40 Helpful ChatGPT Prompts for Freelancers in 2024
40 best ChatGPT prompts for freelancers
Because ChatGPT is still relatively new, some freelancers may not understand how they can use the tool to propel their businesses forward. Not only can ChatGPT help you write and edit your work, but it can also be used for things like creating contracts and brainstorming ways to scale your business.
That said, strong prompts are the key to successfully using ChatGPT. This is especially important for freelancers since gathering useful outputs from the software can save a one-person team a substantial amount of time.
Here’s a look at 40 different ChatGPT prompts you can use to save time and tackle different areas of your freelance business.
ChatGPT prompts for client outreach
For those just getting started with freelancing, finding the right clients is the first challenge you’ll encounter.
A lot goes into this initial client outreach, and there are several ways ChatGPT can streamline this process to help you win clients. Whether it’s drafting outreach emails or crafting project proposal templates, here are a few ChatGPT prompts to help you out.
1. Drafting an initial outreach message
“I’m a freelancer. Draft an outreach message targeted at a [insert title] in [insert industry] to recruit them as a customer.”
For best results, you can provide additional details on your target audience if you’re looking for a more personalized message. You can also specify the message length since ChatGPT tends to provide long responses, or clarify the intended channel for this message (email, LinkedIn, etc.).
2. Refining your project pitches
“Make this project pitch more compelling by making improvements, rewording sentences, and providing additional information when necessary: [insert email copy].”
3. Generating follow-up emails
“Write a polite and professional follow-up email to a potential freelance client who hasn’t replied to my initial outreach message.”
Related: 10 Tips for Writing Effective Project Management Emails
4. Conducting social media outreach
“I’m a freelancer that provides [insert service type]. Write an engaging LinkedIn post that showcases my expertise and attracts potential clients.”
5. Responding to client inquiries
“Here are my rates: [insert rates]. Create a brief response to a client who is inquiring about my pricing model.”
Also read: Pricing Projects Right: 7 Tips From Experts
6. Brainstorming project ideas for potential clients
“I’m a freelancer pitching a [insert client type] that does [insert what the client does]. Please come up with 5 project ideas that would drive value for the company.”
As with most of these outreach prompts, the outputs you’ll receive largely depend on the amount of information you provide in the initial chat. Including plenty of detail on what the client does will help ChatGPT come up with meaningful project ideas.
7. Developing your portfolio
“I recently completed three projects: [insert description of the projects]. Summarize each project in a brief overview of my project portfolio.”
Although the free version of ChatGPT doesn’t support file uploads, you can upgrade to ChatGPT Plus if you want the tool to scan your project files and create more detailed summaries of your work.
8. Referral requests
“I’m trying to attract new clients for my freelance business through word-of-mouth marketing. Please create a brief referral request message to send to existing clients, colleagues, or other industry contacts.”
To further tailor the outputs you receive from this prompt, consider splitting it into different categories. In other words, have ChatGPT create unique messaging for clients, colleagues, and other contacts rather than using the same message for all three groups.
9. Writing website content
“Please write a brief bio about me for my website showcasing my freelance services. Here’s some information to use: [insert information about yourself].”
This prompt can be used to help create content for any part of your website, whether that be your biography, a welcome page, or any other landing pages that showcase your work.
10. Customized proposal templates
“Create a project proposal template I can use for freelance clients that allows me to tailor each proposal to the specific needs, goals, and preferences of each potential client.”
ChatGPT prompts for creating contracts
Once you’ve found clients interested in working with you, the next step is to formalize your relationship with a contract.
If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, handling all the negotiations and legal jargon in contracts can feel intimidating. Luckily, you can use ChatGPT to navigate around some of these challenges and create professional contracts.
1. Drafting contract templates
“Please create a basic contract template that I can use for my freelance projects. Among standard contract items, this template should cover terms and conditions, payment terms, project scope, and intellectual property rights.”
Using a contract template is a great way to speed up the process of onboarding new clients. Once you have a solid contract template, you won’t need to start every new client contract from scratch all over again.
2. Explaining legal jargon
“Please explain [insert term] to me as if I were a 6th grader.”
