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Ask HN: Where do you freelancers find your clients/work?

• bdunn 14y ago
  I had a lot of luck frequenting events where small business owners are (i.e. people with problems and money.) Networking events, mixers, business lectures, and so on. I also spent a LOT of time cultivating my past clients list and encouraging a steady stream of referrals. When I was running my consultancy (before jumping ship to products), I had to maintain $100k+ revenue a month in client projects. Let's just say I got pretty good at the whole "getting work" thing :-)
  • icey 14y ago
    To drill down a bit: How did you find these events?
    • bdunn 14y ago
      Chamber of Commerce, any technology partnership groups, meetup.com, there are a million of these sort of events in any decently sized area.
• timjahn 14y ago
  While you're specifically asking about finding your first few clients, this previous thread has some great overall advice for finding clients in general as a freelancer: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4585435 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4585435 Also, we recently launched the beta of matchist (http://matchist.com http://matchist.com) to help freelance developers like yourself find quality clients and get paid on time, every time.
• t_j_m 14y ago
  One thing that can be a bit silly but really works to a degree. Is to dress and act a little bit geeky, do not be shy to walk around with a t-shirt or a hoodie with the python,ruby or some linux logo on it. Talk about software and computing with people you meet. Market your self as a guy that know a lot about software and the word will come around. I have met several people for example in the gym that have offered me a job or some consulting work because they have seen me with a linux t-shirt on. Of course they did not threw me a job because of the t-shirt but it led to a small chit-chat and then it escalated from there.