When I started out freelancing I never had any friends and I am from a remote town, So I didn't knew how do I get started and even though I knew production level code and a good architecture design nobody was there to give a chance
Here in this article I am going share with some few tricks that I learned over my experience as dev freelancer and you can ask me who are you and why should I listen to you.
Well I am just 17 and I have been doing freelancing about an year now If I could do it then why can't you. Don't mistake me I am not that star kid who is excelling in every single subject. I am just an average mark scorer except that I like computers and I slowly and gradually started studying computers
And learned to code in a year of time and then practiced coding for another 6 months before I jumped into freelancing.
Make Yourself Standout
I know it's really vague but that's what I did honestly I didn't you know anyone or any contact since I haven't gone to any college or a bootcamp, So I absolutely have no contact moreover I am from a remote town, and english isn't my primary language.
Most of the times when you apply for a freelance gig nobody will even consider you or notice you, So Here's what I want you to do
- Be so confident, example like "I can make any app design that you could think of, I have designed netflix clone and it performs just as smooth as the orginal app" even though you might have some insecurities. Just be confident that you can do anything that they could throw at you.
- Maintain your github profile, if you ask me this is really both important for your freelance career and your corporate career. So please do use git and github often, it matters to a lot of companies and agencies.
As you can see I am just starting my careers and I am so keen in maintaining my github profile.
- Have an amazing looking resume, it's not even hard to make one. This is a secret, just go to canva.com and type resume's find amazing templates and if you don't have any work experience then remove that section and keep it as a skills section or your experience in making complex things.
There are lots of things you could do to standout most of them might be really small things that doesn't matter you to be a good developer but this is how you make a good impression.
Exposure Don't Pay Bills
Most of the people that you come across, they will ask you to work for experience but trust me exposure won't and never going to pay your bills only your own exposure can make you money.
Don't hesitate to ask for the money and if it's your first ever gig, just make sure that before you deliver the project, make sure to get the full payment or you might get fooled.
Mostly if it's not your first gig ever or you know that person very much, ask for an advance and make sure to setup thresholds between timelines of the project.
This is really going to help you so well.
Secret To Referrals And Keeping The Same Client
If you want referrals from your previous client to their friends or family, it's really simple and it might be a little time consuming for you if you are really busy.
Most of the high ticket or high valued gigs comes from referral because they trust you because of the person's word. So I think you should try this point out.
It's simple, yet most ignore it out of our laziness, here it comes
Be friendly, and over-deliver the product which means do more than what they ask you to do, I know you are working on an hourly basis and stuff but trust me when you do it, first time for every client that you have
They will always keep sticking on with you and they will also starts to refer you to their friends.
Don't Hesitate To Ask For Referrals
Well, most of the people might be shy to ask to their clients to ask for an referral, but trust me it happens every where
Before you start thinking more about it, let me tell you go for it.
Have a document on what they want
If you don't understand what I am talking about then, think of this scenario.
Where a client comes in and says about a project idea and asks for a quote, then you both agree on the quote and you start working on the project and the client is good so far with you but
When you go for a final review with them, they tell you that they have asked for a feature that you have left out, but you gave quote without including that feature and that feature is going to take a half week
So, now you see before you start any project make sure that you and your client are on same page, Have a written documentation and email them the documentation, just in case that if there's confusion you could point out that in the document there was no such feature
If the client still wants that feature, you can charge them on hourly basis. which you both should agree on. If the client asks only for a really small change that is only going to take you under an hour then do it for free which increases your long time commitment with the client
Conclusion
If you really liked the consider sharing with your fellow mates and other freelancers that you know and there are lots of new and niche topic articles are coming that you people have asked to me,
Well if you want a part of this article comment down below, I will surely make a part two for you guys,
Thank you