I've been trying to help a friend get started freelance coding who has super technical skills but not a lot of formal experience and education.
It's really a challenge when everything is AI and everyone assumes everything is a scam.
1) Start with your personal network: Friends in similar line of work, former colleagues. Contact them and tell them what you are doing “just in case you encounter someone who I can help”.
2) Go to relevant meetups in your city (or nearest city if need be). Be ready with a pithy description of what you do.
“So what do you do?”, a conversation might go.
“I’m a freelance consultant who helps X do Y”, you’ll answer.
Usually, that’ll be followed with polite but disinterested conversation. But one critical time, it’ll be “hey we might need someone who can help with that. Can I connect on LinkedIn? Send me a message tomorrow.”
3) Be persistent. Follow up and do it regularly. Accept that time from first contact to paid work might take many months.
4) Don’t waste your time with the cold pitching. It’s hard to do well, it’s annoying to the recipients, and you’ll just be lost in the tons of cold emails that decision makers get EVERY GOD DAMN DAY. (Sorry about shouting, can you tell I get a lot of this stuff?)
One day when I have time and motivation, I’ll write up all the chance encounters, etc that led to me getting a freelance business off the ground a long time ago.
I aimed to find collaborations with remote companies.
Build connections. Make genuine friends. Help your friends out. Spend time helping them find work and being there for them when they need it (Looks like you're doing this now!). Good people may return the favor one day when you most need it.
Showing up is half the battle. Show up everywhere. Find cool emerging scenes and become an early expert. Don't fake it; develop the ability to be earnestly interested in anything. Be interested in what other people are doing. Make your services and expertise known. Make it easy to contact you.
Go out and talk about what you know in public spaces such as this forum. Reach out to people who are doing the same, and build a professional network. No pretense, just reach out, tell them what you like about them/their posts, tell them what you do, and that you'd like to keep in contact with them. Remember personal details they share with you. Follow up. Raise your flag and people will see it, and your tribe will coalesce. I received several emails just yesterday from the Hacker News community, people reaching out to discuss things that I've posted and offer work.
You won't find work tomorrow following this advice. You might not find work at all this year, or next. But this is the playbook for networking online and finding yourself in interesting situations with interesting people. Do that enough, and suddenly it becomes history. Suddenly you're a known quantity in your circles, and you have contextual expertise to draw from in order to solve people's problems. People will pay you to do that.
I've worked with people in the past who only call me by a handle, even face to face. Some people really could care less depending on the scene. Other people will want to know everything about you, and it's your preference where your boundaries lie.
I've also hired anonymous engineers before, depending on the work. If it's confidential IP or user data, it's risky to work with anonymous employees, though I am fine with them being pseudonymous within the company as long as I have verifiable data on file in the event of a sudden disappearance, breach of contract or something else.
Personally, I have a few handles as well as my company, and different engagements may go through me personally or through my company. I'm forthcoming about my name in less public spaces, but Hacker News is quite a public space. I still sometimes consider attaching my name, but for now I don't. I express my own opinion on this website and don't want it to affect others.
Bennett Foddy and Zach Gage have a great video [0] about the value in prominently attaching your name to your life's work and brand, and I think they raise very valid points. There are pros and cons to every approach, and I just recommend letting your principles and personal boundaries guide you; if you're fine with your name being public or semi-public, go for it. If not, you can still carve a unique path through this industry with a healthy bit of networking and showing up with a shovel.
I typically move business correspondence to a personal email that does contain my name as well, though a lot of correspondence also happens under a handle elsewhere on the web.
By the way, I love your portfolio!
its like Location, Location, Location in Real Estate.
Every sales organization on the planet tries to figure this out.
So, if some small individual is trying to find 'people to prospect', aka 'customers'.
Just know that even though a lot of Software Engineers that aren't great socializers/people people, are actually in the same boat. Everyone is trying to find 'leads', and it is hard for large and small companies.
Anyway. I know this was kind of a relief when I realized this. You aren't necessarily bad at it. It is hard for everyone. And there are a hundred suggestions on how, it's an entire cottage industry, 'how to find leads'.