As a freelancer, targeting your desired clients requires time and effort, and sometimes money.

While spending money to generate leads can be a good thing, in this article I want to focus on the free lead generation tips to get clients as a freelance developer, all in a quick and easy read.

Let’s get started.

Target Your Desired Customer or Clients

Qualifying your leads is the key to landing the right clients, and lead generation is the best way to target the right clients.

Remember, the wrong leads won't see the value of your service no matter how excellent you walk through your process.

Here's how to niche down to make sure you're focusing on the right clients.

Generate Brand Awareness

The truth is most client leads won't convert into paying clients. One way to help convert more leads is to generate brand awareness.

You need to be top of mind when someone thinks of a freelancer or a niched agency.

To do this, you need to get active on social media and post helpful articles/content for your desired client.

Think about purchases you've made in the last year. Chances are, most of them resulted in being aware of a brand or someone letting you know about it, and very few were a result of direct advertising.

The Best Way to Get Free Leads

As a freelancer, you want to make the most of your skills, and spending too much time on lead generation might distract you from doing so.

Here are a few places to generate client leads:

Check Online Directories & Platforms

Directories and freelancing platforms are an excellent way to generate leads.

Here are a few platforms/directories to consider:

Quora
A great way to generate leads is through Quora. My brother, who is also a freelancer, generates a lot of leads from Quora each month.

All he does is he responds to relevant business questions, and business owners then reach out to him.

It's simple, but sometimes we just overcomplicate things. Do the same as my brother.

Hubstaff Talent
I've hired a few freelancers from this platform. Highly recommend it.

UpWork
UpWork has a bad wrap, but it still works for so many freelancers today, so it's worth trying.

Yelp
It may just be the best web directory that exists today for plenty of great reasons. This is in part because it allows consumers and encourages them to post reviews of local businesses. That means it not only enlists local businesses but is also considered as an online word of mouth service.

Yellow Pages
You can find tons of information such as telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name.

CitySquares
Being on the market for a decade now, this web directory is ideal for city or industry search.

Best of the Web
Helping businesses to get found online almost two decades now, Best of the Web is notable for providing extensive details per listing.

Improve Your Portfolio Landing Page

Improving your portfolio website is a non negotiable.

Here's an outline of an effective portfolio website:

Looking for portfolio website inspiration?

Read this: 13 Freelance Developer Portfolios to Inspire You

Optimize Your Website for SEO

This strategy is helpful in terms of ranking highly on Google. It can offer you excellent results once you apply the keywords you want to rank for.

Targeting the right keywords requires a regular reevaluation of your website, so you have to update your site consistently.

Here's how to apply SEO for web developers.

Create a Blog

Blogging is an excellent way of generating free leads.

Bottom line: create targeted blog articles and pages.

With more quality content, your website will be more searchable, too. Google can easily identify which website offers quality and updated content and this way, you will maintain traffic on your site and more traffic means more leads.

I receive a few leads each month from having targeted blog articles like:

• Why Every [insert niche] Needs a Website
• How [insert niche] Can Get More Clients Online
• SEO for [insert niche]

Leverage Social Media

Be where your ideal client is.

Post what they want to see, and be consistent.

• If your ideal client is in tech, focus on Twitter.
• If your ideal client is in food or beauty, focus on Instagram.
• If your idea client is in a professional industry, focus on LinkedIn.

Send Compelling Emails

Email outreach is arguably one of the most successful lead generation methods today.

There are ways to automate email outreach like with Mailshake, but if you don't have the money, you can go the manual route.

To get emails, you can use a tool like FindThatLead.

Here's an example of an email:

Hi [name],

I just came across your website after searching for X and I noticed Y.

I’d love to discuss a few ways you can improve your website and generate more clients.

We’ve helped other [insert niche] double their online bookings.

Do you have time for a 5 minute call this week?

Regards,

Your name

Now you just have to put in the effort and reach out to potential clients :)

Wrapping Up

In an ideal world, attracting leads and selling your freelance services can be a walk in the park, but in reality, it is simply not that easy. Success in your freelancing career depends a lot on being proactive and putting in the work.

Stepping out of your comfort zone can be scary, but the reward is worth it!

Remember, there is no better time to start your lead generation than now.

I hope this article helps you in starting – or improving – your lead generation process.

Until next time,

Kyle

As a freelance developer, knowing how much to charge for a project can often feel like a gamble.

It's easy to wonder "Am I setting my price too high?"

This is normally the first question that comes to mind.

And your brain will probably meet this question with a resounding "Definitely," followed by a swift rethink and subsequent price drop.

Why it's Tempting to Set Your Prices Too Low as a Freelancer

When you're using a platform like Fiverr and can see the prices other developers are proposing, it can be tempting (especially as a newcomer to the platform) to beat them all by offering the lowest price possible.

