While I don't suggest this to be universal, I think you'll find that the majority of freelancers don't have first clients, they have first favors: a buddy who n

While I don't suggest this to be universal, I think you'll find that the majority of freelancers don't have first clients, they have first favors: a buddy who needs a website, an old acquaintance from high school or college who remembers you being the one who knew what RAM was an acronym for, etc. I'd say, broadly, there are two types of early freelancing requests: 1. The prospective client knows exactly what the finished product needs to be. He does not, on the other hand, know what technology is necessary or how long/expensive it will be. (These are the clients who say sentences like "Hey, how much would it cost per month to have a web page?"). These are typical first clients, who aren't quite aware of the gulf between "how much effort it is to set up a five-page Wordpress" and "how much value a five-page Wordpress brings to a small services firm," and tend to think of technology as an investment. 2. The prospective client who has read an article or a book about something like SEO or social media or something like that and doesn't really know what it entails but feels as though they need it. These people generally think of technology as a cost -- or, at the very least, they don't know exactly what they'd be investing in. To answer the question: I got my first client way back in tenth grade by being referred by a non-profit for which I had set up a Wordpress account; I got in touch with the non-profit through my high school's web design club; I heard about the web design club through one of my buddies in Algebra II.