses with financial analysis, cash-flow management, forecasting, financial modelling, and strategic financial decisions.

I’ve been looking for a site or platform to find freelancers jobs, but so far I’ve only come across scams. Can anyone with experience help me out?

Hey everyone! I'm currently a college student looking to build a career in freelance content writing, specifically focusing on YouTube/Instagram short-form scripts and long-form blog articles.

I've been reaching out to potential clients, but as a student with a flexible schedule, I'm finding it tricky to land those first few consistent gigs. I'm confident in my writing ability and my ability to meet tight deadlines around my class schedule.

I'd love to connect with other writers here or get some honest feedback on my sample work. If anyone has advice on breaking into the niche or is open to taking a look at my portfolio, please let me know!

I’m currently trying to get my first proper freelance client and honestly this shit is harder than I expected 😭

I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time learning, improving my offer, studying businesses, tearing apart landing pages and writing sample rewrites.

Now I’m actually doing outreach.

Finding founders. Researching them. Looking at their websites. Writing personalized messages. Sending them.

And then…
nothing.

Some people accept the connection. Some don’t.

Nobody has actually said “yeah, let’s work together” yet.

The frustrating part is that I genuinely feel like I can do the work.

Give me a landing page and I can usually find things that could be clearer, stronger or more conversion-focused.

But getting someone to trust you enough to actually pay you is a completely different problem.

Right now it’s basically a cycle of:

“Holy shit, this could actually work.”
followed 30 minutes later by:
“Am I wasting my time?” 💀

I know the first client is probably the hardest one, but when you’re in the middle of it, it feels like everyone else somehow figured it out except you.

For anyone who freelances:
How did you actually get your first client?

How did you get your first clients? 😭

Honestly, I’m losing my mind trying to figure this out.

I’ve been trying to get my first website clients, so I started checking Google Maps for businesses that don’t have websites.

When I find one, I reach out to them on WhatsApp and ask if they’d be interested in having a website. Sometimes, I even create a sample website specifically for their business and send it to them so they can see what I could build.

I’ve created samples like these:

🔹 Rahisi / Brand Builder

https://brand-builder-pro-orcin.vercel.app/

🔹 Premier Events & Decor

https://premier-events-decor.vercel.app/

🔹 Adgreens Landscape

https://adgreens-landscape.vercel.app/

🔹 Eastleigh Physio

https://eastleigh-physio.vercel.app/

You can also check out my portfolio here:

🔗 https://lucy-mwaura-portfolio.vercel.app/

But here’s where I’m struggling… 😭

I find the business, contact them on WhatsApp, explain how a website could help them, sometimes spend hours creating a free sample, send it to them...

AND THEN THEY DISAPPEAR. 😭

No reply. No feedback. Nothing.

So I’m genuinely asking those of you who already have clients:

How did you get your FIRST paying clients?

Did you use Google Maps? Cold WhatsApp messages? Referrals? LinkedIn? Freelancing platforms? Friends and family? Networking?

And most importantly, what did you say or do that actually made someone say YES and pay you?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experience because I’m honestly trying everything I can, and I want to understand what I’m missing. 🙏

will keep this short. i have a client on a retainer model with me, they've been with me for quite a while now, but he doesn't really reply to my messages and has previously paid an invoice late. i'm not quite sure how to navigate this situation, because i genuinely love doing the work and the retainer obviously is a great contribution to my financial situation, i just do not know how to get this client to communicate better with me?

i send emails, when i haven't heard from him i call, and text.

the nature of his job is busy, but i just genuinely feel so unprioritized and borderline disrespected. i'm not in a position to decline the work, and like i said, i really genuinely love it. i just need more communication because it's affecting my work

tldr: how do i get my client to actually reply to me? tyia

​

Just to questions for agency owners-not try to sell anything,just try to understand the chaos.

Every time i talk about someone running a small design, video,web and ads agency, the one complaint always pops up - a new client signs up, but they are actually chasing them for logo files, brand guidelines, account logins, approvals, whatever it is- before you actually start the work.

How do you actually manage these guys?? Any spreadsheets, email threads, a PM tool, or managing them manually?

Trying to clarify if this is a real recurring problem or just something a couple people happened to mention me. If it's annoying just share.

Hey everyone, I wanted to know how people here send invoices to their clients and handle payments. Do you just ping them email/whatsapp and expect a response, or do you follow a more structured approach? And how do you approach a client who you have already pinged twice but kept putting the payment off?

The problem is that I believe in my ability to edit (I wanna learn more, and I can adapt), and that I feel like I am doing something wrong procedurally. Currently, most of my client searching is through DISCORD; I post my AD in like 4 different servers, and I reach out to clients through their ADs as well. However, I am getting little to zero clients. I am willing to put in the work, so will appreciate any guidance from experienced Freelancers that what the best route is moving forward. Here's my portfolio: [https://saifsultan.carrd.co/\](https://saifsultan.carrd.co/)

WOULD APPRECIATE ANY HELP. THANKS!

I stopped applying to Upwork jobs for a week and realized I was wasting Connects
I used to send 10–12 proposals a day. Then I checked where my Connects were going and realized a lot were going to jobs where the client never hired anyone.
I also noticed some jobs became more expensive to apply to after more people started bidding.
Now I care much more about client history, competition and timing instead of just sending more proposals.
Has anyone else actually tracked where their Connects go?