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Ask HN: How did you build business as a freelancer?

20 points by habosa ↗ HN
I'm an experienced Android developer, always considered doing freelance work but no idea how to begin (only ever been employed by large companies).

So for all the successful freelancers out there:

  * How did you get your first customer?  

  * Where do you get most of your work?

  * Do you work alone?  What about design, etc?
  
  * How many hours a week are you working?

  * Are you making more or less money than you would at a BigCo?

4 comments

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cm2012
I am a marketing freelancer, not programmer. I just started but have enough clients that I feel successful.

1) Reached out to my network and said I just became a consultant, posted on LinkedIn, got my first two clients.

2) All from networking and referrals so far. People like the marketing article i put on my website and posted to linkedin.

3) i work from my house. Not alone, usually my dog is with me :)

4) Currently making double per hour what I made at BigCo, around half the hours, so similar salary.

wayn3
step 1: call yourself consultant. freelancers are bottom-feeding randos who try to sell to budgetless SMBs.

step 2: you are now running a business. your #1 priority is to sell services, not to actually provide them. sell your skills, outsource as much as possible. just bill extra for design and then hire someone to do the designs.

step 3: ???

step 4: profit

constantlm
Software engineer freelancer here. Started freelancing full-time in January 2017 and currently making a decent living, but not yet the salary I used to make. Another freelancer I spoke to recently mentioned it took him two years to reach his former salary.

1/2) Almost all the meaningful work I've done so far has come from my network. I've also picked up some nice jobs from Slack channels.

3) At this point I mostly work alone. I have a client which subcontracts to me and provides me with a project manager, which is amazing. I also know a designer to which I'll outsource design when I think it's needed.

4) This fluctuates wildly for me so I can't really give a specific number.

5) Slightly less at the moment, but would certainly be able to get and probably surpass my former salary with focus and grafting. However, I try and live a more balanced life at the moment as well as work on a side project, so salary isn't my #1 concern.

vijayr
what kind of projects do you do? Could you also link to the slack channels, if that is okay?