Much like how in product development we talk to customers prior to building stuff, I'd suggest verifying that you have an addressable market for a service offering prior to defining what that service offering is. "Freelance", "web", "design", "local", and "business" are five things that you said in that sentence which might be distinctly suboptimal.

Consider alternatives such as "I am the world's leading expert on WordPress sites for heritage language Asian schools." That sort of thing potentially resolves a lot of customer identification and marketing problems, and lets you charge much higher rates than generic "local business web-dev", even though you might just be doing web development and heritage language Asian schools may all be local businesses for some value of local.

(By the way, just my biases talking, but when I think "local business" the phrase "the best possible customers for programmers because they love paying five-figure invoices in a timely manner after competently managing reasonably specified projects" does not exactly jump to the forefront of my mind.)

I'd tune out the second I saw such a marketing boast; the odds of being pure b.s. are through the roof.

If you're "a programmer" then your customer base is pretty much anyone who needs software. That doesn't help much because you're back to the same question: "who needs software?"

If you're an expert on sites for heritage Asian language schools then it's much easier to find schools->Asian language schools->heritage Asian language schools. Odd though it may seem, it's easier to market to a small, well defined niche than a large amorphous blob of "potential customers."

So, is anyone reading this looking for an expert in on-vehicle liquid spray control systems? :-)

At the risk fo stating the obvious, this is not automatically true. Specializing makes for easier marketing, but not necessarily higher rates. Some clients just don't have a lot of money to spend.

Make a nice portfolio site of whatever you have available, and compose a nice cold email being very honest about who you are ("I'm just starting freelancing and can do XYZ") and then look up every single marketing / design / interactive agency in a 100 mile radius and send them a cold email. Even if they don't have work you'll go in their list of available freelancers and may get a response a month later, or referrals etc.

Try doing the same for any sizable business in the area. Particularly the type that would have a dedicated marketing / interactive or software department.

Basically the goal is to lock down clients with steady work and that have infrastructure and experience dealing with fresh freelancers. Its going to give you far more bang for the buck/effort than handing out business cards door to door.

When clients agree to work with you, they risk more than money. They risk their time, their peace of mind, their ability to be proactive in a changing environment. The best clients are the ones who realize that. As such, they will be uncomfortable with the thought of your working for free, since the unsustainable nature of your position endangers their peace of mind. They're happy to throw money at you to protect what really matters to them.

In terms of practical advice, if you don't yet have a network, I recommend checking out oDesk, Elance, and other sites. Don't try to underbid providers working from developed countries, and don't spam every buyer with proposals. Just write personalized, specific letters containing some of the details you would be thinking about as you went about solving their problem. Before you know it, you will have more work than you can handle.

[1] I don't consider wedding videos, etc. made as a gift to fall under the category of freelance work. If this is what you do for a living, it's fine to gift your services, but trying to leverage free work into a sustainable career is an awful idea.

[2] The exception is support. Phone calls are free. Bids/proposals are free. Your work, the value you provide, is decidedly not.

Totally agree with this. It ha been my experience that well paying customers are the best kind. They are more respectful of my time and less of a headache. The people that want thing low cost or for free are happy to drain your time for really no good reason.

This theory is why I also charge a certain flat fee upfront to get started on any client work. It gets the client emotionally invested in the project since some of their money is in the pot. Most of the time when I have done things without upfront payment or free work, the client is lazy to get me necessary graphics, text, authorization, etc. to do what I said I would do. Then it still reflects badly on the freelancer.

Finish every project on time. Finish every project on budget. Answer all email within an hour (sent during the day).

When you do that, your clients love you and talk about you.

Start with a low hourly rate. When you reach 40 hours booked every week, double your rate. You will loose about half of your clients, but still be making the same amount. If you are good, you will fill it up again. Double it again. Continue with your comfort level.

So what should get the ball rolling for you is to build one really great portfolio site at the top of your ability, making it as good as you possibly know how to make it.

Be prepared for it to be taken apart by a keen eye all the way down to someone checking out your HTML/CSS/JavaScript (don't minify!) to see if it's good quality.

Then find your local frontend/freelance community and stand out, be confident, tell people to check you out, approach top-notch guys and ask them for feedback and you should be all set ;)

Then perhaps minify and add a comment referring to http://daneden.me/max-css ?