Asking ChatGPT to explain things to you as if you were a child is a great way to understand complex topics in a more simplified manner. This prompt works for plenty of topics outside of contracts as well.
3. Negotiating contract terms
“Please draft a response to the following contract negotiation message. Please keep a professional tone while conveying that I’m unable to come down on the project’s pricing: [insert negotiation message].”
Negotiations require decisions and compromises, which makes it tricky to incorporate ChatGPT into the process.
However, if you’re having difficulty conveying your needs to the client, ChatGPT can help craft your negotiation messaging. From there, you can edit the copy ChatGPT creates to humanize it before sending it forward.
4. Reviewing contracts
“Please review the following contract and identify any potential risks, ambiguities, or unfavorable terms, giving me advice on how to address each. [Insert the contract here].”
In situations where you don’t have anyone to take a final look at your contracts before signing off, ChatGPT can be a useful resource to identify potential risks in the contract or project.
Beware though, ChatGPT shouldn’t replace legal advice. If you have a more technical legal question, a lawyer is the best person to ask. ChatGPT is capable of making mistakes, so you’ll want to verify any important information it provides.
5. Calculating project estimates
“A project will take me approximately [insert number of hours] and my hourly rate is [insert hourly rate]. My expected expenses are [insert amount] on [insert expense] and [insert amount] on [insert expense]. Please create a budget estimate for the cost of the project that I can send to my client.”
For projects with several different moving parts, it can be easier to have ChatGPT complete your calculations rather than trying to tally up your costs and other expenses on your own.
However, using a project management software tool — like Rodeo Drive — can serve as an even simpler way to estimate your project costs without ChatGPT’s potential for error.
Rodeo Drive makes it easy to add all of your expected project and time expenses into a phased budget, and it’ll do all of the calculations for you. From there, you can send it to your clients as an estimate for them to approve.
Simply add your anticipated time and expense activities to create a budget estimate in Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive was built specifically with the needs of freelancers and creatives in mind. Try it for free to better understand how it can optimize your financial management processes.
6. Mitigating scope creep
“Here is my project scope. Please give me a list of strategies I can use to prevent scope creep for this project. [Insert scope statement].”
Scope creep occurs when your project boundaries expand beyond the initial project requirements. This can have a detrimental effect on your ability to complete a project on time and within budget.
It’s easier to mitigate risks and prevent scope changes when you have a larger team. However, when working as a solo freelancer, you’ll want to proactively look for ways to keep your project scope on track. ChatGPT can help with this.
7. Brainstorming resolutions for a contract dispute
“My freelance client is disputing the payment terms [or insert a different issue] of our contract. Please give me ideas on resolving this conflict, including what legal action I should consider next.”
8. Providing contract summaries
“Please create a summary of this contract, highlighting the terms and conditions, obligations, and key provisions to ensure the client has a complete understanding of the terms before signing. [Insert contract here].”
9. Incorporating client feedback
“My client said the following contract didn’t address the project scope enough. Please incorporate this feedback into the contract draft below: [insert contract draft].”
Also read: Client Management: Best Practices for Building Strong Relationships
10. Creating a non-disclosure agreement
“Please generate a standard NDA template to ensure confidentiality and data security throughout the project.”
ChatGPT prompts for communication
Once you’ve found and onboarded new clients, maintaining clear communication is an important part of keeping them on board. Luckily, there are many ways you can use ChatGPT to improve these communication processes.
In this section, we’ll show you 10 ways you can use ChatGPT to do just that, including a prompt to accompany each idea.
1. Building progress reports
“Here are my notes on my project progress so far. Please turn these notes into a progress report for my client: [insert notes here].”
2. Drafting invoicing reminders
“Please create a polite and professional invoice reminder for a client with an outstanding payment. Please remind them of the payment due dates and provide payment instructions: [insert due dates and instructions].”
3. Requesting client testimonials
“Please create a personalized message to ask a client to participate in a client testimonial about their experience working with me. This will be used for marketing purposes.”
4. Creating client satisfaction surveys
“Please create a brief client satisfaction survey to gather feedback on my freelance services and help me identify areas of improvement.”
