How to Start a Successful Freelance Business as a Software Developer — Nick JanetakisLearn Docker With My Newest Course<br>Dive into Docker takes you from "What is Docker?" to confidently applying Docker to your own projects. It's packed with best practices and examples.<br>Start Learning Docker →
Updated on January 9, 2017<br>in<br>#dev-business<br>How to Start a Successful Freelance Business as a Software Developer
Start your freelance business on the right foot by avoiding common mistakes that you will hold you back from victory.<br>Quick Jump:<br>Before we get into things, I just want to say that I’m not interested in writing<br>about “5 quick tips to get freelance clients!” or similar topics you’ll find in<br>hundreds of articles sprawled across the internet.<br>What I want to talk about today is how to start your freelance adventure off on<br>the right foot and avoid being taken advantage of or get discouraged. You will most<br>definitely learn how to get your first client but if you’re looking for a get<br>rich quick scheme while you work in your underwear, please hit back on your browser.<br>I promise you, if you take action on what you read in this article you could<br>potentially have your first client tomorrow without spending a penny.<br>Onwards we go…<br>So, you’ve recently decided that you want to take a shot at doing freelance or<br>consulting work. That’s great, and in this article I’m going to give you a few<br>tips on how to find your first freelance client but before that, you need to<br>figure out what type of freelance worker you want to be.<br>What I mean by that is, how much time are you looking to invest into freelancing?<br>Are you looking to do it full time to replace a standard 9-5 job or as a side<br>gig to create some extra income on the side?<br>There is a very big difference between needing a check to pay rent when<br>freelancing is your only source of income vs hoping to get some extra cash this<br>month to either invest, enjoy life or help you climb out of debt just a little<br>bit faster.<br>Take some time to figure that out. For me, I use consulting as another revenue<br>stream. As of this article, most of my income comes from a mixture of doing consulting<br>work and selling software developer related courses but it wasn’t always like<br>that.<br>Before I decided to create courses, it was all about freelancing and consulting<br>for me. I made a lot of mistakes and left a ton of money on the table, so now<br>I’d like to write about how you can avoid those mistakes and start your business<br>off on the right foot.
Forget Business Cards and a Portfolio Site<br>You might hear a lot of people say, “oh you need a portfolio website and business<br>cards before you can do anything, so step one is to do that!”.<br>Don’t listen to them, you’re going to waste money and time. This is just<br>a procrastination tactic.<br>It’s busy work that delays you from actually getting clients and making money.<br>While I do think having a personal brand is important, I don’t think having<br>a portfolio site is all that important. I didn’t even launch my own site until<br>recently and if you look around, you won’t find a portfolio of prior work. At<br>most you’ll find a few testimonials.<br>That sounds almost impossible right? How could you possibly get clients without<br>having a site, or a strong web presence. Simple, it comes down to how you<br>find your clients.<br>Trust me, no one is going to Google “find developer freelancer in NY” and then<br>find you. That’s not how it works. You need to reach out to people, and the people<br>you reach out to won’t care about your portfolio.<br>They care about how much value you add to their life. This could be how you can<br>help them solve a problem, or make them money. They don’t care that 2 years ago<br>you put up a site for Acme Incorporated.
Networking Is the Most Important Thing You Can Do<br>As a self taught programmer who didn’t goto university, I missed out on a lot of<br>opportunities to network with peers. So my first tip to you is, if you’re at<br>university right now, you should make a very conscious effort to build up a<br>network of friends who have similar goals as you.<br>You might be thinking “Nick, how is my awkward programming wizard buddy going<br>to help me land a freelance client?”.<br>You never know what will happen in the future. Maybe you graduate as close<br>friends and 3 months later he calls you because he needs your expertise or is<br>overwhelmed by work. Congrats, you just got a new client.<br>But it gets much better. Each person you add to your network expands your overall<br>reach exponentially. I’ve had strings of freelance gigs for years that originated<br>from a single connection.<br>Person A may reach out to you to complete a job, and if you do a good job then<br>person A may refer you to his friend for another job. The next thing you know, you’re<br>doing another job for a friend of a friend, all while the original people in...