021 How Do I Get Freelancing Clients? How Do I Start As A Freelancer?

So you have decided to be a freelancer. Now what? How do you get clients? Just announcing that you are a freelancer isn't enough. There are clear steps you need to take to get your first client (and the dozen after that). Learn how to launch yourself forward faster with this episode of Dev Questions.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey. Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology. If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered. Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

I'm a freelancer. Now, how I get work? This is a question that was sent in recently by Hamza, and I thought it was a great topic for today's dev question episode because it really speaks to what new freelancers are going through. It's the idea that, okay, I want to do this, but how I get started? How do I get those first clients? And I think there's three things here that are really important. Now, this is a huge topic. I'm not going to cover all of freelancing in this episode because it's just too much stuff. But let's talk about how to get clients. That's a really big part of being a freelancer. Number one, I think that the most important thing people get wrong, and a thing that you can do to set yourself apart is to have a very clear message. Know exactly what you're going to do. This is what I see often from freelancers. A message like, I do custom software development. Which is what? How does that help anybody? Unless I know exactly what I want, I'm not gonna come to you. Another one might be something like, I make your logistics better through synchronization and synergy through and a whole bunch of buzzwords. What does that mean? Tell the customer or potential customer exactly what you will do. For example, instead of saying I write custom software, say something a little more descriptive. And this is a rough cut version. Um I create software to automate your business. That's clearer. It's still not clear, it's clearer. Or create dashboards automatically off of your business systems. Clear messaging about what you're gonna do and how you're gonna help them. Because here's what the customer on the other side is looking for. They're looking not for the way you're going to do the work. What they're looking for are solutions to their business problems. So if you position yourself as providing a solution to a business problem, you're more likely to find people who are looking for your services. You're more likely to get people to say, yes, that's what I want. And the more specific you can get here, the better. Maybe you're gonna focus specifically on um eliminating Excel spreadsheets in the business. Excel is, it seemed like half of the business world runs on Excel. Well, maybe you can make those things better. One of the things I did for one client was I connected three different systems: their accounting system, their um student enrollment system, and a third system, I forget what it was, but I brought all three of them together and made them talk to each other to give a really clear dashboard of this is what you're doing. This is where you're going. This is what the the forecast looks like based upon past history. Things that they had data on, but no real knowledge of what that data meant. Okay, so the clearer you can get, the clearer you can say, this is what I do, the better. So that's number one. Have a very clear message, have a value proposition in there. Say, this is the value I add. Because part of that message is going to be why they should hire you. You see, if you position your message well enough, it almost becomes uh silly not to hire you. Because if you can increase return on investment, if you can decrease cost, if you can increase efficiency, all these things equate to money. And if your fee is less than they will save, why wouldn't you do it? Now, number two, so you've got a clear message. You've got a very clear, this is how I help you. And that's what the message should be. Not this is what I do, it's how I help you. So number two, then, is get to know people. Because when you interact with somebody and they say, Hey, what do you do for a living? Very common question. What do you do for a living? Well, I'm a software development consultant. Okay. That tells them nothing. If you have that very clear message at the beginning in point number one, then point number two, and you meet someone, they say, Hey, what do you do? I help businesses automate their um accounting systems to increase efficiency and productivity. Well, if that sounds like something I can use, all of a sudden now I'm thinking, man, I'm gonna go to them to see if we can't get something done, to get something improved. And so if your message is clear, when you introduce yourself to someone, it puts in their brain, hey, uh, I could use your services. And even if they can't use your services, maybe they know someone who can. Like, hey, you know, my buddy Bill, they they're really struggling with their accounting system and trying to get the data out of it in their reports. Maybe you could help. I mean, I'll introduce you. So, networking is number two. So get to know people. Not just the clear purpose of I need more clients, so therefore I'm gonna schmooze people. To some extent, you have to do that, but the reality is just get out there, meet people in your area. It doesn't have to be anything specifically business related. Meet people in other circumstances. I know it's harder now with you know the social distancing and all that kind of stuff. That can be difficult. But do what you can to meet