# How to Find Clients as a Freelance Recruiter

> Alone, you prospect between candidate calls, which means never. Niche, a network that runs dry, split desks, fees without a brand, what to hand off.

By Franck Durandot, founder of Odyn. Updated October 20, 2026.

A freelance recruiter finds clients most reliably with a fixed prospecting block every week, aimed at a narrow niche, rather than through a network alone. The network brings the first job orders, then it runs dry. What takes over is regular prospecting that you are supposed to do between candidate calls, which is to say almost never. So three decisions come before any tactic: your niche, your block of time, and what you hand off. The wider map of channels is in [how to get clients for a recruitment agency](https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/how-to-get-clients-for-a-recruitment-agency); this page covers what changes when you are the only person on the desk.

## Why prospecting is the first thing to go

A candidate who calls back at 10 a.m. has a visible urgency. A hiring manager you have not written to has none. You do not feel the cost of a week without prospecting: it shows up two or three months later, when your last search is filled and the next one does not exist.

The delay stacks. A message sent today turns into a conversation within days, a job order within weeks, a placement within months, and a fee you collect only after the start date, sometimes after the guarantee period. A freelancer who stops prospecting during a search sees the hole open four to six months later, when nothing can be done about it.

The only fix that holds is a schedule, not a resolution: one hour early in the morning, before candidates start calling, four days out of five, with a calendar entry that does not slide. Mornings work better simply because candidates are not on the phone yet.

## Picking a niche you could call tomorrow

A simple test: can you name twenty hiring managers or business owners in your niche whom you would call tomorrow without any research, and say which role each filled last time? If not, the niche is too wide or you do not know it well enough.

A good niche crosses a role, a type of company and a place: "controllers for $20 million to $100 million manufacturers in Ohio," "site managers for logistics operators in the Midlands." Against the large firms, a freelancer does not win on breadth. A hiring manager in the niche can describe you to a peer in one sentence, and that is what gets you referred.

## When the network runs dry

The first job orders come from former employers, former colleagues now in charge of teams, candidates you helped. After three or four placements the flow slows, because everyone who could know you already does. Three moves take over.

Ask for the introduction on the day of the placement, not six months later. Go back to former clients on a fixed date every quarter, with a question about upcoming hires. And step outside your circle: [reaching companies that are hiring](https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/prospecting-companies-that-are-hiring) puts you in front of owners who have never heard of you, and a clear LinkedIn profile on your niche is why they answer (see [LinkedIn automation for recruiters](https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/linkedin-automation-for-recruiters)).

Writing to the head of HR at a large company rarely works for a freelancer: the department has preferred vendors and you are not on its list. Small and mid-sized companies without an in-house recruiting team, where the owner or the operations lead decides, are your ground.

## Working alone, on a split desk, or in a fee-split network

Most recruitment firms are tiny, so you are in good company. In the UK, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation counted 29,635 enterprises at the start of 2023, and 77.3% had fewer than ten employees (REC, UK recruitment industry status report 2022/23). In the US, the American Staffing Association counts about 27,000 staffing and recruiting companies (2021 figures).

Arrangements for freelancers vary. Some join a firm as a contractor on a split-desk basis, where one person brings the job orders and another sources and presents candidates; fee splits of 50/50 are the most commonly published figure, though firms set their own. Others join networks that share job orders across members. Before you sign anything, ask:

1. How many job orders did the network place with a member like you (same specialty, same seniority) last year?
2. What happens when two members go after the same company?
3. Who owns the client relationship, and what happens to the client if you leave?
4. What share of the fee goes to the network, and for exactly what?

A collective that promises job orders but cannot say how many it passed along last year is selling membership, not clients. Talk to several members before signing, including one who left.

## Fees and exclusivity without a brand behind you

Published fee guides put contingency at about 20% of first-year salary in the US (the most common direct-hire fee in the 2021 Staffing Industry Analysts survey, as reported by Second Talent) and 15 to 25% in the UK (get-staffed, September 2026). Retained searches run higher: 25 to 35% in the UK per the same UK guide, and about a third in the US for large firms. On an $85,000 salary, 20% is $17,000. These are market ranges, not a rate card.

Without a brand, you will not get exclusivity by asking for it. You get it by making it cheap for the client to grant: a window of two or three weeks, tied to a promise of three candidates on a given date. After that the client is free to go elsewhere, and knows it risks nothing by trying. On a difficult search, a modest upfront retainer is easier to negotiate at that moment than after the fact.

You may be tempted to cut your rate to land a first client. Keep your rate and trim what you give in return: a shorter exclusivity, a guarantee period at the lower end. In the UK, published rebate schedules run from four to twelve weeks. A low rate becomes a reference you will not be able to raise.

## What to hand off, and what stays yours

You can hand off spotting the companies that are hiring, finding contact details, first messages, follow-ups, tracking replies, bookkeeping. What stays with you: the intake call, presenting candidates, negotiating terms, the client relationship. That is what sets you apart from the rest.

Odyn, the AI prospecting agent for recruitment agencies, takes the first list. Two details matter for a freelancer. Messages leave from your own email address and LinkedIn account, so to the hiring manager it is you writing. And for the first three business days you read and approve every message before it goes, then you choose the delay after which Odyn sends on its own. It stops as soon as a decision-maker replies, and the clients you already have, uploaded as an exclusion list, are not contacted. It helps if your niche is visible in job postings, much less if your clients mostly hire through closed networks, as with some executive roles. See [the AI prospecting agent](https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/ai-prospecting-agent-for-recruiters) for the detail.

When the practice grows, the question becomes organizing a team: [recruitment agency business development](https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/recruitment-agency-business-development). If you are still launching, [starting a recruitment agency](https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/starting-a-recruitment-agency-first-clients) covers the first three months.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many placements do I need to make a living?

Take the income you are aiming for before expenses and divide it by your average fee. At $120,000 and an average fee of $17,000, that is a little over seven placements a year. Add the searches that never close, which you will learn with experience, and you get the number of job orders to sign. Divide that by the share of your conversations that become a job order, and you know how many conversations to open.

### Can I work for two competing companies?

Only if you say so up front. A candidate submitted to one is not submitted to the other without consent, and recruiting from a client's own staff is usually off limits for an agreed period. Write these rules into your terms of business and have an attorney or solicitor review them.

### How do I stay solvent between placements?

Count in months. A job order signed today produces a fee after the placement, the start date and, often, the end of the guarantee period, so three to six months is typical. Keep enough to cover your costs through that delay, and do not commit to fixed expenses against a fee you have not collected.

### What if the client goes quiet after I submit candidates?

Set a date at the submittal: "I'll call you Thursday for your feedback." Follow up twice, each time with something new, such as a candidate who has another process under way. After that, the candidate stays available to other clients in your niche. Tell the client without blame.

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Odyn, the AI prospecting agent for recruitment agencies. Book a demo : https://www.odynagent.com/demo
Updated October 20, 2026. Page : https://www.odynagent.com/en/resources/how-to-find-clients-as-a-freelance-recruiter