We're new, so everything I say here is subject to change.Good :-) That's the right attitude to have.
We present ourselves as a software freelancing company
To whom? Addressing individuals or organisations? Shop floor? Middle management? CEO level? What kind of project are they looking for? What kind of budgets? What kind of timescales? What do they expect during the project? Long-term or short-term relationships? Do they want to collaborate or expect you to do everything by yourself? In any particular industry?
How? Do you just have a website? A blog? In conversation? Advertising? Cold calling? References? Magazine articles? Press? Raising a personal brand or a company brand?
If you don't have answers to these sorts of questions off the top of your head you don't have a strong model of what your customers are like, and how to get yourself in front of them.
We ask our connections to refer people to us who need web applications built.
Are your connections people like you - or people like your customers? While any work is obviously good it's the references from customers that you really want to try and get. They're much more likely to be convincing to other potential customers, and to know more potential customers.
Flip it around. Whose recommendation would you trust more for a development role. Another techie or a sales guy?
We've also looked at something like Elance
The folk who go to Elance et al tend to be extremely price conscious, and often the kind of client ends up being... difficult... I steer clear of them myself. Also clients tend to think of their solutions coming from "elance" rather than from yourself. If you look how elance et al are mentioned online you'll see folk recommend "elance" not "this great company I found on elance".
I have heard of people using Elance to bootstrap themselves to a client based. They used them to explore different kinds of client, collected references and testimonials, etc. Then used those to get more work outside of the elance system. It's not something I've tried myself.
Obviously don't throw work away - but think about how it helps you in the longer term.
Most of our customers and potential customers were either: 1. people looking to build a new startup (or webapp), and want to outsource the development to us
They sound useful. How did they find you? Were they happy with what you did? Have you asked what you could have done better? Have you asked for references and testimonials?
Have you looked at your most successful projects and asked "How can we find more people like this?"
Have you thought about how to get repeat and ongoing business from these folks? Are you keeping in touch?
2. Freelance shops who represent customers looking to build webapps, and who are outsourcing the actual technical work to us
This is mostly a lousy business to be in too - since:
* the freelance shops are the ones who get the biggest slice of the pie.
* the freelance shop is the one that gets the recommendations and references - not you
Again, if it's helping cashflow now - don't throw work away. But think about how it helps you in the longer term.
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I'm hoping this is coming across as vaguely constructive criticism rather than a grumpy rant ;-)
I guess if you want it wrapped up into a bite sized piece of advice it would be to: 1) Have a goal; 2) Have a plan that moves you towards that goal.
Write down a brief one page description of your ideal company. Write down a brief one page description of the clients you would need to support that company. Write down a brief one page description of the ways you would get those clients.
You may find that you can't do anything to get those clients at the moment. The market or the channels may be out of your reach for various reasons. Fair enough. Start thinking about ways to get to that market or those channels. Use that as a goal. Think about what you'd need to get there. Repeat until you find something you can try.
It's easy - especially when you start - to just jump from client to client with no overall aim. I know I worked that way at the start. Which is great while you can find work. But unless you take a step back occasionally and think a bit more strategically - you're either going to stay the same, or get gutted by the next guy who comes in a bit hungrier and leaner than you are.
Have a plan. Feel free to change it every few months - but have a plan.