You need a decent portfolio site

Design and build in in WordPress or something similar. Prove your design chops here by having a well-design, functional, and more importantly clear message to potential customers. You want to let your customers have confidence. It doesn't have to be amazing. Mine certainly isn't. http://andrewheins.ca/

Your first job might be among your social circle

Mine was the Tae Kwon Do dojo I attended. They were paying WAY too much for hosting, so they let me make a site and change their hosting. They now pay 1/10th the hosting costs. Demo that site on your portfolio.

Next, you start bidding for work

FreelanceSwitch.com was the place that landed me the most work, but Craigslist and the bevy of other sites work well too. The ability to communicate clearly with your potential clients and bid within a reasonable range are key here.

Build your portfolio on low-end jobs

You will low-ball at first. That's ok. Raise your rates after each job. Quote by project, not by hour.

Find other freelancers with complementary skills

Being a dev, I latched on to a few designers who didn't want to have to code all their work. They can offer full solutions, I get paid. It's a great relationship.

Other than FreelanceSwitch and Craigslist, which sites do you use? I'm genuinely curious, as when we launch matchist.com at the end of the summer, I'm hoping it's on the list of places you can find quality work.

1 good ongoing client is better than 100 one-off projects with different clients.

There's a huge overhead to finding and onboarding a new client/project. Instead find one good ongoing contract, and put all your extra energy into creating a product that can scale.

Freelancing is a dead end road, but you can use it as a tool to bootstrap your own lifestyle business.

see also: Four Hour Workweek and Start Small, Stay Small

I mostly agree with you, except much of the freelancing allure stems from working on new and exciting things, avoiding burnout and boredom. So I'd modify that statement to:

3-4 good ongoing clients is better than 100 one-off projects with different clients.

Edit: didn't read the last half of your comment. If running a startup or building a product is your primary goal, then I absolutely agree with you.

Take on pro bono projects for charities you respect, shitty lower-paying clients and launch a side project that demonstrates your skills in a real world use cases.

Work into every conversation that you're a freelance designer. It's a big deal.

My last piece of advice is to network with quality people. Stay far way from the insurance agents and MLM'ers; they're looking for the quick sale and they will connect you with people that want the same. Make it a point to get to know _business owners_ and people that call the shots--the ones writing the checks.

Oh, yeah. One more thing: This isn't gonna be easy. So, good luck! :)

- Strong portfolio is a must. If you don't have any freelance work done yet create some templates and mock designs.

- Get to know some other web-creators around you. Some of them are so overloaded with work they might pass some jobs to you.

- When clients look for somebody to get a website done, they quite often contact universities. The job is being then emailed to all the students. For me, it was a goldmine. If you're currently not at the university, befriend somebody who is. Those jobs are not paid a lot, but will help you to build your portfolio and meet new potential sources of income.

- Do stuff for free. If you're not working on something for money at the moment, do some web-charity work. You will get some experience, both in web development itself as well as in dealing with clients.

- Craigslists/gumtree : only if you're very desperate. I did find some local freelance jobs there. Most of them were crap. Once I even made a website for an obscure escort agency. However, you can still advertise there but be prepared to handle some time-wasters.

- Local business centers (in scotland we have www.business.scotland.gov.uk) seem to be a good place for networking too. They do quite a lot of meetings and are happy to connect various start-up/companies/freelancers together. One of my good friends started like that 4 years ago - now he has more work than he can physically handle.

Hope this helps!

I got my first clients by cold-calling. He was probably my two hundredth cold-call. Later that week I ended up with a $1,600 check in my pocket, a 50% deposit on a $3,200 contract.

Also, you need to learn basic SEO. Google "Colorado web design" and you'll find me at rank 3: http://www.broadsighted.com

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Measuring Production/Service – Questions To Ask At The End

“Did they give a testimonial? On a scale of 1-10, how glowing/awesome is the testimonial?”

“Did they give us referrals? How many? How many sales did that lead to?”

“Did this job become an outstanding addition to our portfolio? Why or why not?”

“Did they purchase any relevant upsells or services?”

“Subjectively, did it feel like it ‘went well’?”

“What was the cost in time and money to do the work? (Did any of the money/time cost relate more to general asset-building, knowledge, etc, than the fulfillment itself?)”

