I was a freelance designer and web developer for about a dozen years before I started my current gig. Approximately 80% of my clients came either directly or i

I was a freelance designer and web developer for about a dozen years before I started my current gig. Approximately 80% of my clients came either directly or indirectly through contacts I had met in the few years before I became a freelancer. Even for the other 20%, the knowledge I picked up during my dilbert years helped me enormously -- if I hadn't had that first-hand experience of my now-customers point of view, I'd have been far less effective at my job: I wouldn't have understood what they needed (which is often not the same as what they ask for, or what they think they need) or how best to fill those needs. I'm a strong believer that to be a good freelancer, you have to have put in at least some time on the other side of the desk. All the good freelance money is in corporate work. Startups can't afford you. Mom-and-pops need so much hand-holding and education that it's not worth putting in the hours teaching them why what they want is physically impossible or why that custom layout costs more than the wordpress template they found on crappyfreewordpresstemplates dot com or etc. Big slow corporations are the ones with both the need and the money to spend, but to work with them you really need to be able to speak their language.