people, to interact with people, whether even if it's via email or via text or something like that. But try and get involved in more areas, volunteer in places, just connect with more people because you really can't be an effective freelancer and not be connected to people, at least not to start. Maybe as you gain, you know, a name for yourself and have people that kind of recommend you, then you can become a hermit or a recluse. But really to start off, you need to know people. So that's number two. Number three is incentivize sharing. When you do a job for a customer and it's a success, incentivize them telling your message, telling the success story. Say, first of all, hey, would you mind if I use this as a case study? Give them a discount or give them some kind of incentive to do so, but use a successful engagement as a case study. And then share that. Say, hey, I worked for Acme Corp and I was able to save them 26 hours a week of manpower by automating this system. Well, even if you don't put a dollar amount against that, I can do that that math in my head and say 26 hours, even if that was $20 an hour, that's $520 an hour or $520 a week. That's $2,000 a month, that's $100,000. No, I'm sorry. Wrong math here. Um, but that's you know, $2,000 a month is $24,000 a year. There we go. Maths back on track. But that's $24,000 a year. Well, if you can save him $24,000 a year and you charged him $20,000, you paid for yourself in your first year. Okay. So you could set, you could say, hey, we paid back the cost of this project in six months, in three months, in eight months, whatever it is, the idea that you're looking at how we're gonna get that money back is a really big deal in that case study. So you can do it a little bit. Give general numbers, don't give specifics. But say if you got the numbers to prove it, then say we saved $26 a week in manpower, which means that we've we were able to see a return on investment within six months, or whatever it is. That kind of thing is really powerful. So that's one part of incentivizing sharing is just asking, hey, can we make this a case study and maybe even give them a discount on their last bill if you do so? But then next is say, hey, you know what? I would love it if you would share this success with others. And tell you what, if you send people to me, then I will, if they say they came from you, I will give you a hundred bucks or whatever it is. Now be very careful here. You don't want to get into an illegal territory. So make sure that you check beforehand with their company, with your state and local governments. Make sure that you're not doing something illegal here. But try and give some way to incentivize them to share your message. It doesn't have to be money, and sometimes money isn't the right choice. Maybe it's something like a gift card to a restaurant, or this is another way you can do it that's not that's almost always legal, um, is say, I will give you X amount off your next bill. Now that does two things. First of all, incentivizes them to share, but it also incentivizes them to use your services again. So however you incentivize it, and it please, please, please hear me, make sure it's legal first. There's a lot of gray area, don't stay in the gray area. Be very clear what you're doing, but incentivize that sharing in some way, and that will start spreading the word about how your services work and how beneficial your services are. And you'll start to see companies asking, calling you out of the blue and saying, Hey, can you work with us? It's not about Facebook ads, it's not about taking ads out in the newspaper or TV. It's about that person-to-person communication because that's the most powerful way that you can get a client. Because if one client tells another client, they did a great job for me, then it's not this telephone game of you, you know, saying you have clients that are happy. Instead, it's a person saying, I had a great experience. You're much more likely to see a person act upon being told that they had a great experience with you if it's that one-to-one relationship. If their friend tells them they're much more likely to talk to you rather than if you say, Hey, I've been told I did a great job. All right. So those are the three things. Have a clear message, network, and incentivize sharing. Do those three things, and you'll greatly increase your chance for success. So thanks, Hamza, for asking this question. It was really beneficial. I think that's going to help a lot of people. If you have a question that you'd like me to answer, either in the form um of you know, what's it like to be a developer, or maybe a specific developer question that um you haven't seen cover on this channel yet, either go to my website, imtimcorey.com, and look for the podcast section. And there's a place to leave comments, or if you're watching this on YouTube, leave a comment down below. Now, if you're listening to this on a podcast, I'd really appreciate it if you leave a review. In doing so, you're helping other developers get their questions answered. Now, no matter how you're listening to me, sharing this episode is always appreciated. Now, thanks for watching, and as always, I am Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions. Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer. If you would like to help make more content like this possible, please like, subscribe, rate, and share Dev Questions. You can also send your questions to questions at IamTimcorey.com. Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did. When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCore.com and enroll in a course.