good luck
My Journey Starts Here
21–30 of 56 posts
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#22Hey there, sounds like what you're lacking in your current situation is a network. It becomes easier when you have other people looking out for your interests. Towards the end of last year, we (a company of 3 in new york) were running low on investor cash and started looking for consulting gigs to cover our burn. We didn't end up going that route, but every gig we had lined up was through a word of mouth referral. I'…
This is the advice that everybody gives me, but for some reason this is not working for me.
I'm not uncomfortable in networking and meeting people. It's a skill I have learned with time and I'm pretty outgoing. I know many people and through some event I organize and conferences I've been, I've gathered a good network. I've been involved in a lot of activities locally and I'm quite known.
Still, clients fail to materialize through all these connections. Given that this advice keeps popping up all the time, there must be something I'm doing wrong. I have to find what that is.
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#23You should check out Rob Walling's "Start Small, Stay Small" if you haven't already:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YH9MMI/?tag=dedasys-20
It's a guide to "startups" for the rest of us, where "startup" is something small and bootstrapped that, however, makes money pretty early on, and probably will never grow that large.
For me, that book really hit a nerve: I too spent time at a Big Startup, and while I enjoyed the ride... I decided that it's not for me.
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#24Looking forward to updates on this. Your position sounds pretty close to mine (iOS developer, expat, northern europe) except I require sponsorship to work so haven't been able to try my hand at full time freelance work.
good luck
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you very much for your great comment. My first objective is indeed to find some clients. I'm reading some books on it and I read the same advice you summed in your first two points. How do you manage 4 clients at a time? Did you agree to work on the projects part time or you are working longer hours to cover them? I'll try the other options you mentioned. Thanks a lot for the tips. EDIT: I wonder why the parent…
My first objective is indeed to find some clients. You don't tell us who are, what you do, what you have done. Start with those things on your HN profile or blog, and finding clients will become much easier. As a freelancer, building your personal brand is your number one job. I'd love to help, but until I know more about you and what you are capable of, it's extremely difficult.
As I wrote in another comment[1] I simply don't want my name connected through Google to that blog (not yet).
I have all the information you mention and it comes out if you Google my real name. I'll send you that info by email.
Still, on HN I never managed to generate any lead. I've participated in many posts about freelancers looking for jobs, for example, but never worked. Now I logged out of my account to create this one and I can't even log back into it.
This blog is now attracting some attention, but only because I'm not in an easy position at the moment and not on the merits of my skills. I didn't even expect it, I just thought to throw the link here to get a couple of readers to start with.
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#26maybe you want to check out this classic: http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf
Thanks, I'll have a look.
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#27You should check out Rob Walling's "Start Small, Stay Small" if you haven't already: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YH9MMI/?tag=dedasys-20 It's a guide to "startups" for the rest of us, where "startup" is something small and bootstrapped that, however, makes money pretty early on, and probably will never grow that large. For me, that book really hit a nerve: I too spent time at a Big Startup, and while I enjoyed the ri…
Hi rwalling, if you're reading this, have you got an update planned for this book?
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#28Hey there, sounds like what you're lacking in your current situation is a network. It becomes easier when you have other people looking out for your interests. Towards the end of last year, we (a company of 3 in new york) were running low on investor cash and started looking for consulting gigs to cover our burn. We didn't end up going that route, but every gig we had lined up was through a word of mouth referral. I'…
This is the advice that everybody gives me, but for some reason this is not working for me. I'm not uncomfortable in networking and meeting people. It's a skill I have learned with time and I'm pretty outgoing. I know many people and through some event I organize and conferences I've been, I've gathered a good network. I've been involved in a lot of activities locally and I'm quite known. Still, clients fail to mater…
Not knowing anymore about you than you wrote, my gut is that your problem is one of 2 things:
1) You lack a compelling value proposition for your clients. Something like, I'm really good at X, better than anyone, hire me. 2) You don't follow through with clients, finish the job etc. so you don't get referred business.
I seem to notice that the HN crowd, and even finance crowd completely ignore marketing. This is a huge oversight that is likely to cost you a ton of money.
I'd read this: How to Close Every Sale (Joe Girard)
The guy is a used car salesman that looks ridiculous, but the book is actually good and there are several big lessons to learn in a very small paperback for less than $10.
I applied the concepts to selling $10m+ apartment buildings with 3 to 6 month sales cycles. The big lesson is that you must always assume you will get the sale. If you are doing things like writing emails in a timid way, no one respects it. You must assume your interactions with others will result in results.
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#29I'm not sure if English is your first language or not, but you seem to take a negative tone that may burn some bridges for you. You don't want to burn those people still working at the startup you left or your friend who tried to give you some freelance work but his pipeline dried up.
Re: My Journey Starts Here
#30Hi, thanks for sharing your story and I'm sure many people have been in the same situation sometime on their journey setting up a startup, I know I have. It's hard to get up when you get knocked down and at the same time trying to balance finances. A way to make some cash on the side is to build small compact iOS apps and sell them on Codecanyon.net no selling experience required. It might not make you 1000's initial…
I just checked out codecanyon.net for iOS apps: apparently they're selling for as low as $12 for a whole app.
I'd recommend taking a look at Apptopia.com, deals are exclusive but the prices seem much better. (I have no affiliation with them)