5. Generating meeting agendas
“Draft an agenda for a client meeting. We need to discuss the following: [insert list of discussion points].”
6. Organizing meeting minutes
“Using the below meeting notes, summarize the key discussion points, action items, and decisions made during this meeting: [insert meeting notes].”
7. Responding to social media inquiries
“I received the following inquiry on social media, please draft a polite and professional response: [insert inquiry here].”
8. Developing newsletter content
“I send a monthly newsletter to my freelance clients. Please give me ideas of topics to cover in this month’s newsletter.”
9. Creating a content calendar
“Please create a content calendar for my company’s Instagram account. Our audience is [insert audience]. Please include the publication schedule and key messaging of each post.”
You might use this content calendar on your own business account, or perhaps as part of a project on behalf of a client. Showcasing your portfolio via your social media can have a large impact on generating interest among new freelance clients.
10. Crafting a quarterly business review
“Using my notes below, please summarize the main achievements and challenges my freelancing business encountered during this past quarter. Here are my notes [insert notes here].”
ChatGPT prompts for scaling your freelance business
If your freelance business is already up and running, you might be looking for ways to grow your business to new heights. Here are the best ChatGPT prompts to help you scale your client list:
1. Content creation
“Please generate 5 ideas for blog posts I could write this month.”
One of the best ways to promote your freelance services is by engaging in thought leadership. This might include publishing LinkedIn posts or regular blog posts on your website — both of which ChatGPT can help you do.
2. Create FAQs for your website
“Please list 5 common FAQ questions that a freelancer might get asked by potential clients.”
3. Lead generation
“Please come up with three customer profiles I could target with my freelancing services. I offer [insert service types].”
It can be difficult to think outside of the box when you’re already active in one client niche. ChatGPT can help you brainstorm new client types to explore to expand your business.
4. Automated invoicing
“Create an invoicing template I can use on a recurring basis to bill my freelance clients.”
As you onboard more clients, you’ll need to automate some of your financial management processes. While ChatGPT can build templates that help you create this, the easiest way to do so is with a project management tool, such as Rodeo Drive.
Rodeo Drive simplifies your financial management processes by allowing you to send estimates and invoices from the platform, as well as store your purchase orders and track expenses from the software.
Track your in-progress and overdue invoices from Rodeo Drive
The best part is? Signing up is completely free. You don’t even have to enter a credit card.
5. Brainstorming client retention strategies
“Please come up with 5 ways I can retain my existing list of freelance clients.”
This might include a loyalty program, personalized follow-up campaign, or other incentives that encourage your clients to stick around with your business. A client management tool may also help with this.
6. Creating templates for your administrative work
“Create a template that I can use for my freelance project proposals.”
Templates allow you to streamline some of your administrative work to save time. For example, if creating a new project proposal for each potential client is eating away a lot of your time, creating templates can reduce your workload and save time.
7. Combining project timelines and to-do lists
“Here are my lists of upcoming tasks I need to complete for my freelance projects. Combine them into one list that’s sorted by deadline. [Insert task list].”
When working on multiple projects at once, it’s easy to miss deadlines or get lost in an overwhelming number of tasks and assignments. Having ChatGPT combine your various to-do lists can prevent things from slipping through the cracks.
8. Service expansion planning
“I currently offer [insert service types]. Brainstorm three more types of services I could begin offering to diversify my revenue streams and reach a broader audience.”
9. Planning client education
“Give me three ideas for educational webinars that would interest potential freelance clients in [insert industry].”
10. Networking assistance
“Please review the following LinkedIn connection request message and edit it for flow and cohesiveness if necessary: [insert message].”
Takeaway
There you have it — those are our best ChatGPT prompts for freelancers.
Remember, any of these prompts can be adapted to your specific use case. Additionally, you can always include additional information to help ChatGPT give more detailed responses.
Looking for more ChatGPT prompts? Check out our articles on the top ChatGPT prompts for marketers and project managers.
And don’t forget, Rodeo Drive can help automate your financial processes beyond ChatGPT’s capabilities. Signing up is completely free and you won’t even need to enter a credit card.
