http://www.udemy.com/how-to-freelance-for-mobile-developers/
Learn how to freelance as a mobile developer. In this lesson we will discuss how to go about finding clients.
How to Freelance for Mobile Developers Lesson 2 - Finding Clients
1. How to Freelance for Mobile Developers
Lesson 2 of 6
Finding Clients
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2. Who Do You Want to Work With?
● One of the first questions you'll want to ask yourself is what
type of clients you want to work with?
● Do you want to work with individuals, small business, large
corporations, startups?
● Remember, freelancing gives you a fair amount of control
over what you do and who you work with, so take
advantage of it!
● Don't just settle for just any old client or you may quickly
find yourself wishing you had been more selective.
● Ideally you are looking for clients you can have a positive
ongoing long term relationship with, so choose wisely.
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3. What types of Projects do you
Want to Work On?
● Remember, freelancing does not play by the same rules as
a traditional job, you have a choice on what projects you
take on and if a project doesn't interest you, then keep
looking. I pass on potential projects all the time.
● Are there specific types of Apps you'd like to work on?
Business Apps, Games, Social and Entertainment Apps?
● From experience I can tell you that working on an App for
several months that doesn’t excite you can be a real drag.
● It's much nicer to wake up and work on projects you
actually care about.
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4. When Do You Want to Work?
● Some people like to freelance in the evening and on
weekends.
● Others make it their full time gig and mimic more less
9-5 hours from Monday to Friday.
● Once again, you have a lot of say over this, so if you
don't want to work weekends or evenings, then make
this clear to your clients at the start.
● Your time is one of you most precious resources as a
freelance developer, so use spend it wisely.
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5. Where Do you Want to Work?
● Do you want to work onsite in close proximity
with the client?
● Are you willing to travel for a contract?
● Would you prefer to work from home and attend
the occasional face to face meeting?
● Do you prefer to work remotely and
communicate over the internet?
● You have a great deal of say over where you
will work, so make it work for you.
6. And so...
● Now that you are clearer about the types of clients you
want to work with, the types of projects that you'd want to
take on and when and where you want work, we can use
this to our advantage.
● Knowing who you want to work with allows you to narrow
down your list and determine who to focus on.
● Knowing what you want to work on allows you to refine
your search to targets that may be interested in these
types of projects.
● Knowing where you want to work will also narrow your
focus.
● And finally, knowing what hours you'd like to work will
impact your range of clients too.
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7. Make it Easy for Them to Find
You
● Once of the ways you can find clients, is by making it
easy for them to find you.
● The impact of me just describing that I'm just an
“iPhone Freelancer” vs. “I specialize in making
iPad business Apps for corporate clients located
in Vancouver area” can be huge.
● Be specific about what you do and what you are
looking for and you'll find you get a much better
response.
● I've found that trying to be everything to everyone just
doesn't work in this industry.
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8. Be Proactive and Go After Them!
● As a freelancer, one of the things you don't want to do
is just sit around and wait for things to happen.
● As freelancers we make things happen.
● If you are going after a particular type of client, then try
and make contact. This could be via email, Linkedin or
even a quick phone call or face to face intro, under the
right conditions.
● You main goal is to let them know you exist and that
you may be able to help them.
● Don't be overly aggressive, or you'll send them
running.
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9. Some Things to Try
● A profession website that is well optimized in the search engine
can help clients find you.
● The yellow pages is a waste of time in this day in age so I
wouldn’t bother.
● Leverage social networks like Facebook and Linkedin to
find leads and spread the word.
● Start a blog that focusses on an area of interest to your target
clients and create valuable content.
● Get out and attend local mobile or iOS meetups in your area
and start networking with other developers in your area.
● Check out the job postings. Some of companies may be willing
to consider hiring a freelancer instead of an employee.
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10. What about Freelance sites and
Craigslist?
● I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of sites like Elance,
Guru.com ... because I've yet to see a case where
developers actually get paid what they are worth. If
you plan of trying to make a living this way, you're
going to have a very tough road ahead.
● Craigslist can on occasion turn up the something
promising, but you need to be very careful, there are a
lot of people who will try to exploit you.
● What would be really great to see is a freelancer site
where freelancers communicate and team up with
each other on projects. F2F? Maybe I'll inspire
someone to make this happen.
11. I May Have a Potential New
Client...Now What?
● In upcoming episodes we'll be discussing:
● What you should charge
● Creating contracts/service agreements
● Retainers
● Strategies for dealing with challenging
clients
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12. ● If you are interested in learning more about
how to develop mobile Apps, visit
www.appBuilderTV.com
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