Surely this is the only way to get a client to accept you, right?

Well, if you've come to this conclusion, let me tell you that you're one of the many, many developers who have thought and then done the exact same thing.

The result, unfortunately, is what's happening today on many of the popular freelancing sites where it's often a race to the bottom with your pricing.

As a freelancer, this is a game you don't want to play.

Once you start doing work for the lowest possible price, you're rushing through work to get as many projects done in as little time as possible (you've probably got mouths to feed, right?). This inevitably results in finished work with a drop in quality.

This also has the potential to negatively impact your reputation which could cost you future projects or, at the very least, prevent you from upping the price of your next project.

This is one of the more compelling reasons for not being the cheapest developer around. But there are several more which we will take a look at one by one in this article.

By the end, I hope you'll be convinced that it would be unwise to compete in a "Race to the Bottom". Instead, I hope to leave you hopeful and equipped with the tools and methods to break out from, or prevent, this "let me just be the cheapest" approach.

Why You Should Stay Away from Being the Cheapest as a Freelancer

Stop the Race to the Bottom

The "Race to the Bottom" refers to the situation when a client is offered services by several freelancers.

Unlike traditional bidding, something quite sad tends to happen – freelancers outbid each other by offering lower and lower prices until a minimum price (one that cannot be lowered) is reached.

This often means a client could pay you only a couple of dollars for work that will take you hours to complete.

Thanks to the global nature of many of the online freelancing platforms, a dollar has vastly different purchasing power depending on the country you're in.

For example, in some parts of the world, a dollar can get you a decent lunch whereas, in other countries, a dollar won't even get you a bottle of water.

New freelancers in places like the EU, USA, and other spots where prices are high don't always take this into account. It's easy to think that they need to set their lowest price to match that of the lowest they see on the freelancing platform. They think that this is the only way for a newbie project proposal to be accepted.

Since the dollar goes a much shorter distance in countries like those in the European Union, a freelancer often finds themselves in the position where they are making a loss on every project they take on.

This is a problem.

Clients View Your Services as a Commodity

When pitching services to a potential client, a freelancer will typically set a price per hour. This approach can lead to a client simply choosing another freelancer who has a lower price per hour.

You see, basing your potential value to a client on an hourly-based price is a disservice to you and, as a matter of fact, to your client.

By seeking to get more work, you might be inclined to drop the price of your hourly rate, prompting other competing freelancers to do the same.

Clients shopping around for a freelancer will do just that – shop around.

The problem here is not just that you are still competing on price by charging hourly, but also that you are not illustrating to the potential client the real value they can gain for their business by working with you.

If you want clients to stop viewing your skillset as just another commodity they can buy at the lowest hourly rate, you need to change your entire pricing approach.

We'll take a look at the solution to this problem later in this article.

Clients Don't Always Go For The Cheapest Option

You may think that by asking for the lowest price, you'll be bombarded by clients who are all eager to hire you for their next exciting project.

But, a word of caution before you decide to do this.

You see, many clients don't go with the cheapest option.

Often people in general will settle somewhere in the middle when offered varying pricing tiers. Chances are, you too have often turned down the cheapest price in favor of something a little pricier on the premise that you're receiving a lot more quality.

W. Poundstone's book, Priceless, illustrates this point with an interesting beer selling experiment.

A group of people were offered 2 kinds of beer: premium beer for $2.50 and cheaper beer for $1.80.

Almost 80% chose the premium beer.

After this initial test, a third beer was added as a cheap option for $1.60 in addition to the previous two.

The test was conducted again and found that 80% of people bought the $1.80 beer while the rest bought the $2.50 beer.

Interestingly, nobody bought the cheapest option…

On the third test, they removed the $1.60 beer and replaced it with a more expensive $3.40 beer. Most people chose the $2.50 beer, a small number opted for the $1.80 beer and around 10% opted for the most expensive $3.40 beer.

This is price anchoring in action and it is your friend when offering multiple pricing .

Remember it the next time you're tempted to set and stick to the cheapest price.

More Work Does Not Always Equal More Money

Setting the cheapest price for your services may very well do what you hoped it would – bring in more clients.

If you're lucky, you may even be turning clients down because you have so many. Well, at this point you should be making boatloads of money, right?

I mean, you literally can't take on any new clients because you already have more than you imagined possible!

If you're charging by the hour and you were offering the cheapest price, there is one thing I can tell you with certainty – you absolutely won't be rolling in dollars.

Why?

You've capped your earnings!

By placing a value on your time and setting that value to the lowest it can be, you've essentially lowered your potential earnings in a year. Even if you were working every hour of the year, you could be making a semi-decent income but you'd be physically wrecked.

