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Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#81

Post by andai »

retrac98 wrote: post #66

Been at this 10 years. My top tip is if you’re doing cold outreach, kickstart the value exchange by giving something first without asking for anything in return. A “hey I noticed x is costing you more than it should and could be better/cheaper done like this” AND then actually give them the “this” for free without expectation of anything in return is 10x more effective than a message where you’re asking for work. It…

My approach is to break the project into small milestones — especially in the beginning — and align the incentives.

Put bluntly, I design it so I can't lose, and neither can my client. I design it so even in an adversarial, zero trust environment, the relationship and arrangement still makes sense.

In practice this looks like, I do a bit of work up front, ship a demo within the first week, if they're happy, they pay, it becomes theirs, and we continue working together.

I also choose projects I actually like, and that align with my goals, so even if I get hosed, I had fun and learned cool things. (But keeping milestones small minimizes the cost of getting hosed, for both parties :)

Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#83

Post by OJFord »

dummydummy1234 wrote: post #59
OJFord wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you using 'arb' to mean something like cheat or trick, or cost-saving technique?

Arbitrage I assume

I know, I just don't see the arbitrage in what's described? If I order online because it's cheaper than the high street, that's not an arbitrage – the arbitrage would include then selling it on the high street afterwards, getting paid to close the gap until it reflects only delivery fees and the value of immediacy.

Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#84

Post by phrotoma »

tomrod wrote: post #71
phrotoma wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your story is a nice succinct version of the "Business of Authority" strategy. Establish yourself as an expert, work finds you. https://thebusinessofauthority.com/

I never thought about these as different acquisition models. What others are there to learn about?

The last time I mentioned this I got downvoted into a crater, so maybe ppl hate it (I'm open to hearing counterpoints!) but there's an army of tech freelancers swapping advice in a slack called "Rands Leadership Slack". My old boss suggested it. I thought it was BS. It was surprisingly informative - case in point it's where I first heard of the above podcast.

Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#85

Post by saadn92 »

I'm doing this right now -- AI automation for small businesses, started on Upwork about two months ago. The thing that actually moved the needle was writing proposals that were basically free mini consultations. Someone posts about needing their spreadsheet workflow automated, I'd write back describing their exact problem back to them and how I'd wire it up with n8n, what the timeline looks like, what usually goes wrong. No "I have 10 years of experience" stuff.

Took about 6 weeks to get 5 reviews. Before that I was competing on rate against people charging $15/hr and it was miserable. After the reviews landed I bumped from $70 to $95 and nobody pushed back. The reviews changed the entire dynamic of the conversation.

Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#86

Post by l5870uoo9y »

I started freelancing over 10 years ago, and I got my first freelance project through an acquaintance from my former dorm in Copenhagen. After that I got several different freelance jobs through recruiters on LinkedIn. But it was a different time, as the cliché goes. One thing to know about highly paid freelance positions is that they are extremely cyclical. These are positions that mainly exist because the market is booming and screaming for labor, and when that's not the case, companies will much, much prefer to have permanent employees.

In the time before COVID and up until its end, the tech market was booming, but when the economic stimulus ended and interest rates rose, the tech market shrank and the freelance market in Berlin/Germany (and probably Denmark too) has never really recovered. The positions simply aren't there, only very few that many fight over. The great thing about being a freelancer before was that you were almost treated like a rock star, recruiters contacted you all the time, and you could pick and choose.

If you don't have a large network, you can try signing up with different recruiters and see what they have to offer. You might be lucky if you live in regions with less competition and where clients are looking for someone local to work on-site. Getting hired these days also requires that you have (substantial) experience and can show some projects.

(By the way, I’m looking for a permanent position—preferably in Copenhagen—as the bank requires this to approve my loan application. Here is my resume just in case: https://lasse.sometechblog.com/)

Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#87

Post by bombcar »

samiv wrote: post #54
samiv wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Becoming an expert in one thing also narrows down the potential suitable work tremendously. Also these days nobody wants to pay the expert prices since.. Claude can so the expert stuff with a non-expert (at least in their mind)

Sibling commenters seem to be confused. Usually experts are T shaped. Acquiring expertise always means the time spent is away from learning something else. The deeper and greater the expertise the more niche the topic usually becomes and the less demand there is. The world might need X million web developers but how many experts are there in browser technology. Or even experts in that domain something more niche like…

The T shape is important - but the base of the T doesn't have to be in tech. If you're an expert in a particular niche and a generalist in a particular business you'll find work.

E.g., a web developer who knows a lot about how lawyers run their business.

Re: Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?

#88

Post by bombcar »

TheAmazingRace wrote: post #72

So unlike some folks, I’m still very much reliant on $DAYJOB for the majority of my income. But I managed to carve out a niche in an unexpected place. OS/2 consulting It all started when I made a connection through a OS/2 community post asking for help on some CNC equipment running OS/2, and it turned out that they were fairly local to me, so I now have an occasional source of income in the form of troubleshooting an…

The nice thing about a niche like this is that once they use you for fixing an old OS/2 box, you're on the list for other things, too.
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