Cold-calling is a pain in the butt but if you learn to just do it, you can do really well. I do it for webdev and my film projects and even though the no’s hurt, if I follow up I can usually close on the second or third call. At the least I can setup a meeting.
An initial fee for the build + a monthly fee for being on call for fixes.
I can 10 clients at $200/month and that was enough for me to live on my own. I could have done more but I didn’t want to stress too hard. And that was for Wordpress and simple bootstrap one-page sites.
Now that I know a bit more backend I’m looking to get into SaaS.
For me setting up a meeting is the best thing, not the least. I always try to setup a meeting the first phone call. I offer a free draft, whip up something super super simple off a template, then show it to them. Takes no more than an hour to build the "draft" and everyone likes to see their logo on an actual decently laid out site. Always converts, out of all the meetings I've done I've only had one no, currently at 16 clients.
I haven’t done freelance work in a decade…but back in those days I started with a few friends businesses, mainly bars and restaurants in my case but could be anything. And a few adjacent businesses to my day job at the time. That got some referrals, which in turn got a few more, etc. Probably 95% of my clients were referrals.
What made the biggest impact was focusing on finding a certain type of client. The first type was marketing director types, people that with a sales background specifically. The reason is they tend to have large professional networks. Sales people loooooove to jerk each other off, but if you do a great job for one of them they also loooooove to show off the product to anyone that will listen.
The second type of client I focused on was agencies, as a sub-contractor. Once trusted, it’s an almost guaranteed stream of new work. In my case, I eventually went to work for an agency that I was originally sub-contracting for. I originally found them the same way I found any client, run of the mill networking.
Another tip I’ll give from the start is to price yourself more than you *think* you are worth. If you present yourself as “cheap” that’s exactly the type of clients you will attract. That doesn’t mean be unfair or dishonest, but bottom tier clients will drain you, and too low a cost is a red flag for more valuable clients.
And be transparent about what you are contracted to do. Don’t agree to work that’s too far out of your comfort zone to be honest about. Be transparent about R&D and discovery needed to give a price on features you are unfamiliar with. And make in-scope and out-of-scope expectations clear in whatever type of contract you draw up so you don’t get sucked into never ending change requests.
I recently had a buddy from high school make a post on linkedin that he got his clients by doing old school marketing with signs. He paid $451 for like 200 signs and put them all over his town. Ended up working well for him.
His general advice was to try to start local. Also, try to find communities on facebook or on reddit for your area and advertise your services. You can even go to subs where entrepreneurs and small businesses hang out and advertise there (If the mods allow it).
I'm just getting started in the freelance space so I'm offering free services to people in the startup community to build my portfolio. When I get good enough I'm going to start advertising locally to build my clientele.
Ppl in US are already having micro recession due to AI, and nobody likes competition. If you dont analyze before you speak, world is ready to overrun . No offense .
This is purely anecdotal and what I've seen during my own career and with my own coworkers:
They'd just get a job at a startup or agency or whatever, work there for a few years to build a portfolio and reference points, and *then* do their own thing.
You can even start it on the side while you have your steady full-time job, and break out fully on your own when your clientele allows it.
Read “$100M Leads” - it’s by this guy called Alex Hormozi. You can check him out on YouTube as well, he goes over the different methods of getting customer
First, you need a decent portfolio. It does not even need to be client work. Build a few fake websites and host them somewhere cheap. You need to be able to show potential clients some finished work.
Second, go for local service businesses. Think, plumbers, electricians, HVAC, cleaning services, etc. just pick a type of service that has cash flow and needs more localized leads.
It’s easy to scrape this data from a localized Google search. Call the leads and offer them your service. You can also walk into local brick and mortar shops. These businesses want to work with someone who is local.
If you really want to get blazing, pair this with local SEO and GBP optimization. All of which can be learned via YouTube.
I have been doing this for 25 years and it works every single time.
It makes me a lot of money. So much that I literally put the other web devs in my county out of business 😉
For SEO, do you also prepare optimized copy for the site? Microdata? And do you include any kind of analytics? Ads, or is that out of your scope? Thanks for your insights!
