| There are many many many places to find clients. patio11 talks about it some in his writings/podcasts/etc. Brennan Dunn talks about it heavily in his Consultancy Masterclass. But here is a tidbit for free. Join your local chamber of commerce. Set up a small seminar on a topic closely related to what you do. Invite local business owners to it (do it for free if you can, or charge a small amount..depends on how well established you are). GIVE THEM ALL THE INFORMATION THEY WOULD NEED TO DO WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. Pass out your email address, and let business owners contact you. You will have stablished your knowledge and authority, and even though you gave them a 4 hour speech on how to do internet marketing (or whatever), they wont have the time or comfort level to do it themselves...but now they will know one person who can. Just one way to get started. |
I began my own freelance career by browsing http://jobs.perl.org and responding to the more interesting requests for contract work. That was like 7 years ago; pretty much everything I've done since then has been through referrals.
It's just a question of getting yourself kickstarted. There's plenty of great clients out there who need help, and aren't using crappy lowest-bidder sites (because they care about good work and are willing to pay for it).
Good luck... you can do it.