Top 3 Tips to Finding Freelance Clients – Chuck Hüber & Colleen Clinkenbeard, FUNimation

In today’s saturated media industry, freelancers may find it difficult to remain competitive and find jobs. Chuck Hüber and Colleen Clinkenbeard, who have both worked as directors at FUNimation, explain that media practitioners may overcome these challenges by building their network, fostering strong relationships with their clients, and retaining their audiences. 

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What’s In This Article?

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According to a study by 35% of workers in the USA have opted to work on an ad-hoc basis. As a result, the number of freelancers in the U.S. has increased 57 million by 2019, comprising more than one third of workers in the economy
 
According to a study by Forbes (2019), 35% of workers in the USA have opted to work on an ad-hoc basis. As a result, the number of freelancers in the U.S. has increased by 57 million by 2019, comprising more than one third of workers in the economy (Booth, 2019). Payoneer’s 2020 survey states that that this number has increased even further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which employees were forced to work from home (Younger, 2020).

Chuck Hüber, ADR Director at the post-production studio FUNimation, explains that this trend is also inherent in FUNimation, which employs contractional employees for a certain period of time.

Whilst full-time employees may enjoy the safety of a stable paycheck, Chuck admits that contract employees must “work many jobs at once” and are “always figuring out ways to make ends meet.”
 
In order to thrive as a freelancer, Chuck and Colleen emphasize the importance of building strong relationships with new and existing clients. They suggest several useful tips on how this may be achieved:

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Tip 1: Network with Industry Professionals
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According to Chuck, networking within your industry will allow you to be recognised and remembered by industry players. Properly building and nurturing your network may allow you to transform some of your contacts into future collaborators.
 
Similarly, Colleen emphasizes the importance of networking within your industry: “If you’re extremely diligent and hardworking, find ways to help people with their projects or create your own projects. The more people you work with, the more people who have a good experience with you, the more you’ll find yourself called upon to create art with others.”
 
They suggest the following ways to build a strong network:
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1. Get Online

Technology has made freelance opportunities very accessible. In order to build up their portfolios, novice freelancers are encouraged to search online forums and communities for jobs to add to their resume. As they gradually gain credibility, they can begin searching for larger clients and higher paying jobs.

2. Contact Corporations

Some companies may post job openings on their websites, or they may advertise available positions through word-of-mouth.
 
You may also consider attending industry events to network with individuals within the company, who may put in a good word to their HR managers that may facilitate your application. However, Colleen warns that these contacts should not be pressurised to assist you, but they should be encouraged to recommend you based on your reputation and personality.
 
“Don’t be pushy and ask them to get you in the door. Just be that awesome-to-work-with person who everybody wants to recommend wherever they go simply because they want to be the one who “discovered” you.” She advises.

3. Reach Out to your Community
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According to Colleen, joining a community of like-minded enthusiasts may provide you with support and advice.
 
“Joining social media/meetup groups would help. However, you don’t have to find a large community to support you. You just need one or two friends who support you emotionally and intellectually.” She advises.
 
“Find people who can help you grow as a person, educate you, and introduce you to opportunities. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge with them in return.” She continues.

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Tip 2: Practice Honest Communication with your Clients
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Once you have secured your clientele, you must ensure that they have a pleasant working experience with you. This may involve adopting a professional tone, submitting assignments on time, and delivering quality work that fulfils your clients’ expectations.
 
According to Chuck, FUNimation is no exception to this rule. It fosters strong relationships with its Japanese clients, whose products are dubbed and distributed to an American audience.
 
“[FUNimation] takes beautiful multimedia projects that Japanese creators have produced, and use our voices to make them accessible to American audiences.” Chuck explains.
 
In order to manage its clients’ expectations of its English dubs, FUNimation exercises honest and open communication with its partners. Open communication allows freelancers to manage their clients’ expectations of their performance, and enables them to establish reasonable deadlines for their task. This bolsters an individual’s brand loyalty, which may lead to repeated purchases of their products or services.
 
“Being kind and honest is extremely important. In order to foster a good collaboration with your partners, and ensure that your product is the best that it can be, you must be truthful. However, you have to be able to do tell the truth in a way that is acceptable.” Chuck states.
 
Furthermore, Colleen emphasizes the importance of being humble and diligent throughout your employment.
 
“The best thing you can do to ensure a long career is to be known as an easy to work with artists. That means showing up on time, leaving your personal life out of the booth, listening to and taking directions well, and generally being kind and humble as much as possible.” Colleen advises.
 
An article by the Freelancer Map (2017) provides some useful tips about communicating with your clients. Their advice includes:

1. Regularly updating your client. For instance, you may establish specific deadlines for your assignments and provide your clients with regular updates about your progress.
   
   
2. Communicating with your client over multiple channels, such as Skyping your client to follow up on a written e-mail.
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3. Asking questions about the assignment to ensure that you fully understand your client’s business, as well as your responsibilities.  

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Tip 3: Implement Strategies to Retain your Audience
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​Aside from sourcing for new clients and submitting their commissions, successful freelancers must also implement strategies to keep their customers. According to an article by Smile Inc. (McEachern, 2018), repeat customers account for up to 40% of a company’s revenue, and are easier to sell to than new clients.

FUNimation has kept this in mind by encouraging repeated collaborations with its Japanese partners, and striking long-term distribution deals with over-the-top media providers. Not only have they engaged its partners and collaborators in the media industry, but FUNimation also communicates with its audience of anime enthusiasts over traditional and digital platforms.

Similarly, freelancers in the media industry must strike amicable relationships with its clients in order to encourage repeated orders. Drawing from FUNimation’s approach to client retention, freelancers may choose not limit their audience to content creators or studios. Instead, they may choose to create content themselves in order to build their own fanbases, as their followers may eventually translate into paying fans.

FUNimation corporate strategy suggests three effective ways to retain your audience:

1. Engage Collaborators and Followers

In order to engage your collaborators and followers, you may provide them with regular updates about notable projects that you’re involved with, as well as opportunities to collaborate.

For instance, FUNimation updates its social media pages with regular news about its content, and collaborates with journalists to notify the public about its newsworthy activities.

2. Make your Profile Accessible

In order to make its content more accessible, FUNimation distributes its shows over its proprietary online platform, FunimationNow (Moore, 2019).

Similarly, freelancers should showcase their portfolio over platforms where their profiles may be visible. They may:

• rely on freelance notice boards with to secure ad-hoc assignments,
• update their social media accounts to find opportunities through word-of-mouth, or
• directly contact individuals and corporations that they may be interested in working with.

3. Submit Quality Work

The best way of retaining your network would be to submit quality work and create engaging content.

According to Hüber, FUNimation also retains its audience by engaging talented professionals to maintain the quality of its company’s content.

“Our directors oversee the project’s writing to make sure that it makes sense culturally to an American audience. At the same time, we have to make sure that the project’s Japanese references are as correct as possible.” he explains.

In order to create content that appeals to their network, freelancers may consider surveying their fanbase about their preferences. Alternatively, they may consider conducting market research strategies, which identifies industry trends and relevant keywords to include in their content.

Although there are several strategies that may allow you to retain your audience, Colleen suggests selecting tactics that utilise your strengths.

“There are hundreds of ways to [build] a career in the industry. The right way for you depends on your strengths and your goals. For example, if you are a people person, get to know people in the biz. We naturally want to help out people we like." She suggests.

"If you’re extremely talented, just get your voice heard. Put it out there in as many ways as you can find because someone somewhere is going to want exactly what you have to offer.” She concludes.

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