--

If you play it right, you'll have 5-10 awesome testimonials )(you can actually say, 'What do you think of my service? What do you think of my promptness? Friendliness? Looking out for you?' Etc, to get quotes on relevant topics. You'll also very likely get at least a couple referrals out of it (aim for 3 on average per client to start, you might not hit it depending but it's a good target), and probably 1 or 2 of them will choose you for significant work later. It's really just a win, if you don't mind hustling and working. Sadly actually, some of your best free clients you'll have to run down and really bust your ass to get them to even agree to take your work for free! But it's worth it, it works.

I'm always amazed the influence that personal projects have on which kind of work comes through the door. There's a reason why many companies have a public 'labs' page. Featuring these projects will pull in clients that appreciate your sensibilities (I believe these are the best clients to have).

btw - the fact that you're on the first page of HN is a good start!

While you work on your portfolio make sure it's obvious what people can hire you for, i.e. your speciality. A 'web designer' might do front-end or just photoshop design or maybe your special power is making interactive doodads with jquery. Specialities are helpful, or alternatively a list of actual practical things you do, and help people see if you are a fit for the problem that needs solving.

- Don't restrict yourself to the local market. Businesses in other countries might even pay more than your local businesses (e.g., pay in Vienna is quite meager if you don't have the connections and have a small portfolio, while job markets in UK are so sucked empty that you can get your first gigs there).

- Emailing does help to get jobs. Don't just send them your CV (I think CV is optional), do go the extra mile and cherrypick your special skills, things you would emphasize on if you had only 10 seconds to pitch. People want you to make their life easier, and it starts with short, uncomplicated emails.

- Don't assume there will be hard feelings if you demand "too much". Demanding high pay makes you look more confident and experienced. If they can't pay, they will tell you and be happy if you lower the rate. Also, think about what you want as a minimum rate beforehand, and don't go lower than that, or you will hate the job. Another alternative is to set up a fixed price, based on what you think you can create value-wise. If you are in a developed country, please don't EVER go lower than $50/€40 or you are just ruining everybody's job market.

- Do people favors whenever you can - people are so happy when you help them (even if you just offer your help and they don't take it), they might become your gratis lobbyists. Just don't ask for something in return of your favors, do them genuinely to help them. More than once did I get a job offer out of a simple favor.

- Attend local user groups. Networking for developers happens there. People don't connect easily by just tweeting at them - once you have talked to someone in person, then they might consider forwarding you that job offer they cannot take themselves. Most user groups are full of cool people, I wouldn't miss that out anyway.

- Setup a blog if you haven't, and try to write when you are in the mood. Don't do it because you have to, but out of curiosity (checking stuff out while writing the post is an excellent way of learning) or because you found THE solution you want everybody to know about. This won't get you job offers immediately, but you can position yourself as a niche expert in the long term. I got to improve on that point myself :)

- Relax and be confident that you will get your bills paid, even if it seems unlikely at the moment. You will automatically be more outgoing and more pleasant to talk to when talking to potential customers, and it will prevent you from making mistakes out of irrational fear of going broke (yes, I've had my share of that). I put this last because I consider it the most important :)

ADDED: A friend of mine had success with accepting a headhunter's offer at LinkedIn. As scammy as headhunters may seem (and yes, they get a huge cut), non-scammy companies do hire them out of desperation. Might be worth a look.

Another idea getting your foot in the door as a freelancer at an agency. About 1/4 of my work (and best paid work) came that way. Gives you a client base to build from (though not your clients, it will give you demonstrable experience)

1. Find yourself work by handing cards ... just like you do now. I think it will eventually work after you land a few projects.

2. Use an aggregate freelancing site like oDesk, vWorker etc. Here is a link to an interesting story about freelancing on vWorker:

http://solarianprogrammer.com/2011/10/24/my-life-freelancer/

Odds are you have connections you haven't thought about, but they can really help you get off the ground.

It may be that you'll have to work up the ladder of complexity, but you really just want a portfolio behind you.

People always advise not to do sites for free but at university I did one or two websites for different societies and that was enough to get enough connections to start.

- Find the gaps in the services of similar "providers"

- Apply Paul Graham's "run upstairs" principle: choose the hardest gaps and develop the ability to fill them more easily than the competition.

I'd say less than 10 people have ever asked for references.

Don't ever use the word freelance. It implies that it's not your focus; whether that's because you have other things you really enjoy (product work?) or that you have a full-time job, there's nothing you get from using that word that you don't from "contract designer" or something similar. Better yet, spend a few hundred dollars on an LLC and operate as a business and not a sole proprietorship/individual.

Right or wrong, "freelance" implies to clients that you can be paid less for the same work, or not paid at all.