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Ask HN: How do you find clients?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#21

Post by mgkimsal »

networking and word of mouth - both take longer, but will have longer term results. I made a couple connections in 2006/2007 that I can directly attribute $200k in income to, because of their word of mouth referrals. That came just from local meetups and such.

There's plenty of people I've met which haven't directly contributed to my bottom line, but to try to look at everyone as a potential $ is a wrong approach. I enjoy trying to find referrals for other people I meet, and I think that's come back to me a few times (unexpectedly, but not that surprising, perhaps).

Couple other random thoughts:

"Selling the Invisible" (beckwith?) - useful to read. Not specifically tech-oriented, but will get you in the right frame of mind.

"Million Dollar Consulting" (weiss?) - may give you a different perspective on freelance consulting.

Contact local design shops to see if they need an extra pair of hands on call.

Put up a portfolio website with a phone number. Then answer the phone if someone calls.

gentle yet shameless plug: http://indieconf.com is being held again this year to cover precisely these sorts of topics - how to get clients, how to not get ripped off, etc - we'll have 18-21 sessions total - I'm confirming them with speakers this week, so the site doesn't yet reflect the full schedule.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#22

Post by marquis »

tzaman wrote: post #14
sidmitra wrote: post #11

Here's what i did to build http://www.cloudshuffle.com from a single dev(me) to a team of over 6 devs(+ a designer) in various countries. Also, from building social network clones(for $200) to building proper webapps for well known startups and companies like Compete, Hubspot. * Sign up for all freelancer Marketplaces: Elance, Odesk, Guru, Freelancer, RentACoder. * Sign up for RSS feeds for jobs(full time/freelance)…

When bidding, you don't need to go below everyone else - I go above every single time, and also explain to potential clients why I'm the best choice (top quality, deliver on time). Of course you need some kind of portfolio to back up your statements. And deliver the promised quality. This approach also has a beneficial side-effect. Cheap clients deny the bid. Usually these clients turn out to be the most demanding on…

Does anyone ever game the system by posting with 2 accounts: one with a really high bid and a lower one, to help the customer 'pick you'? I'm not freelancing nor have ever used these sites, but I'm curious how above-board they are.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#23

Post by ayyhwang »

As a designer, Dribbble (http://dribbble.com/ahwng) has become a great way to get consistent leads. Once every 2 or 3 days, another startup will contact me about a freelance opportunity, saying they found me through Dribbble.

Aside from that, just network as much as you can. All of my other leads come from friends and acquaintances.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#24

Post by adelevie »

Give away some kind of free software that is useful and production-quality. That something should also be related to a larger, growing trend. You'll generally get higher quality clients, a non-low rate, and a more fun project (since it's centered on using a tool that you built). And you also don't have to make cold calls--the software should stand on its own and send the leads to you.

I've learned this from my own experience writing/maintaining various open source libraries centered on using Parse with Ruby. The rapid growth of Parse has caused at least a handful of their thousands of developers to want to use it with Ruby (either for a Rails app, or a native iOS app with RubyMotion). Of those people, at least a handful have contacted me looking for a freelancer. Of those people, some have become paying clients.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#25

Post by sidmitra »

marquis wrote: post #22
tzaman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When bidding, you don't need to go below everyone else - I go above every single time, and also explain to potential clients why I'm the best choice (top quality, deliver on time). Of course you need some kind of portfolio to back up your statements. And deliver the promised quality. This approach also has a beneficial side-effect. Cheap clients deny the bid. Usually these clients turn out to be the most demanding on…

Does anyone ever game the system by posting with 2 accounts: one with a really high bid and a lower one, to help the customer 'pick you'? I'm not freelancing nor have ever used these sites, but I'm curious how above-board they are.

Don't think that'll help much or is the right kind of strategy. Firstly you have a better chance trying to showcase your portfolio. If you don't have that yet, then it doesn't warrant the higher rate and you might anyways get rejected on the lower end. If you have a large enough folio to split into two, then why not put them into one compelling bid.

IMHO one's better off spending time building a few simple apps and communicating your worth to the client than go blackhat from the start.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#26

Post by SimonSayz »

I was surfing on StumbleUpon the other day and I ended up on FreelanceSwitch. They posted an article that might be of interest to you. "The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time" and its really good. You should give it a try. I personalize the method to fit me and it worked great so far. Didn't work 100% of the time but pretty close. Its where the "Nearly in the title comes in" it depend on your selling skill but I am sure you will be fine ;-)

Here the link to it: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/95nDR8/:IPAD5_eU:aOVZRh4+/free...

Hope it helps

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#27

Post by chbrown »

sidmitra wrote: post #11

Here's what i did to build http://www.cloudshuffle.com from a single dev(me) to a team of over 6 devs(+ a designer) in various countries. Also, from building social network clones(for $200) to building proper webapps for well known startups and companies like Compete, Hubspot. * Sign up for all freelancer Marketplaces: Elance, Odesk, Guru, Freelancer, RentACoder. * Sign up for RSS feeds for jobs(full time/freelance)…

Re your PS3: it's labor day here in America, which means (nearly) every American with a normal job is off for the day and is outside barbecuing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#28

Post by consultutah »

Word of mouth is the absolute best way to get clients bar none. That's how we get 90% of our work for http://consultutah.com

Of the rest, 9% is from ads places in local newspapers and 1% from random web traffic.

Getting started is the hardest part to getting good word of mouth referrals. You need to talk to everyone about your business. Tell your friends about your freelance work. Go to job fairs and talk with prospective employers (look for the smaller places where the owner rather than an hr rep is there). Find where business people congregate and talk to them.

I had to learn the hard way that the only way to get work was to step completely out of my comfort zone and start talking to people.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#29

Post by sidmitra »

chbrown wrote: post #27
sidmitra wrote: post #11

Here's what i did to build http://www.cloudshuffle.com from a single dev(me) to a team of over 6 devs(+ a designer) in various countries. Also, from building social network clones(for $200) to building proper webapps for well known startups and companies like Compete, Hubspot. * Sign up for all freelancer Marketplaces: Elance, Odesk, Guru, Freelancer, RentACoder. * Sign up for RSS feeds for jobs(full time/freelance)…

Re your PS3: it's labor day here in America, which means (nearly) every American with a normal job is off for the day and is outside barbecuing.

Ahh, forgot about that completely!

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients?

#30

Post by luckystrike »

sidmitra wrote: post #11

Here's what i did to build http://www.cloudshuffle.com from a single dev(me) to a team of over 6 devs(+ a designer) in various countries. Also, from building social network clones(for $200) to building proper webapps for well known startups and companies like Compete, Hubspot. * Sign up for all freelancer Marketplaces: Elance, Odesk, Guru, Freelancer, RentACoder. * Sign up for RSS feeds for jobs(full time/freelance)…

> from a single dev(me) to a team of over 6 devs(+ a designer) in various countries

Good going, Sid. How long did it take you to reach this stage? I have recently started looking out for freelance work, and since I don't much else to show apart from my startup, it has been fairly tough to get high paying clients.

I still haven't signed up on the sites like Elance etc, but looks like might have to bite the bullet soon.

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