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i worked for near free for a few months to prove my chops and built up a bunch of clients + a portfolio and started from there.
by misiti3780 8y ago
i worked for near free for a few months to prove my chops and built up a bunch of clients + a portfolio and started from there.
- starpilot 8y agoWhere did you find clients?
- misiti3780 8y agoi reached out to a bunch of start ups and offered to work for free basically -- it was 8 years ago, so i think times were a lot different, there were a lot less start up backs then, i think its probably a lot easier to find paid work
- 52-6F-62 8y agoI did something similar during my brief stint. Also volunteered. I highly recommend United Nations Online Volunteers. I cannot recommend this enough: --- https://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en https://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en --- Otherwise, it was probing friends for connections. For instance, I had friends who worked in bakeries and restaurants (advantage of living downtown in an urban city), and I offered services to their managers or business owners. Often it would get whittled down to me offering the service for free before they accepted. Once you have a [relevant] portfolio going, then it becomes easier to approach like businesses. I never sold to large clients so I can't comment there. Another good place to look is survey your local sports and other non-profit organizations and determine whether you think you could offer them something improved upon what they currently have for web or other operational tools. You'll get shot down a lot—especially at first, so don't let it get to you. It can be a bit of a slog at the start. I'll add that if you're currently working full-time, then stay that way and start on the side. At least while you build up a portfolio, etc. If you're just exiting school or have some personal financial runway of any kind then that changes things, but I can't tell you what to do there.