“Getting clients is really hard.” That’s what we self-employed professionals and creatives tell each other, anyway. Over coffee, at meetings, and online, wherever self-employed folks gather, the difficulty of getting clients is a frequent topic.

There’s certainly some truth to this sentiment. Marketing and selling your services can be one of the most challenging elements of being in business for yourself. But does getting clients have to be as hard as we seem to think it is? Maybe not.

In fact, I’ve noticed that self-employed pros often make marketing and sales more difficult than it needs to be. Here are six ways that self-employed people often turn getting clients into more of a struggle than necessary.

1. Refusing to choose a target market.

If you don’t limit your marketing to a specific category of likely clients, the alternative is marketing to anyone and everyone. That makes everything about getting clients harder. For example, you have to network more often, in more places, with more people, to run across enough prospective clients who might hire you. And, building referral relationships is rarely possible, as you can neither identify who might be most likely to refer you a client, nor describe to them who they should refer.

Without a defined target market, you can’t even talk about your business effectively, because there’s no way to get specific about the benefits and results you produce. Whether you market yourself online, in person, by email, or on the phone, trying to reach an undefined audience with a generic marketing message will wear you out before it produces results.

2. Spending time on your approach without tailoring your message.

I’m often asked to supply a universally effective sales email or page of web copy, as if it were possible to craft such an item without explicit details about what is being sold, to whom, and for what purpose. No matter what marketing approach you choose, it’s not going to work without a message that’s tailored to your business and your audience.

But I see countless self-employed pros fall into the trap of thinking success at getting clients is all about the technique — social media, let’s say, or making videos, or launching a Substack — while giving little thought to what they wish to communicate with these approaches.

3. Doing what’s easiest instead of what works best.

Most self-employed pros already know what works best to get clients. When I ask them, they answer with “networking,” “word of mouth,” “referrals,” and other strategies involving direct contact or personal connections. But when I ask those same folks where they are spending the majority of their time and money, many of them sheepishly admit they are avoiding these strategies and instead sending out bulk email, running ads, or trying to attract web traffic.

It may seem easier and less confronting to sit at the keyboard, buy an ad, or hire website help than to spend time connecting with people personally. But is it really “easy” to put money and effort into the least effective ways to market yourself, instead of doing what you already know works better?

4. Changing marketing approaches every week.

Successful marketing is an ongoing process, not a collection of unrelated events. Whether you are blogging, networking in your community, writing a newsletter, or building referral relationships, persistence and consistency pay off while one-time or occasional attempts fall flat. Letting go of a marketing or sales tactic after a handful of tries, only to pursue a different approach, is a guaranteed recipe for struggle and failure.

5. Avoiding follow-up.

Similarly, any marketing strategy requires follow-up to produce results. Exhibiting at a trade show will do nothing for you unless you follow up with the people who stopped by. Public speaking won’t produce results until you follow up with those who attended. Attending networking events won’t bring you clients unless you follow up with the people you meet.

Yes, follow-up can seem difficult or confronting, but consider the alternative. Expending all that effort on exhibiting or speaking or networking without landing any business because you neglected to follow up -– now that’s hard.

6. Continuing to search for hidden secrets to get clients instead of doing what’s in front of you.

One of the hardest ways to get clients is spinning your wheels in analysis paralysis, second-guessing, or perfectionism. “Should I do this? Maybe I should do that. Perhaps something else might work better. I wonder what else I could do? Maybe I need more information. I’m not sure I’m ready.” You can exhaust yourself this way just thinking about marketing or selling, without taking a single step.

Make it easy on yourself instead. Choose a few simple, effective things to do about marketing, using the suggestions above as a guide. Then get going. And keep going. You’ll find that getting clients won’t seem so hard once it really starts to work.

This post was first published in 2016 and has been updated for 2026.