I've been consulting/freelancing for about 13 years professionally, full-time. Started when I was 23. From day 1 until today, for me, it's all been "who you k

I've been consulting/freelancing for about 13 years professionally, full-time. Started when I was 23. From day 1 until today, for me, it's all been "who you know" and "tell a friend" when it comes to getting new business. I started asking friends and family if they needed a website, help with web work, or an office IT guy. I found a few people who needed a website that way, did a great job, and they told more people about my services, getting me a bit more work. How I REALLY started getting business is when I agreed to do some IT work for a couple real estate offices about once a week. The offices agreed to let me offer my web development services to the agents when I was there. I got a lot of new clients, and those agents knew people in all types of businesses and started referring me to others, and from there, it's been non-stop word of mouth. I also hooked up with a couple print-advertising businesses locally that needed to refer off their web work. I stopped doing IT work after the first year. I advertised once in the Yellow pages in 2004. Got 1 client out of it, and it was NOT a good situation. I will only work by word of mouth anymore because it's too stressful otherwise. Not to mention, selling myself is MUCH easier when the client is referred by a good friend of their's who has already told them that I am THE person to work with. That way, when they call or email me, they are ready to get to work, and I don't have to wine and dine - which I suck at so much it's embarrassing. I'm not offering advice here, just sharing my story because we all get the ball rolling differently, and hopefully reading about all our experiences helps you think outside the box to find your way into a long-lasting freelancing business.