Ask HN: How do you begin to find contracts as a freelancer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you begin to find contracts as a freelancer?

29 pointslamroger12 comments

I'm looking to do some freelancing but don't have a network or past customers to rely on for contracts. I've been applying to Upwork jobs but it's been difficult without ratings and competing against lower priced engineers.

I do have experience as a DevOps engineer so I feel confident in my abilities to build production-ready infrastructure but getting the right leads is not something I'm experienced with.

What has worked for you?

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Forget Upwork, competing on price is a losing game.

Things I've known to work:

1. Go to meetups (got a job offer once from project night at Boston Python Meetup). 2. Go to job listings for early stage startups looking for DevOps people, email them saying "hey maybe you want a consultant instead?" They might be happy for short term cost saving. Probably work with bigger companies.

Lots of resources on https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/.

You have a network — everyone has some start of a network!

All of my work has come through my personal network, or as a direct referral from it. I do more independent contracting than freelance work, so if that's something you're open to, I encourage you to reach out to founders and CTOs you know to explore opportunities. That's what worked for me in a "tier 3" startup city.

I would consider any of the marketplaces a last resort from the perspective of a good developer. (People are willing to work for way too little. Think about the advantages you have that those on the platforms don't.)

Network. If you want to build up a portfolio a good way is to volunteer to build or fix things for local non-profits, in exchange for them to give you a testimonial and let you use their name for promotion (if you do a good job, of course).

Don't compete on price. Pick your price and stick to it.

If you specialize in a particular piece of technology, spend time online helping people fixing things, writing bug reports and patches for it, creating a site with useful tools or tutorials and things like that. Then just include a small mention on your site or your signature about your freelance work.

Don't go overboard with self-promoting, but don't neglect it either.

Keep a resume (or several targeted ones if you have different skillsets) up to date and ready to send people.

Start a forum specialising in some software (or write your own) then as your forum grows so will the people hiring you to perform customisations etc worked for me.

A long time ago, I did something like this except it was for niche small stores before Squarespace or Shopify existed. The spread was the same — someone saw it then wanted one for himself, then another shop owner saw his, etc. At the end of the day I didn't make a ton of money from it (although I also didn't charge enough), but I did learn a lot.

Since this question seems to come up about once a month or so, I'd say step #1 is "search HN for previous posts".

Start a private limited company. Start working for companies you used to work for as a permanent employee before. Market yourself as a consultant with specific skillset who works on a per project basis. You come in and help the in-house engineering team deliver the project, implement new technology etc. Look for shorter term contracts, 6-9 months per contract. You can build up a rolodex of clients and referrals like this which will make future contracts come to you without you having to look for work.

I am curious to hear more about the dev turned consultant route. I've been doing plenty of independent contractor software development work, but I haven't really seen the right consulting opportunities — more higher level strategy and business type gigs. Perhaps I just don't know where to look.

Openings for a consultant usually mean something more like "management consultant" rather than technical consultant.

Usually as a technical consultant you find people who want to build something and then guide them through the process. It can be semi-challenging to find your first client for this sort of project because these clients don't know what they're looking for and often don't know how much they don't know.

Once you have your first successful client like this though, others will find you fast.

One of my previous comments on this subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12744624

Networking is key! Go to relevant events and talk to a lot of people.

Avoid freelancing sites like Upwork.

Do your own marketing (decent website etc.). If possible find a niche. DevOps is a pretty wide range of skills and problems to solve. Can you narrow it down to something very specific (that's in demand) you're particularly good at?

offer your service for free at first. People will pay you anyway (without asking) if you do a great job. Then you get one client, then another one, then another. Increase your price along the way while building your portfolio.

How do you get your first lead even for free? Craigslist or find ways of going to events where people aren't technical at all. It'll come.

There's no magic trick you can't make big money without a network in life.

I started out ten years ago by shouting out to my friends, and posting on Craigslist. I basically emailed everyone in my LinkedIn network and told them I was available for freelance sysadmin work. Good luck!

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