Chances are, if you're in the freelancing game, one of the contributing factors to you choosing this lifestyle was that it would give you some semblance of a balanced life.

How will you achieve balance when you have no choice but to take on as many clients as possible and work endless hours just to make ends meet?

By setting the cheapest price, you're capping your earning potential and any hopes you had for a balanced life.

How to Avoid Competing with the Cheapest

Change Your Pricing Approach

If you're still using hourly-billing, now is the time to consider changing that in favour of something that is far more beneficial to you and your clients.

Value-based pricing is where you charge a fee based on the potential return for a business.

It's important to first get into the right mindset before you try to use this approach.

Keep the following in mind when getting used to the idea of using value-based pricing:

• You don't sell hours, you are selling a beneficial solution to a business problem.
• This approach is safer for the client as there are no hidden costs that inevitably crop up in hourly-based approaches (due to time delays, work inefficiency, and so on).
• By charging prices based on value offered, you can work with fewer clients with a focus on quality over quantity. This means you can charge more reasonable prices which, in turn, offers you the opportunity to build your client work around your ideal life and not the other way around.
• This allows you greater freedom as you can focus on building something great as opposed to constantly worrying about going over the client's budget.

I've provided you with the "Why". If you're interested in the "How" of value-based pricing, be sure to give Hourly Billing vs. Value Based Pricing a read.

Write Great Proposals

Clients often have problems with the prices offered by freelancers because they, the clients, don't understand the value or work that is going into the project behind the scenes.

In other words, they won't know the quality service you'll be providing for them unless you explain it to them.

You can change this by writing great proposals.

You send a proposal to an interested client after discussing the potential project. This is where you have the opportunity to position and present yourself as an expert.

In short, you want your proposal to show a keen interest in the business and its goals, provide solutions to how will help the business achieve its goals, and show various ways in which you can do this via pricing tiers.

This leads to the next thing you can do to avoid competing with the cheapest.

Bundle Your Services

Ideally, you want to include three options in your proposal for a client to choose from.

As we saw in the beer example earlier, price anchoring can greatly affect the option which the potential client chooses.

Use this to your advantage.

Include the services that you'll provide in each option. This not only provides a mini-scope but also serves as something for the client to use when justifying the price to themselves (apart from the expert positioning you use elsewhere in the proposal).

Done smartly, bundling your services is a fantastic way to prevent you from competing with the cheapest out there and differentiating yourself from simply being "someone who makes websites".

Bonus Tips

Niche Down

Niching down greatly aids your cause in positioning yourself as an expert.

By niching down, you can build trust in a community, charge a premium fee, and have clients reach out to you.

Over-deliver on projects

Clients that you have done great work for are excellent lead-generators. Doing a good job for them means they're likely to refer you to others. This can lead to clients approaching you to work for them.

How do you ensure you'll get referred?

Provide excellent service and over-deliver.

Summary

Competing to be the cheapest developer out there is a sure-fire path to frustration, work exhaustion, and minimal income.

I hope that by the end of this article you understand the "Why" a bit better and feel better equipped to break out of this "Race to the Bottom" trap.

Thanks for reading!

See you on Twitter

Here's the bottom line: you don't need much to get started as a freelance developer.

The biggest obstacle developers face when they're thinking about getting started is that they tend to overcomplicate things.

Most are intimidated by the sheer number of different paths or skills deemed necessary by various blog posts or "industry experts".

The truth is that you just need to know how to create a website.

Whether that be with WordPress, Webflow, or simply hand-coding a site, it really doesn't matter.

The important part is that you get results with your website – and that is the only factor that will set you apart from other freelancers.

This article could stop right here with “Learn to build a website and get going!”

But I think it's only fair to you, the aspiring freelancer, to provide you with some extra substance that will accelerate the start of your freelancing career.

How to Define your Freelancing Goals

A lack of clear direction can severely hamper any chance you have of making quality progress when you first start out as a freelancer.

This is why it's crucial to define your own goals:

• Do you want to earn a side income by working on websites for friends and acquaintances?
• Do you want to go “full-time freelance” by building a web agency that can upgrade and handle small to medium businesses’ online presences?

The particular end goal you have in mind plays a very important role in deciding where and how you will spend your time at the beginning of your learning and working journey.

For most people who start freelancing, the dream is to go full-time freelance and break free from the shackles of a 9 to 5 job.

Others simply want to supplement their income with a web project every now and then.

Identify your primary goal before moving on to the next stage.

Of course, many people often start off by thinking that they will only be able to do freelancing as a part-time gig only to realize the perks and potential of going full-time. This is completely normal and end goals do change with time.

