Working outside the typical 9 to 5 job can be great, but without a solid base of clients, you could end up just another starving artist. The purpose of entrepreneurship is to have financial freedom and a better work-life balance. In order to stay ahead of the game -- and your bills -- you need to take certain measures to ensure that you have a consistent flow of work.

Advertise as Much as Possible

No one knows you're there unless you tell them. Marketing yourself is the key to getting people to hire you for short-term and long-term projects. Depending on the field you're in, you will need to post ads on sites where prospects will find them. There are classifieds like Craigslist that you can use to advertise your business services for free.

Set up a Profile on LinkedIn

Employers and recruiters like to lurk around LinkedIn because it's the place to go to find talent. If you haven't already, you should create a profile there and make sure to list all of the experience and talents you have that you don't mind being hired for. Add a professional photo of yourself to help add a friendly touch to your profile.

Use Social Media

If you play your cards right, you can use social media sites to help you attract potential customers. You just need a solid social media marketing strategy that will allow you to get the attention of potential customers. Otherwise, your campaign will be rendered useless.

Create Marketing Collateral

Using lead generation services, you can get information about prospects and then use that to send them marketing collateral. To make it less salesy and "junk-mail-like", you can instead send quality calendars. Calendars are long-term marketing collateral that folks tend to keep.

Use that to your advantage by creating it with coupons and discount codes throughout. Offer various sales throughout the year that are highlighted on the calendar, exclusively for customers who've received a calendar. You can make a calendar and even gift cards using Shutterfly. You can find discounts for this service by going to Groupon Coupons. There are also more than 50,000 other coupons available for over 8,600 stores.

With these helpful tips, you should be able to increase your chances of finding more clients.