Start-up Freelancing, Advice?
 

Are any of you guys here freelance web designers, or programmers? I've been looking for work in the web world, but it's been a bit difficult for me, one reason being my lack of qualifications, and another being that here in Leeds, it's not much of a technology city, so their isn't much on offer.

I can do the work, I have spent over two years teaching myself the ways of the web and have learned quickly and am confident enough I can build most applications and design most sites from a specification.

But as I've said, it's been difficult and I am about to quit looking, due to frustration. I don't want to give up my career choice of being a web programmer, so I have decided to start looking into freelancing so that I can get a portfolio built and get some more experience under my belt and of course, gain a bit of money.

I'd just like to know if anyone here is, or was a freelancer and how your experience was, did you enjoy doing it? Was their any up and down sides? ect. Also I'd be most interested in knowing how you began doing it and if it lead to anything that you may consider 'big' or an achievement.

I know their are websites that allow you to promote yourself and make yourself available to work. I know of oDesk and Sitepoint, but do you know of any others?

Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing some of your replies (if any)

- Chris.

Hi Chris,

I've been doing freelance software development for about 10 years now and I remember that starting out was hard as hell. Nowadays all of our work comes from word of mouth referals but back at the begining we picked up work in two ways.

The first was to visit every local company that looked like it owned a computer and throw business cards about like confetti until one landed on the right desk :-)

The second way was through employment agencies - we used to hit up all the local agencies for any programming jobs they had on their books, if they where contract jobs, great, if not, we'd try and get the name of the company then go round with our cards :-D

Nowadays though, I would imagine that the web has made it easier and harder to become a freelance programmer.

Easier because it should be a lot easier to find work - setup a portfolio site then spam it about like we did with business cards. Also, all the freelancer websites that are about seem to have a lot of jobs on them.

Harder because there are so many other freelancers taking advantage of the web to find work. For example, a random google search brought up Custom Web Design and Programming. Freelance Programmers. Outsource Web Development Outsourcing - pick a random project there - GetAFreelancer.com - Company Database Intranet - and take a look at the bids. At the prices they are quoting it'd be impossible to survive full time. I can only imagine that some of those leaving quotes are from countries that have a lower cost of living than I do in the UK :-)

To answer your other question:

Did you enjoy it: Yes, most of the time - it was hard work starting out but worth it in the end.

Good luck with your career in software development mate, stick with it and you'll get there in the end :-)

Alan

Even though it's against Village_Idiot's advice doing some EASY work for a reduced price is recommended. Doing just about anything to boost your portfolio will be good, the better looking the website the better. I find most people...estimate the...worth of the script by how good the template is, unless they are actually knowledgeable of things web.

It is against my advice because it is better to make a slightly more complicated open source script to show potential clients. If you sell the code for a reduced price you will not be able to show anyone the source. You can show it in action as your portfolio and show them how good your code is.

If you aren't capable of advanced projects, you should not be doing even simple projects professionally.

Well I'd not though of that, in which case, taking Village's advice. and...I do believe I'm capable of the advanced projects. Atleast I like to think

I think finding people you know maybe if your part of a sports team or something create the website for that maybe for free or for money something to get your noticed. When i was in college i got all my jobs through my tutor who got alot of jobs and we did them together. Maybe write to businesses local ones like small shops that could use a website. Thats what i did anyway.

I live in a city that isn't really known for tech jobs as well. Things are getting better, but freelancing around here is a tough business. The reason is that there aren't enough careers available for developers yet. So there a lot of people trying to pick up freelance work. I couldn't risk going into personal financial troubles due to a lack of work, so I just do web stuff on the side. Most of my work comes via word-of-mouth recommendations from people I've worked with in the past.

One thing I still do is I always carry business cards around with me. Even when I'm @ the bar or somewhere. I keep 5-6 tucked in my wallet. I've met people at social places and got into career conversations and ended up giving them a card, then a friend of theirs or something calls me a week later.

I'm developing a website (though I say that, I don't think I've done anything with it for a month... need to get my motivation back) and if you we're to categorize it, it'd be a "Social Networking Site" but aimed at a certain community. This will show off a lot of stuff that I can do, programming wise... but it's gonna be such a big project, god knows when I'll finish.

I have a mate who's an artist and I'll try to convince him to see if he'd like to "work" with me, as I'm better at programming and he's more on the design/logo front. If we (or just I) do manage to score a bit of work, I'll start a bit of advertising, sort of, like maybe get some business cards and flog 'em around, leave 'em in clubs and bars, lord knows I'm usually in one, lol.

Keep it simple. =)

Business cards are always a good idea though. Maybe someone with more experience can speak to the idea of building a large project like that just for the purpose of showing off your coding skills. Maybe try things where you can contribute part-time or smaller projects that can be updated over time. For example, helping with any large open source projects. Writing small scripts or even modules for other apps. Just an idea.

Start in a way you know will be small, go on sitepoint and other sites and find clients who want small projects done. Don't start having clients come to you until you are confident you can take whatever they may have to throw at you.

It's hard dude, I started out in late 2005 doing it, and later co-founded a company with a couple of mates. It's not really gone the way I wanted it to so I'm looking to go back into full-time employment, there's a lot to be said for the security that working for an employer brings.

Don't let my experience put you off though as there's lots of factors that have broken down my confidence, all businesses, large and small start out from individuals like you and I.

Most work comes from referrals, and they come from doing a good job, like others have suggested try doing a few sites on the cheap to build your client base, you can get these by asking friends and family's to ask their business friends and family (try not to work directly with friends and family as that's a minefield.) Once you get your foot on the ladder work tends to build up steadily. A downside of doing things on the cheap is that your initial clients always expect you to be cheap as your business grows, be strong and build your rate up to one you can rely on to pay your bills.

Work out what your unique selling points (USP) are and play on them, never forget them. It's a cut-throat world, but if you're good at what you do, you can survive in it.

Check out Advice, Jobs and Resources for Freelancing Web Designers, Illustrators, Photographers, Writers, Programmers… - they've got a cool community on there, and some useful links.

It's a slogging match at the start dude, if you're serious, be prepared to be working 20+ hours a day, 7 days a week, for a good deal of months. If you can hack that, you'll have no problems when the dust starts to settle.