But at least try to figure out a direction for yourself at the start. The conviction to acquire the skills to achieve your goals will largely come from within. If you haven’t decided on your goal, then you won’t have the conviction to keep going when things inevitably get a little tough.

This leads us to the part where you decide what skills you’ll need to become the most successful in your chosen path.

Choose Which Skills You’ll Need to Start Freelancing

It can be incredibly simple: learn HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript.

Or maybe no code at all, and only WebFlow or WordPress (where there are so many high earning freelancers).

The combination of these skills will allow you to build out fully functioning websites that you can sell to clients in any field.

Most clients will simply want a website to “increase online presence” while others may come to you with pleas to help them update their outrageously outdated website.

The crucial point to always keep in the back of your mind is that clients care the most about one thing: The Outcome.

Those magic words are what give you the freedom to explore other options if manually coding sites with HTML, CSS and JS is not your cup of tea.

Of course, it will benefit you greatly to have at least a basic understanding of vanilla code for when you inevitably run into debugging issues with web builders.

Speaking of web builders, this is a perfectly valid approach to creating websites for your clients. In fact, many freelancers prefer using web builders for several reasons:

1. They often have built-in security.
2. Setting up a CMS and hosting is generally a breeze.
3. You can save an incredible amount of time using a web builder's drag-and-drop interface
4. You can easily upgrade a website’s functionality thanks to rich plugin ecosystems.

It’s important to be aware of the tools available, know your reasons for wanting to use them, and become skilled in using those tools.

Decide What Clients You Want

This can be a tricky idea for most people starting out on their freelance journey.

It's fairly easy to get clients, but you want the RIGHT clients.

Due to a lack of confidence or just wanting to get started, newbie freelancers will often accept any and every potential client.

This can lead to some positive outcomes, such as knowing what sort of people you like to work with (something many of you will already know). You'll also gain exposure to different kinds of project requirements which can show gaps in your knowledge – serving as an opportunity to level up.

The riches are in the niches.

What do I mean by that?

By focusing on a niche, say “Lawyers in Cape Town”, you can start building a reputation as the expert web person in that area. This will require more upfront work before you start seeing the benefit and often it can take quite some time to get going.

But the thing with building a quality reputation in a field is this: it takes time but the rewards make it well worth it in the long run.

Eventually, if you’ve been strategic, helpful, and persistent, you will have clients reaching out to you, the Lawyer Website Expert, asking for your help.

Now that you’ve positioned yourself as a specialist in this niche, you’ll be able to charge more for your services allowing you to potentially have more work-life balance, and grow your freelancing business.

Package Your Skills as Services

Potential clients don’t like to see technical words when reviewing what you can offer them. Think about it…

When you’re about to purchase a new drink or snack, what do you think would convince you to buy it more: an explanation of the technical process undergone to achieve the flavour or a description of how great the flavour is?

Think about explaining your services to potential clients in much the same way. Only a very small percentage of clients will understand (and therefore get value from) a description of your services that includes the following:

“Skilled in the JAMstack approach and a big fan of server-side rendering libraries.”

The following description, on the other hand, gives a potential client – regardless of technical know-how – a great idea of what you can offer them:

“I’ll build your website to be fast and beautiful so that your visitors can get the value you’re offering them without any confusion.”

This shift in thinking will allow you to package your skills as services in a way that makes sense to potential clients. And making sense to a client is the first step in any successful project negotiation.

Do yourself a favour and try to reword your skills into services as if you were a potential client of yours. It may show you a lot you can improve on.

Create a Portfolio Site

One of the most overhyped aspects of starting out your journey as a freelancer is the portfolio site.

This can be one of the biggest time sinks ever.

Why?

Well, your client probably doesn’t really care about your custom loading animations or self-designed vector images. Your client also doesn’t care that your site is a progressive web app or that you spent two weeks custom coding an API that speaks to your social profiles, collates the data, and displays it in a cool infographic above the fold.

Your client cares only about one thing: Can this developer help me achieve my goals?

The only way to show the client that you can is by doing three things:

1. Tell them by wording your skills as services
2. Show them by providing evidence of great past work
3. Convince them by providing testimonials from past clients (do free work in exchange for these at the beginning if you need to)

It’s really that simple. The rest is extra fluff.

Strategize Client Discovery

Whereas your portfolio site is an overhyped part of freelancing, the way in which you discover clients is quite the opposite – most people gloss over it. It’s not given the same level of importance but it is where your persistence will be tested and the great rewards will come.

