Freelancing advice

Question

Hey everyone, hope all is well!I am looking for some guidance on how to start freelancing. I am currently building up projects to look for junior frontend developer roles. I am self taught and have been pushing to learn as much as possible for some time now. I've seen some videos on freelancing to build up projects to put on your portfolio. In all honesty it would also help out financially since the job I am at right now is not paying the bills and I find myself needing help from family members on a monthly basis. Has anyone done this successfully and has it helped ? Any advice will help greatly. Thank you in advace!

Muscat · Accepted Answer

It definitely will take time to build up your brand. Don't undersell yourself either. Make sure you're charging *at least* the market rate. You could also try starting with a portfolio first and deploying that so people will have a reference point. Social media is a free form of marketing as well!

Freelancing is hard work with uncertain income. I think it might be easier to focus on landing your first full-time position.

undertone · Answer

I'd just put up a profile on UpWork with your skillset and see if anyone actually takes any interest. You may also have to do some outbound on LinkedIn to see if anyone bites, but I feel like the guidance here is to just put yourself out there and try getting a client.

Kadoo83qpsji · Answer

Two things:1) one hack might be to go to small business events at coworking spaces and just give out your business card because a lot of those entrepreneurs need websites or whatever. You’d probably be the only dev there doing that. Meetups are are pretty good as long as you let ppl know what services you’re trying to find clients for. You gotta speak up though.2) do you budget your finances? Maybe one project for yourself would be to manage your finances better. Not saying you don’t, just offering an idea in case you haven’t considered it. More money won’t help much if you don’t know or manage your (potentially) unsustainable or undisciplined spending habits.

MrDark · Answer

I would advise you to wait until you have 2+ years of experience at least before going through freelancer

PS: I'm 4+ YoE and 100k+  Upwork earnings

Freelancing advice

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