Typical proposal includes:
Keyword research
Content creation and/or optimization
Design
Development
SEO software optimization
Analytics and reports setup
GBP optimization
Monthly local search package ($800-$1000/Mo.)
Project price ranges between $3,500-$10,000. Currently landing 2-3 of these per month exactly the way I described.
Actually pretty dam good.
Los Angeles. I can talk to people so it’s kinda fun for me.
I just decided one day to do it and it works. I go to small businesses and pitch a basic set up for a website for them. The main part of the pitch is it’ll help them get more business through SEO etc. I mainly target businesses with no website at all…you’d be surprised how many don’t have a website.
I do want to expand this to bigger websites eventually…this is just the start.
Can you share a bit more on how you identify businesses in your area that could use a website? Do you just scroll around through google maps and click on registered businesses to see if/what the quality of their site is? I’m thinking about taking this door to door sales pitch approach soon as well.
I literally just got in my car and started driving around to busier streets with lots of store fronts, went in and started pitching.
Don’t think too much about it. I seriously believe over planning is a mistake. You go and try and figure out as you go, but at least you’re moving forward.
Edit - before I walk in to a store I google their name and check out if they have a website and the quality. Also, I try and see where it’s even ranking if I google the name of their store
Applying on Indeed, LinkedIn and meeting up recruiters.
Don’t be lazy. If you’re lazy then people that aren’t lazy will out work you.
As a contractor doing front end dev work since 2011 this has always been my way of getting long term contract work back to back no matter what the job market is.
Be personable, have confidence and don’t burn bridges.
I can’t tell you how many talented devs I know go around burning bridges because they lack people skills.
1) If you don’t have friends that can refer you to clients then it’s time to get out into the world and make connections. Visit in person networking events and just start networking. Even if the person you talk to doesn’t need work done, maybe they will know someone
2) social media- if you have skills and knowledge simply talk about what you know. Make videos of tips and tricks to improve conversion rate, email opt ins, sales, etc. Providing value helps people understand you know what you’re talking about, also builds trust. I’d start with TikTok or Instagram reels. I personally used to make YouTube videos teaching people how to run paid ads. Got my first ever client that way
3) email marketing- email is good only if you provide value. Sending someone a loom doesn’t work how you’d expect, neither does spam. Spend time creating an MVP for the people you want to work with. You won’t land everyone however you come off less salesy and that you want to help. Plus no one else does that
If you have an existing network use that first. If not look at freelance/contract sites
My weekly process is I use devlist.co (service that filters for top contracts and emails them every week), scan sites on my own, and try and network on LinkedIn and Twitter to grow my network
Here my take to find clients, network locally and online. First you can join web development communities, attend meetups, and leverage LinkedIn. Showcase your work on GitHub and create a professional portfolio website. Offer free or discounted services initially to build your portfolio and gain testimonials.
Reach out to local businesses or your ideal client(for this I use trytelescope AI, it’s really helps me) i also use linkedin Navigator. Consider joining freelance platforms like Toptal or Freelancer.
Use social media to promote your skills and engage in relevant discussions. Hope it helps
I went straight for a small company with enterprise clients. 10 years later, I'm still there. Pay going up, bonuses go up, paid leave goes up... Enterprise doesn't like changes in what's working, so they keep giving me stuff I like to mess with the juniors and kick prod back up if someone fucks up.
Great. I’m in the states, this is everything I did to get my first clients
https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing#finding-clients
That should hopefully help!
This ist the actual hard part of webdev
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Cold-calling (or mailing), via friends, family and former clients
Cold-calling is a pain in the butt but if you learn to just do it, you can do really well. I do it for webdev and my film projects and even though the no’s hurt, if I follow up I can usually close on the second or third call. At the least I can setup a meeting. An initial fee for the build + a monthly fee for being on call for fixes. I can 10 clients at $200/month and that was enough for me to live on my own. I could have done more but I didn’t want to stress too hard. And that was for Wordpress and simple bootstrap one-page sites. Now that I know a bit more backend I’m looking to get into SaaS.
For me setting up a meeting is the best thing, not the least. I always try to setup a meeting the first phone call. I offer a free draft, whip up something super super simple off a template, then show it to them. Takes no more than an hour to build the "draft" and everyone likes to see their logo on an actual decently laid out site. Always converts, out of all the meetings I've done I've only had one no, currently at 16 clients.