You can discover clients in a multitude of ways:

1. Cold calling
2. Cold emailing
3. Creating or joining Facebook groups in your niche
4. Using your existing social media platforms to source clients
5. Reach out to friends and family who may need a site
6. Walk into the building of a potential client and speak directly to the decision-maker
7. Set up Adwords to drive traffic to your portfolio site

This is certainly not an exhaustive list but it could give you a couple of ideas. One thing is crucial to remember though:

Keep going.

You need to stay persistent in your effort and revise your strategy as you fail and progress.

Eventually, you will find success but this is the point where many budding freelancers give up, so approach it with an iron will and you will find success.

Welcome to the Club

My hope is that you have gained value from this article that you can start using in the real world.

Remember, it’s incredibly easy to start but it can be tough to keep going. This is why it’s so important to have goals in mind to help guide you on your way.

See you on Twitter.

Until next time :)

Kyle

According to freeCodeCamp’s 2018 New Coder Survey, 40.3% of participants want to build a business of their own, either as a freelancer or as an entrepreneur.

If you are in that 40.3%, then this article is for you. If you are in the remaining 59.7%, you might still benefit from it. Give it a try.

This is not a “dummies’ guide to strategy and design” or a “strategy and design 101” article. This article is written specifically for developer folks. Not just software developers but also no-code developers. (Shout out to my ODNC1 fellows who encouraged me to write this piece.)

Table of Contents and How to Use this Guide

This is a long article. Actually, this is not an article – this is a guide. So, it's better to read the prologue and give the guide a quick scan. Then start applying the methods rather than reading the whole text and trying to internalize it.

You can only internalize this guide by applying it.

Getting Started

1. What is Strategy?
2. The Main Components of a Business Strategy
3. Strategy, the Scientific Mindset, and Software Development

A Rough Guide to Strategy and Design for Developers

1. How to Define Your Purpose
2. How to Develop Strategic Hypotheses
3. How to Test Strategic Hypotheses
4. How to Design Your Product
5. Conclusion

The Structure of the Guide

This guide is structured to make the actions you should take very clear. So, in every section, you will be given a little bit of context and then action items.

It is essential that you read the context in full before taking action so that you can see the part the action plays in the bigger picture.

Getting Started

I know that strategy and design can sound, well, fluffy. I know that because I have been there.

I am an engineer. I love physics and mathematics. I love breaking challenges down into their parts and overcoming them one by one using logic. I love to work with hyper-realists who think rationally. I love viewing processes as functions that take certain inputs and spit out certain outputs. I love all of that and more.

However, I am also a strategist and a designer. I know that not everything has natural reasons to be so.

Sometimes they are purely based on choice. I know that people are irrational, though still predictable. I know that people value social and emotional benefits as much as functional benefits, if not more.

So, I know that bringing together strategy, design, and engineering mindsets dramatically increases our chances to achieve whatever goals we have. I witness that day in and day out thanks to my job at ATÖLYE as its Ventures Director.

But if you don't believe me, I hope you will believe in the data. This might be one of the saddest statistics you might ever see (!):

Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail - CB Insights

CB Insights’ findings are chilling. 42% of startups failing simply because they are not needed.

Imagine this: You quit your job, and maybe risked your reputation. You raised funding from your friends, family, and investors. You started living on a very low budget. You worked tirelessly, 12 hours a day if not more… and after a year you realize there is no need for what you have been grinding and hustling for all that time. Isn’t that chilling?

Strategy and design help you minimize the chances of failing. How? Good strategy and design focus us on building lasting businesses based on customer needs and/or wants and competitive advantages. Also, they inherently mean testing hypotheses and iterating constantly.

They are great tools to find our way out of complexity… but let’s leave praising strategy and design aside and get practical. We will start by agreeing on a definition because the meaning of strategy is highly variable.

What is Strategy?

Strategy is one of those concepts that everybody understands when they hear it but no two people understand the same thing.

Very generically put, strategy is a high level plan to achieve pre-determined goals. However, in a business context it has a more specific definition. Here is how I would describe it:

Strategy is a set of hypotheses that describe a set of integrated key choices, key actions and a progress measurement framework for achieving business objectives.

We develop strategies because we believe achieving objectives will help us realize our purpose.

The Main Components of a Business Strategy

Below are the most relevant main components for a startup founder at the beginning of their journey.

If we were to consider an established company rather than an early stage startup, we'd have to think about competitive advantages, core capabilities, management systems and – depending on the type of business – a few more specific components.

The key thing to remember is that however many components there might be, they all have to be integrated with the main components listed below.

The purpose for doing business

What drives you to do business? What impact and value do you want to create? What do you want to get in return? How is it measured (directly or indirectly)?

I list this first because it is the basis, ideally, upon which all your decisions will be made. When you are in doubt or things are too difficult to figure out or mutually exclusive options are similarly attractive – you will come back to the basis and seek guidance.

