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I love your site Will, it's a really nicely designed, to the point resume page! Just out of interest how do you find these types of clients you mention? I gues

I love your site Will, it's a really nicely designed, to the point resume page! Just out of interest how do you find these types of clients you mention? I guess you're looking for medium sized "real world" non-tech companies that you can come into an sprinkle your wizardy tech magic over, to either save, or make them more, money... I'm thinking about going roughly the same route after I have some contracting money built up to give me a buffer.

willholloway 13y ago
Thank you! Building the site was easy with a template from wrapbootstrap.com that I customized. It only took ~2-3 hours from inception to launch. I love the picture of the Triborough bridge because its just a short walk from where I am and gives the viewer an instant location for me which is important because one of my advantages is that I am a quick subway ride to Manhattan. I have gotten good clients from referrals from family and from people I meet at parties and in bars. Sometimes you have to do it Ricky Roma style, but with ethics. Here in NYC there exists a cornucopia of entrepreneurs with revenue that absolutely need someone who can guide them through a world of technology that they desperately need but do not understand. Watch Glengarry GlenRoss, internalize the essence of Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin's characters, then throw out all of their manipulation and abuse and apply idealistic hacker ethics. Be a good person, but realize that this business is for closers only. Some of my best clients though are from Hacker News Freelancer threads, but theres nothing like the thrill of closing a contract with someone you just met at a bar. My best advice to you if you go this way is to have multiple clients that need ~10 hours per week of work, or always have short projects in the pipeline. This way you are less needy for the client and your income is diversified. I believe that there are a lot more businesses that would benefit from ~10 solid hours of a smart developers time per week than there are that need something brand new built from scratch. This also makes you more affordable. Clients are running businesses and are busy and this way when they get caught up with stuff and can't get back to you for a couple days you just work on another clients stuff or your own side projects. I love working this way, but I might be taking a short term on-site contract soon because it's a chance to work with very cool, very smart people in a great environment and collaborate.

willholloway 13y ago

Thank you! Building the site was easy with a template from wrapbootstrap.com that I customized. It only took ~2-3 hours from inception to launch. I love the picture of the Triborough bridge because its just a short walk from where I am and gives the viewer an instant location for me which is important because one of my advantages is that I am a quick subway ride to Manhattan. I have gotten good clients from referrals from family and from people I meet at parties and in bars. Sometimes you have to do it Ricky Roma style, but with ethics. Here in NYC there exists a cornucopia of entrepreneurs with revenue that absolutely need someone who can guide them through a world of technology that they desperately need but do not understand. Watch Glengarry GlenRoss, internalize the essence of Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin's characters, then throw out all of their manipulation and abuse and apply idealistic hacker ethics. Be a good person, but realize that this business is for closers only. Some of my best clients though are from Hacker News Freelancer threads, but theres nothing like the thrill of closing a contract with someone you just met at a bar. My best advice to you if you go this way is to have multiple clients that need ~10 hours per week of work, or always have short projects in the pipeline. This way you are less needy for the client and your income is diversified. I believe that there are a lot more businesses that would benefit from ~10 solid hours of a smart developers time per week than there are that need something brand new built from scratch. This also makes you more affordable. Clients are running businesses and are busy and this way when they get caught up with stuff and can't get back to you for a couple days you just work on another clients stuff or your own side projects. I love working this way, but I might be taking a short term on-site contract soon because it's a chance to work with very cool, very smart people in a great environment and collaborate.