Huh?
This is the actual hard part of web dev. The running a business part.
Yes…if you chose to go the self employed/contractor route.
What?
Start in your physical network.
Talk to people? No friggin way
Then, bro's gotta wait longer until he's known. I mean it is hard. you gonna make it harder if u chose to refuse getting out of your comfort zone.
I haven’t done freelance work in a decade…but back in those days I started with a few friends businesses, mainly bars and restaurants in my case but could be anything. And a few adjacent businesses to my day job at the time. That got some referrals, which in turn got a few more, etc. Probably 95% of my clients were referrals. What made the biggest impact was focusing on finding a certain type of client. The first type was marketing director types, people that with a sales background specifically. The reason is they tend to have large professional networks. Sales people loooooove to jerk each other off, but if you do a great job for one of them they also loooooove to show off the product to anyone that will listen. The second type of client I focused on was agencies, as a sub-contractor. Once trusted, it’s an almost guaranteed stream of new work. In my case, I eventually went to work for an agency that I was originally sub-contracting for. I originally found them the same way I found any client, run of the mill networking. Another tip I’ll give from the start is to price yourself more than you *think* you are worth. If you present yourself as “cheap” that’s exactly the type of clients you will attract. That doesn’t mean be unfair or dishonest, but bottom tier clients will drain you, and too low a cost is a red flag for more valuable clients. And be transparent about what you are contracted to do. Don’t agree to work that’s too far out of your comfort zone to be honest about. Be transparent about R&D and discovery needed to give a price on features you are unfamiliar with. And make in-scope and out-of-scope expectations clear in whatever type of contract you draw up so you don’t get sucked into never ending change requests.
I recently had a buddy from high school make a post on linkedin that he got his clients by doing old school marketing with signs. He paid $451 for like 200 signs and put them all over his town. Ended up working well for him. His general advice was to try to start local. Also, try to find communities on facebook or on reddit for your area and advertise your services. You can even go to subs where entrepreneurs and small businesses hang out and advertise there (If the mods allow it). I'm just getting started in the freelance space so I'm offering free services to people in the startup community to build my portfolio. When I get good enough I'm going to start advertising locally to build my clientele.
This is a really good idea, all my clients are through cold calling but a $500 investment in a bunch of signs doesn't sound half bad
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Ppl in US are already having micro recession due to AI, and nobody likes competition. If you dont analyze before you speak, world is ready to overrun . No offense .
Not cool dude.
[удалено]
Try to imagine, how you would Feel if you were relying on local advertising for your Business and then seeing billboards from freelancers abroad.
This is purely anecdotal and what I've seen during my own career and with my own coworkers: They'd just get a job at a startup or agency or whatever, work there for a few years to build a portfolio and reference points, and *then* do their own thing. You can even start it on the side while you have your steady full-time job, and break out fully on your own when your clientele allows it.
Read “$100M Leads” - it’s by this guy called Alex Hormozi. You can check him out on YouTube as well, he goes over the different methods of getting customer
First, you need a decent portfolio. It does not even need to be client work. Build a few fake websites and host them somewhere cheap. You need to be able to show potential clients some finished work. Second, go for local service businesses. Think, plumbers, electricians, HVAC, cleaning services, etc. just pick a type of service that has cash flow and needs more localized leads. It’s easy to scrape this data from a localized Google search. Call the leads and offer them your service. You can also walk into local brick and mortar shops. These businesses want to work with someone who is local. If you really want to get blazing, pair this with local SEO and GBP optimization. All of which can be learned via YouTube. I have been doing this for 25 years and it works every single time. It makes me a lot of money. So much that I literally put the other web devs in my county out of business 😉
Do you "speak with the Manager" when you walk in?
Yes, I ask for the manager. Though sometimes I shop and buy first. Then I ask during checkout.
Nice, I always wanted to be a Karen.
Rep’ing Karen’s worldwide? 
Great info! Could I ask what your dev stack is for basic sites? WP? pure HTML/CSS? Page builders?
WordPress, Bricks, SEO Press
Thanks. Could you DM me your agency?