Market definition

Who are the customers, users, competitors, regulators, and other main actors who take part in the value exchange you want to create?

Market definition and Value proposition are extremely intertwined. That is why I list them one after the other. Without a sharp, even discriminating, (as in consciously choosing not to compete in certain markets and thus choosing not to serve certain customers) definition of a market, we cannot define meaningful value propositions.

Say that you are developing an analytics product. If you are focused on mobile applications then you are "discriminating" against web applications and your value propositions will be shaped with this choice.

Value proposition

Your value proposition is what you have to offer to your customers (and, if you are thinking more ecosystemically, to all the actors you have in a give-take relationship) in exchange for the value you ask from them.

For example, customers pay you money, users might provide you with data, partners might help you reach customers, government supposedly ensures a fair market, and so on.

Value propositions are not the same as products, features, or services. An easy way to distinguish value propositions is to answer the question, "How will our customers benefit from using our product?" (And, again, you can extend this question to all the key actors in your market by asking "How will this key actor benefit from being part of the value equation I'm creating?")

As this question implies, it is not the product itself that your customer is after. It is the benefits that your customers are hoping to get out of using your product.

Meaningful Differentiation

Why will anyone choose your product over all the alternative products or ways to get the benefits they seek? What makes you a better fit for them?

How do you create that fit? How are you doing that differently from your competitors? How long can you hold on to this difference?

What can you do to keep the competition away? How might you make the competition irrelevant to your customers?

As Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) theory explains, jobs (the things people are trying to get done using products) do not change. The products keep changing but jobs stay more or less the same.

Take commuting, for instance. The way we commute has been in a constant evolution that brought autonomous electric cars to our lives. However, the job of getting from one point to another has been with us from the very beginning.

With every step in this evolution, more and more nuances are addressed. However, at the heart of it the job is still the same.

So, the differentiation lies not in inventing new jobs but in finding new and meaningful ways to help with getting those jobs done.

Price is just one way to differentiate. Features, benefits, the overall experience, the nuances you choose to address – there are countless ways to differentiate.

However, meaningful and lasting differentiation is hard. It's hard because copying is easier than ever. It's hard because developing software (unless it's something super advanced) is getting easier and easier. Good design is more accessible than ever.

So, we need more than design and technology to sustain a meaningful differentiation. More on this in the design section.

Strategy, the Scientific Mindset, and Software Development

Strategy is about developing hypotheses from a mixture of deductive and inductive reasoning and then measuring progress against objectives.

It requires us to break things (markets, value propositions, differentiation, and so on) down to their parts (customers, buyers, users, partners, regulators, products, services, experience, branding), understand them individually, and then melt them together to create a coherent whole (a business).

It's extremely analytical and holistic at the same time. I find these aspects of strategy very similar to the scientific mindset.

This similarity also reminds me of the role of a software architect. They are tasked with a similar challenge. The level of uncertainty and complexity, though very different in their nature, are similar.

They both have some level of information available to them to make decisions but never the full picture. They both need to develop hypotheses and test them before fully committing to a particular approach.

Crucially, they both are aware that there is no one way to achieve the objectives, which means they are making choices. So, they want all the other things that will be built on top of their strategy/architecture to be coherent with their key choices.

And this similarity makes me question why so many engineers and developers distance themselves from strategy. Probably because of the way we talk about strategy and position it in companies, but also in education. That's very sad and needs to change.

A Rough Guide to Strategy and Design for Developers

Definitions are important. They help us develop our own language and communicate. Now that we have our language in place, let's get into execution.

The guide below is rough by design. It's rough because I don't want to put too much emphasis on the guide itself.

It's rough because you are a developer trying to get something off the ground. Not a strategist or design manager in a company setting.

It's rough because it aims to hit the sweet spot which helps you get 80% of the results with 20% of the effort.

And it's rough because this is my first attempt to customize it for developers and I want to test this hypotheses before fully committing to it. So meta, isn't it? :)

How to Define Your Purpose

Start from within

What are you hoping to achieve for yourself? A side business? A learning project? The business of your life?

Describe a day in your life assuming everything went great and you have succeeded. What does a usual day look like?

Continue with others

Again, imagine everything went great and you have succeeded. What impact did you create on your customers', users' and partners' lives with that success? How did things change for them?

Action: Summarize and posterize. Try to boil everything down into a paragraph that describe a future state for you and your customers. Rewrite and rewrite it again.

Pay attention to every word you use and make sure that the paragraph sits comfortably with you. Then print it out and keep it visible in your working environment.

How to Develop Strategic Hypotheses

Start with customers

Wanting to serve as many people as possible is great. However, it is very difficult to create a product that will serve a majority of a big market from the first day.

