Your Project is Complete!

You've worked hard and delivered to the buyer exactly what was requested. You got your work completed on time, you've made the buyer happy and you hopefully even made a profit. Congratulations!

Now you're ready to move on and tackle the next round of searching for, bidding on and winning bids so you can continue supporting your life as a freelancer. But before you move on, wait! The project's not over yet.

Remember your manners

When you're finished and the buyer is satisfied with your work, take a moment to say thanks once again. You can never be too polite and with so many people forgetting their manners, you can be certain that people notice this kind gesture.

When you go above and beyond what was expected of you, buyers also notice the extra effort. They'll be so surprised by their experience that they'll probably tell their friends and coworkers all about it. And that's exactly what you want because guess what's going to happen next time that buyer or that buyer's friend needs work done? They'll consider you first!

Keep in touch

That's why, along with saying thanks once again, it's also a good idea to let buyers know how to reach you should they ever need more work in the future. Maybe you don't know this but getting new work from a repeat customer or by word-of-mouth is much easier (and less time-consuming!) than soliciting new work - for both of you.

When a buyer knows he's found a capable service provider he's not going to waste time putting a new project out to bid. He's going to ask you first if you can do the work and only if you can't will he seek bids from others. If you can do the work, the steps are simple: you'll place a bid, the buyer will accept, the clock will start ticking and you'll be immersed in a new project before you know it. It really can be that easy, especially once you've established a solid track record of reliable performance.

The importance of ratings

And what about that track record? You'll find almost every freelance job site offers a way for buyers and service providers to share their experiences with others and most often, it's by rating one another. Ratings are an important part of the process because it really is the only way that others can gauge the reliability and the credibility of the people who interact on these sites.

So always rate the buyer whose project you just completed. Be fair and remember additional comments usually are optional so offer them only when warranted. If you notice after a few days that the buyer hasn't rated you, go back if you can and gently request that the buyer do so. Oftentimes buyers don't know how to access the rating screen or they've simply forgotten. Sometimes however, they'd rather not say anything so don't ask more than once.

There, now you're done!

In the next article, I'll explain more about the fees that freelance job sites charge.