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I've been freelancing / consulting for just over a year myself and am discovering more of the process myself. Here's what I've done so far.. - Reach out to you

by smiler 14y ago

I've been freelancing / consulting for just over a year myself and am discovering more of the process myself. Here's what I've done so far.. - Reach out to your existing network - if you have friends who have done freelancing / consulting, find out what companies they did freelancing / consulting for - chances are those companies still need it. - Offer to meet for coffee / lunch / dinner. I'm based in the UK and was trying via e-mail to speak to a potential client. It just wasn't happening. They are based in the US. So I called them up and offered to meet for dinner there at a time convenient for them - they accepted and I had the dinner last week. It is very easy for someone to decline a phone call / conference call. It's much harder for someone to do that when they know you have made an effort to turn up in person - they also have to eat so meal times work good. - I find being honest is the best route to go. They expect you to know what you're doing! I think it's fine to say - I've just stepped out of employment and now I'm looking to build a business myself in what I've been doing - people respect you for trying to start a business! - Don't offer to do something for free too early on. The person you're pitching to is not working for free and they won't be expecting you to work for frre either? Yes, you may need to offer something for free to land a client initially - but do not do it with open-ended development!! Instead suggest you do an analysis of their system etc and write up a report and how you'd improve things - at least that has a fixed scope. Or ask for a dataset and show simply how you can use that data to give them some new numbers they don't yet have.

polyfractal 14y ago
Thanks for the advice! I'll give the honesty (without self-degradation aspect) a go. I've done freelance programming in the past, but the gigs were mostly "build us a CRUD app" type jobs. Paid well, relatively easy work...but not really want I want to be doing. I'd rather be doing bigger picture work like funnel optimization, testing, metrics, etc. Unfortunately, I also don't have as much experience with this, which is why I think my default instinct was to offer "for free!" as a risk-reducer. The analysis or quick report on their processes is a good idea, and would make me feel more comfortable in the situation I think.
roel_v 14y ago
"I'm based in the UK and was trying via e-mail to speak to a potential client. It just wasn't happening. They are based in the US. So I called them up and offered to meet for dinner there at a time convenient for them" I'm probably missing something here, but tell me you didn't fly to the US to have dinner with a potential client you were cold-selling yourself to?
- smiler 14y ago
  It was not cold-selling no. I had worked with them before in a different role so I was a known quantity. I also combined it with a meeting with another client I was cold-selling to - albeit through a recommendation from a friend and had already submitted a proposal. In total it cost me about $2000 but am expecting work to come from it.

by smiler 14y ago

polyfractal 14y ago

Thanks for the advice! I'll give the honesty (without self-degradation aspect) a go. I've done freelance programming in the past, but the gigs were mostly "build us a CRUD app" type jobs. Paid well, relatively easy work...but not really want I want to be doing. I'd rather be doing bigger picture work like funnel optimization, testing, metrics, etc. Unfortunately, I also don't have as much experience with this, which is why I think my default instinct was to offer "for free!" as a risk-reducer. The analysis or quick report on their processes is a good idea, and would make me feel more comfortable in the situation I think.

roel_v 14y ago

"I'm based in the UK and was trying via e-mail to speak to a potential client. It just wasn't happening. They are based in the US. So I called them up and offered to meet for dinner there at a time convenient for them" I'm probably missing something here, but tell me you didn't fly to the US to have dinner with a potential client you were cold-selling yourself to?

smiler 14y ago
It was not cold-selling no. I had worked with them before in a different role so I was a known quantity. I also combined it with a meeting with another client I was cold-selling to - albeit through a recommendation from a friend and had already submitted a proposal. In total it cost me about $2000 but am expecting work to come from it.