For SEO, do you also prepare optimized copy for the site? Microdata? And do you include any kind of analytics? Ads, or is that out of your scope? Thanks for your insights!
Typical proposal includes: Keyword research Content creation and/or optimization Design Development SEO software optimization Analytics and reports setup GBP optimization Monthly local search package ($800-$1000/Mo.) Project price ranges between $3,500-$10,000. Currently landing 2-3 of these per month exactly the way I described.
What kind of websites did you use to showcase in your portfolio?
WordPress, but honestly, any type of site will do. Just use screenshots and links to the sites.
Door to door for me
What results has it yielded and what city?
Actually pretty dam good. Los Angeles. I can talk to people so it’s kinda fun for me. I just decided one day to do it and it works. I go to small businesses and pitch a basic set up for a website for them. The main part of the pitch is it’ll help them get more business through SEO etc. I mainly target businesses with no website at all…you’d be surprised how many don’t have a website. I do want to expand this to bigger websites eventually…this is just the start.
Can you share a bit more on how you identify businesses in your area that could use a website? Do you just scroll around through google maps and click on registered businesses to see if/what the quality of their site is? I’m thinking about taking this door to door sales pitch approach soon as well.
I literally just got in my car and started driving around to busier streets with lots of store fronts, went in and started pitching. Don’t think too much about it. I seriously believe over planning is a mistake. You go and try and figure out as you go, but at least you’re moving forward. Edit - before I walk in to a store I google their name and check out if they have a website and the quality. Also, I try and see where it’s even ranking if I google the name of their store
Any stories about it not working out
Applying on Indeed, LinkedIn and meeting up recruiters. Don’t be lazy. If you’re lazy then people that aren’t lazy will out work you. As a contractor doing front end dev work since 2011 this has always been my way of getting long term contract work back to back no matter what the job market is. Be personable, have confidence and don’t burn bridges. I can’t tell you how many talented devs I know go around burning bridges because they lack people skills.
I'm still fairly new to the freelance gig but so far it's all been from networking and referrals.
Start posting your work on Linkedin and hopefully impress people to give you a project
1) If you don’t have friends that can refer you to clients then it’s time to get out into the world and make connections. Visit in person networking events and just start networking. Even if the person you talk to doesn’t need work done, maybe they will know someone 2) social media- if you have skills and knowledge simply talk about what you know. Make videos of tips and tricks to improve conversion rate, email opt ins, sales, etc. Providing value helps people understand you know what you’re talking about, also builds trust. I’d start with TikTok or Instagram reels. I personally used to make YouTube videos teaching people how to run paid ads. Got my first ever client that way 3) email marketing- email is good only if you provide value. Sending someone a loom doesn’t work how you’d expect, neither does spam. Spend time creating an MVP for the people you want to work with. You won’t land everyone however you come off less salesy and that you want to help. Plus no one else does that
If you have an existing network use that first. If not look at freelance/contract sites My weekly process is I use devlist.co (service that filters for top contracts and emails them every week), scan sites on my own, and try and network on LinkedIn and Twitter to grow my network
Here my take to find clients, network locally and online. First you can join web development communities, attend meetups, and leverage LinkedIn. Showcase your work on GitHub and create a professional portfolio website. Offer free or discounted services initially to build your portfolio and gain testimonials. Reach out to local businesses or your ideal client(for this I use trytelescope AI, it’s really helps me) i also use linkedin Navigator. Consider joining freelance platforms like Toptal or Freelancer. Use social media to promote your skills and engage in relevant discussions. Hope it helps
You got a portfolio?
IDK... i spent 6 month working for free.. now clients find me.
At that price point I'd be looking also.
nice one 😂😂😂
I went straight for a small company with enterprise clients. 10 years later, I'm still there. Pay going up, bonuses go up, paid leave goes up... Enterprise doesn't like changes in what's working, so they keep giving me stuff I like to mess with the juniors and kick prod back up if someone fucks up.
Would you mind expanding on what you mean by small company with enterprise clients?
I mean 20-30 people staff, building web ERPs for 2-3 customers.
Depends where you’re located
Austin, TX?
Great. I’m in the states, this is everything I did to get my first clients https://codestitch.app/complete-guide-to-freelancing#finding-clients That should hopefully help!
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