Ask HN: How did you find your first freelance gig?

[blohs]

Hello HN'ers,

I am a full-time developer planning to switch into to freelancing. I am bit scared/worried about maintaining a constant flow of work to pay bills.

- How did you find your first freelance gig? - How do you maintain constant workflow? Manage stress with finding work? - Do you have any advice for the first-time freelancer?

Thank you so much for your time :)

[ioddly]

> I am bit scared/worried about maintaining a constant flow of work to pay bills.

You should be! The key to paying bills is not to get a constant flow of work, which will take a while, it's to live off of a portion of your income and save the rest. IMO you should have at least 6 months of expenses in the bank before you start freelancing. This also ameliorates a lot of the stress related to finding work, and means you won't feel pressured to accept or pursue bad work.

I got my first freelance gig by posting on the HN whoishiring thread, which I do recommend doing.

[chrisa]

My biggest tips:

- Become a "visible expert" in your space. By that I mean give talks at meetups, publish a blog about the technologies you want to work with, etc.

- One of the best things I did was to write an ebook about React. Even a short ebook can give you instant credibility (even if no one ever reads it!) - the fact that you wrote it says a lot about your commitment level.

- Be open minded about what kinds of contracts you will get. Generally, freelancers fall into a couple of different buckets: full time staff augmentation, 1/2 time or less ongoing help, one off project help.

I've written up more tips here: https://www.breakintoconsulting.com/ - and feel free to email me if you want more specific feedback or info! (email in profile)

[kevin42]

For me it's all about the networking.

Make sure you put time into staying in touch with people you know, especially people you have worked with before. Tell them you are looking for work. Talk to them about the interesting stuff you are doing.

I've noticed that the more excited I am about work I'm doing, or the work they are doing, the more opportunities I have.

The biggest contracts I have ever received started with a conversation over some beers, playing darts after hours, etc. A lot of listening to their problems, offering advice and saying "that sounds really interesting, I'd love to help with that!"

You have to do this even when you are really busy doing work you already have. Keep the pipeline full, it can take a long time for opportunities to show up, so stay in people's mind constantly.

[dizzystar]

First was just a bit of a shot, then a rejection for employment that was turned into a freelance gig. That's actually how I get quite a few gigs. I guess I come across as a horrible employee?

"Constant flow" is just semantics. If seeing your contracts end the day before Thanksgiving removes your festive mood for the next 60 days, freelancing probably isn't for you.

[mattbgates]

I applied to someone looking for a webmaster for their website on Craigslist and that led me to a bunch of clients. I've since gone down to just one or two nowadays. Hope to get more someday again, but for now, I took a long break.

[DoreenMichele]

I started with a service. See:

https://digitalmicroenterprise.blogspot.com/2018/05/starting...

[muzani]

I got hired by one of the freelancers in my company. I worked with him, did a really good job, didn't give up. That's basically how I get referrals for almost all my clients. Just work really hard and stick to your word.

[wingerlang]

I found a job ad posted, and then went to a normal job interview. I'm not even sure I realized it was a freelance job until after the fact. But I worked with them for a few years on and off anyway.

[blohs]

Are you still freelancing? Was it easy for you to find other clients after this first client?

[wingerlang]

I don't, and I didn't really look for any other that as I got full time employment after a year (different company).

[cm2012]

Reaching out to my network.

[sharemywin]

What are your skills?

[blohs]

Ruby and Javascript.

[jacobcohen11]

What have you built with those languages?

[jryan49]

Networking from an old co-worker.