[brudgers]

How realistic it is depends on how many people you know who will pay you several thousand dollars to do what you do. Finding clients isn't like finding a job - a new website is a change to business operations.

Client development can take years - relatively few people pull the trigger on $3000 expenditures each day.

And when they do, why should they hire you?

[grokaholic]

Will have a clearer idea around Sept. Then I'll know where my skills/portfolio will be, and can test out what price the market will bear for my skills. Could be more or less than I expect. Rather than wait till I have total certainty, will just go for it, find out if things work, and if not, learn and adjust. Unless there's some smarter way to do this with more guarantees that I'm overlooking, then will do that. I'm willing to try and a fail for years if needed. Reason for the 1 year goal is not because I'm impatient and will quit if things don't work right away. It's to make sure that I'm not overly patient--waiting years until absolutely sure that everything is guaranteed and understood in advance before leaping in.

Agree with your point that not everybody drops $2k on one project. So if that happens I'll just have to meet the $2k goal by getting more customers paying less per project. A lazy way to introduce myself to lots of clients right away is to sign up with a temp agency like RHI's Creative Group that will match my skills to clients for a cut of my hourly wage. Having temped before, I know this is a way to make lots of connections in a short period of time. Would need to validate my worth to the agency first, but that's still easier than doing the same to several clients. Along the same lines: subcontracting. Really, will try everything, see what works.

How did you snag your first clients? Were you already established as a dev through work at a company before you started freelancing? Or did you freelance before having dev jobs on your resume?