There are many reasons that will prevent your target customers from changing their way of getting the job done: Switching costs, human resistance to change, even inertia can be considered a reason.

So, if change is so difficult, what should we do? We start with a super niche group of people who are most open to change. So, naturally, that's a very small part of the potential market. That's how it's meant to be.

Thinking in terms of Blue Ocean Strategy is very useful for identifying people who are most open to change. Ask yourself:

• Who are most dissatisfied with current solutions? Why?
• Who needs a solution but isn't finding any of the options are good enough? Why?
• Who is disregarded by current market leaders? Why?
• What are some common attributes of these people?
• Do I know anyone who fits to this description?
• Where can I find more people like them?

Then go talk to them. This article has ALL the things you need to know about the Jobs to Be Done approach.

Action: If you want something a little simpler for customer interviews, use this article about the idea of "Push and Pull" to clarify who your customers are and what they need.

Identify your value propositions

We value practical benefits. We expect products to provide practical benefits first. For sure.

However, especially in software, practical benefits are not enough to meaningfully differentiate ourselves. They are easy to copy. “This is the way the tech industry works”. So, what can we do about it?

Luckily, people are social and emotional beings. So, we can add social and emotional benefits to the mix and provide more value as well as making it more difficult to be copied.

Social and emotional benefits are the things that make people say "yeah, it's similar but not the same...".

Think about a product you really like. Not just how it works but the feeling of using that product. Then compare it with an alternative that gets the same practical (functional as it is called in the theory) job done. See how you feel about it.

So, how do we know what social and emotional value to provide? First, it comes from your interviews. You need to pay attention to things beyond functionality.

Second, it comes from your choices. Yes, your choices. There will be lots of options for providing social and emotional benefits. You need to choose ones that will sit well with your purpose.

Action: Use Bain's Elements of Value to identify your options. They have a B2B version, too.

Define your position

Now, you will make things crystal clear by defining where you stand. You'll do that by defining polarities.

Polarities help because that's essentially how we tell things apart. Think of the role of contrast in our ability to see. Similarly, we need a clear contrast for things we do and don't do. This will help us clarify our scope and also crystallize our value propositions for the super niche group of people we are targeting.

Action: Use the More About Less About technique to define your position.

How to Test Strategic Hypotheses

Testing, contrary to what you might expect, is more of an art than science. Yes, it is at the heart of scientific method, but designing tests requires imagination rather than analysis. Analysis only comes after you conduct the test.

Let's look at a very high level overview of the test process:

1. Decide what to test and what results count as success. In other words what numbers and/or feedback would show that your hypotheses are valid.
2. Devise a test from which you can trust the results and can execute as cheaply and quickly as possible. This is where you need more imagination and divergence (expanding options without judging them) rather than analysis.
3. Run a few dry-runs to mitigate failure due to simple mistakes. Learn from dry-runs and iterate.
4. Run the test and closely monitor the results to learn from them.
5. Analyse the results and decide the next steps according to your learnings.

Testing is extremely tactical and context-dependent. That is what makes testing more of an art than science for me.

That's why, instead of following a strict process, I believe that you'd be better off getting inspired by the following articles and finding your own way of testing. Much like an artist would do.

Actions:

• Learn about the concept of Riskiest Assumption Testing (RAT).
• Identify your riskiest assumptions. (p.s. I don't agree with the notion of MVP in this article. I strongly suggest you disregard it. I wrote about how I like to think of MVPs here.) Assuming you are at the very early stages of your endeavor, it's more likely that your riskiest assumptions will be about the problems, needs, and wants of your customers and how your product can help them.
• Choose the type of MVP from this list that would be the most suitable for testing your riskiest assumptions. Build a rough version of that MVP. Do dry runs and then launch the test.

How to Design Your Product

Now that you've developed strategic hypotheses and tested them, it is time for you to build things, right? Wrong. Not so fast.

One of the biggest blind spots I see in developer-led startups (software, low-code, no-code) is Design. Design with a capital D.

What do I mean by "Design with a capital D"? Often, the design work in the software industry is reduced to how things look and feel. Sometimes, people go beyond that and add the simplicity element to the mix. Making things easy as well as beautiful.

But that's not all there is to designing products. There is more. Much more.

How much more? Well, so much more that I wrote the article below to describe my personal principles for product design and management. I don't think you need to read it or create your own principles, because I assume that your aim is to start your own business. Not to become a product designer or manager.

However, I'd highly recommend reading the Design and Brand Strategy sections of that article if you are curious about what I mean by "Design with a capital D".

Let's leave the philosophical discussions aside and get practical. Below is an overview of the process I recommend for designing your product. I have summarized the philosophy behind this process in the article above:

Unless we have to invent something new, we are much better off using patterns, heuristics and principles without forgetting to adjust them to the problem at hand. This way, we’ll give people (both users and business owners) what they want: Familiar Done Differently.

