"Hidden" Clients on Upwork?

An eye-opener on how Upwork Enterprise clients find and hire you.

Another Wednesday, another amazing newsletter landing straight in your email inbox - the Freelance Income Accelerator newsletter is here!

In this newsletter, Anthony Muhye, your favorite freelance guide, covers one burning ❤️🔥 freelance topic in depth - and by the time you’re done reading, you will be closer to accomplishing your freelance dreams!

In this issue, you will learn:

• An interesting announcement by Anthony (you may already know, but pay attention)...
• How Enterprise and Fortune 500 clients hire and work with freelancers on Upwork.
• and finally, a Loom video at the end about another announcement that you don’t know, as well as a story about Enterprise clients!

Total Reading Time: 6.6 minutes of pure value.

Are you ready? The only valid answer is YES. Let’s dive in!

First thing’s first, allow me a moment of excitement:

I’LL BE ON A LIVE UPWORK MASTERCLASS EVENT THIS FRIDAY 15 (18:00 CET) WITH JASMIN ALIĆ!

And why is this so important?

Because I feel that, as freelancers and as creators, our journeys are extremely similar:

• We both started our careers in relatively unknown and/or poorer countries (Bosnia, Venezuela).
• We both had to go through the growth pains of charging more than our fellow compatriot. He talked about this recently in a post.
• We both worked on Upwork, with similar levels of success and now sitting at the top of our fields.
• Our first Upwork Enterprise client was Microsoft.

…and that’s where we reach today’s subject for the newsletter. You see, I wanted to give an introduction to a subject we’ll surely cover in our Masterclass.

It’s the fact that Upwork has a hidden world behind the visible clients on your Feed.

I’m talking about Enterprise clients. You can’t send them proposals, but they can invite you to jobs. They’re, for all effects, a secret society hidden in the shadows.

Let’s dive in!

But first… I need your help.

I have joined forces with a big and respected business and startup advisor to build a tool for freelancers that will automate annoying tasks and make their lives much easier...

However, I need to get some feedback to help us make it better for you.

For this, I have created a 5-minute survey. Please respond to it here. Since it registers your email, you will be invited to use the beta version for FREE.

NOW, we return to your programming…

How to get hired by an Upwork Enterprise client

I would love to tell you that there is a “strategy” to attracting Enterprise clients.

But the truth is that they have their own ways to find you.

However, one of the DEFINITE ways to land them (and I’m saying this after having viewed thousands of freelancer profiles while hiring)

…is by having either experience in some kind of ‘specific and valuable’ niche, or…

By speaking a rare language at a highly skilled level. Yes, believe it or not, speaking Icelandic or Polish may not seem like a huge W in the big picture of things, but it can be.

I’ve noticed this when hiring for rare languages (I work in language education): many people who speak rare languages get hired by Enterprise clients for:

• Localization
• Translation
• or Writing (Content or Technical Writing, specifically)

Me? I was hired by one Enterprise client this year for my copywriting skills.

But when I was hired by Microsoft in late 2022, it was because I had immense experience writing about Minecraft (they own the game).

Yes, Minecraft. You see, I have written about Minecraft on and off since 2015. They wanted someone knowledgeable in the game like me and brought me in.

It was a high-profile AI project for upcoming content. Can’t say more, but I enjoyed it! And got repeat work over the following months.

But what are the perks of working for an Enterprise client?

List of perks of working for Upwork Enterprise clients

1. First of all, you get invited to a Talent Cloud, which is basically a mention that you work for specific big companies. Clients can see this and go “WOW”.
2. In those talent clouds, you can see posted jobs by companies in that cloud (only that one), and they also get to pick you first for jobs.
3. You can mention these companies in your bio and resume from now on, elevating you to new levels of authority.
4. Finally, the Enterprise jobs appear as “Enterprise client” on your work history, with a little blue skyscraper icon. It REALLY stands out and makes you look like a top freelancer.
5. BONUS: Remember - Enterprise clients aren’t always Fortune 500s, but many of the Fortune 500s and even 100s are actually there. I once had an interview with Upwork itself, and I’ve already told you about Duolingo. These are the HUGE players.

So, cross your fingers and keep yourself active and optimized on Upwork. You never know when the next Fortune 500 invite will land at your doorstep.

Finally, today’s Loom video is a lighter material than usual since the newsletter is already action-packed.

Unfortunately, as you may know by now, I can only share it with my beehiiv subscribers.

Please subscribe here and enjoy the full experience of these newsletters.

Phew, that’s all for today. Have you ever been by an Enterprise client? Share your experience below! I'd love to know more.

P.S. Thanks a lot for filling my survey. Share it with serious and established freelancers you may know, and I may have a reward for you!