Tell your friends, I'm sure you will be able to get some small clients to start off with that way. You can't expect to be getting big clients from day 1, unless you're exceptionally lucky, you just have to grow bit by bit. Build a portfolio, advertise online for free for your local area. Last but not least, under promise, over deliver. It will give your clients a more positive feeling about you and will help with word of mouth. Make sure you give yourself enough time to make deadlines.
Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
31–40 of 61 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#32If you are new to freelancing find web developers that need some help (subcontract). Some developers hates web design but have projects that need it. Email a few and see what happen.
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#33As I see it you have 2 possibilities:
1. Find yourself work by handing cards ... just like you do now. I think it will eventually work after you land a few projects.
2. Use an aggregate freelancing site like oDesk, vWorker etc. Here is a link to an interesting story about freelancing on vWorker:
http://solarianprogrammer.com/2011/10/24/my-life-freelancer/
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#34I was not going to was not going to post my advice until I saw how many people here were saying the opposite. Do not, under any circumstances, work for free.[1][2]
When clients agree to work with you, they risk more than money. They risk their time, their peace of mind, their ability to be proactive in a changing environment. The best clients are the ones who realize that. As such, they will be uncomfortable with the thought of your working for free, since the unsustainable nature of your position endangers their peace of mind. They're happy to throw money at you to protect what really matters to them.
In terms of practical advice, if you don't yet have a network, I recommend checking out oDesk, Elance, and other sites. Don't try to underbid providers working from developed countries, and don't spam every buyer with proposals. Just write personalized, specific letters containing some of the details you would be thinking about as you went about solving their problem. Before you know it, you will have more work than you can handle.
[1] I don't consider wedding videos, etc. made as a gift to fall under the category of freelance work. If this is what you do for a living, it's fine to gift your services, but trying to leverage free work into a sustainable career is an awful idea.
[2] The exception is support. Phone calls are free. Bids/proposals are free. Your work, the value you provide, is decidedly not.
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#35I've decided that I want to start freelancing doing web design for local businesses/organizations. Much like how in product development we talk to customers prior to building stuff, I'd suggest verifying that you have an addressable market for a service offering prior to defining what that service offering is. "Freelance", "web", "design", "local", and "business" are five things that you said in that sentence which m…
I think this assumes your portfolio, if any, can actually prove that specialty. You might even need to do some free work, assuming you are just starting, in order to advance the idea that you are specializing in some area.
Or you could simply begin to learn everything there is to learn about that niche. I think the point Patrick is making is that knowing your own specialization is as, if not more, important than your customer knowing it.
If you're "a programmer" then your customer base is pretty much anyone who needs software. That doesn't help much because you're back to the same question: "who needs software?"
If you're an expert on sites for heritage Asian language schools then it's much easier to find schools->Asian language schools->heritage Asian language schools. Odd though it may seem, it's easier to market to a small, well defined niche than a large amorphous blob of "potential customers."
So, is anyone reading this looking for an expert in on-vehicle liquid spray control systems? :-)
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#36There is no reason to go local. It is much faster to deal with everything over the phone and by email and that's MUCH easier to do with non-local clientele
I've found the opposite. If I can sit down with a potential client over lunch, it is far easier to sell myself (especially when I first started and had few references).
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#37Instead of conjecture, here's how I got started as a freelance dev, starting 6 months ago.
You need a decent portfolio site
Design and build in in WordPress or something similar. Prove your design chops here by having a well-design, functional, and more importantly clear message to potential customers. You want to let your customers have confidence. It doesn't have to be amazing. Mine certainly isn't. http://andrewheins.ca/
Your first job might be among your social circle
Mine was the Tae Kwon Do dojo I attended. They were paying WAY too much for hosting, so they let me make a site and change their hosting. They now pay 1/10th the hosting costs. Demo that site on your portfolio.
Next, you start bidding for work
FreelanceSwitch.com was the place that landed me the most work, but Craigslist and the bevy of other sites work well too. The ability to communicate clearly with your potential clients and bid within a reasonable range are key here.
Build your portfolio on low-end jobs
You will low-ball at first. That's ok. Raise your rates after each job. Quote by project, not by hour.
Find other freelancers with complementary skills
Being a dev, I latched on to a few designers who didn't want to have to code all their work. They can offer full solutions, I get paid. It's a great relationship.
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#38I say this as someone who was a contract developer from 2008-2011 and survived solely on that income from 2009-2011.
Don't ever use the word freelance. It implies that it's not your focus; whether that's because you have other things you really enjoy (product work?) or that you have a full-time job, there's nothing you get from using that word that you don't from "contract designer" or something similar. Better yet, spend a few hundred dollars on an LLC and operate as a business and not a sole proprietorship/individual.
Right or wrong, "freelance" implies to clients that you can be paid less for the same work, or not paid at all.
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#39There is no reason to go local. It is much faster to deal with everything over the phone and by email and that's MUCH easier to do with non-local clientele
I've found the opposite. If I can sit down with a potential client over lunch, it is far easier to sell myself (especially when I first started and had few references).
I think that perhaps is a phone skills thing though? You only have to be 1/5th as good if you can take 5x as many calls as you can in person meeetings
I'd say less than 10 people have ever asked for references.
Re: Ask HN: How do you sell yourself as a new freelancer to clients?
#40I've decided that I want to start freelancing doing web design for local businesses/organizations. Much like how in product development we talk to customers prior to building stuff, I'd suggest verifying that you have an addressable market for a service offering prior to defining what that service offering is. "Freelance", "web", "design", "local", and "business" are five things that you said in that sentence which m…
... and lets you charge much higher rates...
At the risk fo stating the obvious, this is not automatically true. Specializing makes for easier marketing, but not necessarily higher rates. Some clients just don't have a lot of money to spend.