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by ianterrell 5007 days ago
If you're doing web or mobile development or anything that is contracted out regularly, I highly recommend you make relationships with the creative/development agencies in your area. My experience is that the decent ones always have more leads than they can execute on at any given time, which leads to two scenarios:

1) They want to grow, lack full development strength, and will subcontract you to work under their name. The rates aren't as high as you could get on your own, but it's still good pay and you didn't have to go selling. Attend a few meetings, live with a project manager, but work from home and build the relationship.

2) Projects that are too small for them to consider are immediately passed to you (and their other staff). "Sorry, we can't help you with this one, but we can recommend this guy who's done lots of good work for us."
3 comments
jreposa 5007 days ago
Agreed. Although, as a person who runs an agency, I do get a lot of emails a day from freelancers. So, you should try to stand out by showing your best work up front and be a real person. Don't try to sound like you're a team of 12 by saying "we" and attaching your company logo to everything. Simply say...

"My Name is protoweek and I really like what you guys are doing. I especially like your app XYZ. If you need help on a project I'd love to work with you. Here are the last three apps I've published. If you need an invite code let me know.

http://www.protoweek.com/app1 http://www.protoweek.com/app2 http://www.protoweek.com/app3 "

Something as simple as that usually gets my attention.

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timjahn 5007 days ago
This is great advice. As a former freelance developer, I used to do this often and honestly, it's not a bad deal. As you mentioned, although you're generally going to get a lower rate, you get regular work and you're no longer the sales team, project manager, etc.
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RileyJames 5007 days ago
We've found creative/digital agencies are a great source of work for freelancers.

In Australia at least agencies pay very well, they are billing to the client at a high rate, so the freelancer rates are easy to accomodate for.

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