One thing I always stress about freelancing is the power of local. In fact, I recently wrote about it in The Future of Work is Local-Remote. Too many people think remote freelancing means you need to work for clients around the world. But better relationships can be made with people close to you. If I were a client looking to hire a freelancer and I didn’t have a network to ask, I would definitely start local before jumping into a worldwide directory of freelancers.

But that fact is, very few businesses have no connections — no network. There are always family, friends, and colleagues you can ask for recommendations. And nothing is better than a personal recommendation from someone you already trust. It just so happens that it’s far easier to get word-of-mouth recommendations when you build a local reputation. Just another reason why emphasizing local instead of trying to go global works to your advantage for both a freelancers or a client looking to hire one.