How do you get customers for your writing business? I’m not talking here about how to get people to sign up for your email list or how to get people to buy an ebook. I’m talking about attracting customers for whom you can write. These are people you will actually interact with, often over painfully long periods of time. They are people who need your services and have the money to pay for them.

So how do you find them? In an ideal world, you would get all of your clients by referral. Referral occurs when other people recommend you to their friends and colleagues. Most writers with long-term business do most of their business by referral.

I tell you this because your goal is to get to be 100% referral. In order to achieve that goal, you have to work toward it now. Even if your business today is 0% referral. You work toward referral by treating all of your customers well, doing fabulous work, providing a great value, and making your business fun or something else positive. I say “fun or something else” because some writers hate fun. But your business has to have a flavor to it, some quality that makes you stand out from, say, a vending machine. You want it to be fun or pleasant or efficient or fast or something or other when dealing with you.

But how do you get clients in the first place? Here are my top 10, in no particular order:

1. Mention that you’re a writer. Don’t scream it or ask people to buy your services, but mention it. Tell the most unlikely people. I once got a big multi-year contract because my mother told some old lady in a bowling alley about me. Don’t figure that little old ladies in bowling alleys aren’t worth talking to. Mention it everywhere. (New social media accelerates this phenomenon, but there is still something to be said about plain old talking to real folks.)
2. Be available. If you want to run the kind of business that does business with other businesses (B2B), you need a business phone and a website. People have to be able to find you during business hours. Don’t assume that you can work at the beach or carry your cell phone along when you take the Girl Scouts camping and nobody will be fooled. If you want writing business, you have to present yourself as a real business. The kind of client you want has a big expensive project and nobody wants to trust that to somebody who doesn’t even go into the office on Thursdays.
3. Go to places (in cyberspace or in real life) where writers are hired. Call the editor of your local newspaper and pitch a column. Volunteer with a non-profit newsletter. Hire yourself out at Elance.
4. Work on your head. You have to believe that you’re a writer. I know a lot of people who start a business with the most tepid enthusiasm and a weak flutter of “give-it-a-try” sentiment. You have to believe that you’re a writer and push yourself to make it your life’s work.
5. Don’t hang out with other writers. Everybody I know who makes real money writing avoids that. Most writing forums are all right, but the time you spent visiting with other writers is time you wasted that could have been put to use growing your business.
6. Cold call. I know, everybody hates this, but at the very least it builds character. Since you’re a writer, you can probably prospect better by email–start to do that. Search online for businesses that might need your services, find out who is the marketing VP or marketing director, and fire off an email. Do that a lot.
7. Force yourself to work a full day even if you have no work. If you don’t have any writing to do, spend your time prospecting or building a website (or learning how to do one).  Set aside your working time and work … don’t let anything but the really major life events get in the way of this work schedule. Flexible working hours are for people who have work.
8. Clean up your web presence. Most of us look like we have multi-personality disorder online–we have Facebook pages that talk about our love of calypso music, Twitter accounts raging about politics, a few blog posts here and there on Michael Jackson or global warming, and a website with cookie recipes. If you’re trying to get people to buy from you, you need a coherent persona. You can always write under an assumed name.
9. Give stuff away if the client looks promising or if you figure it’s worth it. For instance, you may want to write a column for the newspaper for free. Why? Well, first of all, newspapers don’t pay much to begin with and it’s easier to get the gig if you waive any fees. But second, you may see a way to use the title “newspaper columnist” in your publicity. In other words, don’t be afraid to give away some free samples providing you have a strategy in mind.
10. Give yourself some publicity. Write press releases announcing your business, announcing your hours, and any time you do anything worth doing (such as donating something to the local library or launching your newspaper column). You can do this yourself or spend some money and use one of the PR services. This is a major edge we writers have over other mere mortals–use it!

Once you get clients, make sure you treat them like rock stars. Here are some of my keys to good customer service:

• Never ever tell your one client about any other clients or projects. Think of clients like boyfriends. Boyfriend A may know you are also seeing Boyfriend B, but that doesn’t mean he wants to hear about him.
• Never ever tell your clients that you are busy, particularly if you mean it in a sad, whiny way.  If you can express busy in terms of being positive, then you can say it. But better to avoid the word. I’ve heard people say, “I need you to do this big project … are you very busy?” To them, being busy is code for lack of interest.
• Make it easy, fun, efficient or whatever to deal with you. You kind of have to work this out around the constraints of your own personality and your market. But make sure people like you and like working with you.
• Avoid making enemies, even when people are jerks. On the other hand, there are times when you need to fire a client. But do that very, very rarely, only when you have a client who is somehow costing you money or you are at risk of harming them.
• Deliver value. You don’t have to be cheap but you do have to deliver super value. My goal is to be a higher-priced writer who delivers work that makes clients say, “Wow, was that ever worth it!”
• Don’t apologize for your prices. If somebody tells you that your work costs too much, be gracious and thank them for their consideration and move on. No good ever comes of letting a new client monkey with your fee schedule.
• Try to turn things around quickly. Nowadays everybody is in a hurry. I know some writers and other creative types who want three weeks to do two hours of work. That may have worked back in 1980 (I’m pretty sure it did–I was there) but it doesn’t work today.
• Know stuff. Don’t try to be one of those writers who doesn’t use modern technology. You don’t have to like the stuff, but you have to know what it is and how to use it.
• Use your manners. It will make you stand out in a sea of boorish pigs. And let’s face it, a lot of life today is like walking amid boorish pigs.

Getting and keeping clients is not easy, but it can be done. These are crucial skills to learn because clients come and go. The clients you impressed today may move on, move up, or get downsized tomorrow. So it’s good to learn these skills (if you’re new) or review them (if you’re resting on referrals) because all writers in the B2B game need them.

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