Consider your customers' context

Start with considering your customers' immediate context when they use your product.

What's happening? What happened before? What will happen after? What are they trying to get done? How do they feel in that situation? In short: Don't focus on the "why". Focus on the "when".

Think about related products

Consider the other products they use to get things done in relation to your product, as well as competitors' products.

How do those products work? How do they talk about themselves? Any common patterns in their design, branding?

If your product plays well with related products and if it is familiar to your customers, then it's more likely they will adopt your product.

List out your product's features and choose the most important ones

It's important to list the features your product will have and then choose yourself a few North Stars.

You'll "steal like an artist" from these North Stars.

Say that your product has a question and answer feature. Quora would be a good North Star as they are all about Q&A's and have been around successfully for many years.

You can also choose North Stars for your branding, look, and feel. The key is viewing them as a solid starting point rather than things to imitate.

Dig deeper into your North Stars.

If you've chosen a North Star for a specific feature, then use it several times. Try to break it. Take notes on how you'd do something differently and why. Do that for all your North Stars.

Start your design with a user flow, not with a wireframe or any visual technique. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to start designing the user interface (like screens). As I like to say, “Remember, we are not designing things. We are designing behaviours.” So, we must start with actions rather than interfaces.

Break your product down into features

You will need to create user flows for each feature, but how do you break your product into features?

Luckily, Ryan Singer has given a demonstration of how he uses the shorthand for UI and how he breaks things down into their parts. Watch the entire video.

Use Ryan Singer's shorthand for UI to design user flows.

This will save you hours if not days. You may have ideas for the interface while doing the user flow. Just scribble them somewhere and take a note but never focus on them until you are done with the user flow.

Test your user flows

Once you have a rough first version, test your user flow(s) with a few potential users.

Simply, first give them a quick walk through. Then ask them to critique it by thinking out loud.

You may ask them questions to kick start the conversation: "What did you like about this? What would you change? Why? How would you change it? What is this flow missing?" and similar other questions.

Improve your user flow(s) accordingly.

To design the interface (how things will look) go back to your North Stars. But before that you need to establish an overall look and feel through choosing colors and fonts.

First, choose a font pair from this list. Try to make it familiar to your customers but also try to choose a pair that gives the feeling you want your users to have while using your product.

Next, choose a color palette. Try to choose a palette gives the feeling you want your users to have while using your product – but also try to make it different from your competitors.

Action: Use this article to choose your main colors. Then use this website to create a color palette based on your main colors.

Design your interface in detail

Now, you are ready to design the interface in detail. This is where stealing like an artist will come into play, again. Since, you've already made color and font choices, you can focus on the layout.

Go back to your North Stars and base your interface design on their existing designs. Don't change things unless you have clear reason for changing them. Check out tools like Mobbin for further inspiration.

Remember – design doesn't end with the interface. An extremely crucial and very much overlooked element of Design is the copywriting. So much depends on the language.

It's a great contributor to usability if it's clear enough. It gives your design a deeper character if you can strike a chord. It allows you to test things faster, easier, and cheaper. It's extremely important. I highly recommend investing serious time in it.

Action: Read the basics of microcopy, first. Then continue with writing your copy based on these rules.

Go back to strategy

In the endless iteration spiral we call building a startup, at this step of the Design process, I suggest you take a step back and go back to your strategy.

Specifically, go back to your Purpose and Positioning and see whether what you are building actually fits them. Of course, you don't have to and shouldn't wait until this step. However, make sure you take a critical view of everything and see if you are still after the thing you set out to achieve.

It is fine if there are changes. It would be useless if there were not any changes after so much testing and learning.

However, if the very essence of your purpose and positioning is changing then it's a strong sign that you need to rethink things thoroughly. Otherwise, you might find yourself constantly and mindlessly "pivoting" toward whichever direction might seem interesting at any given time.

This will derail you from the long-term vision that you need to strive for. If you don't have such a vision (which doesn't need to be groundbreaking or world changing) then it'll be very difficult to persist through the challenges in the short-term.

Conclusion

Like any other guide, this guide is incomplete, too. Trying to provide a complete guide is almost an oxymoron in itself.

The purpose of this guide, very similar to an architecture or a model, is to provide enough guidance so that it captures the essence of the reality in the simplest way possible.

It is up to you, the entrepreneurs, to figure things out where this guide falls short and creates uncertainty. That, coincidentally, is the ultimate skill entrepreneurs need to have: Figuring things out under extreme uncertainty.

So, I hope this guide will help you with removing some of the uncertainty you are dealing with and accelerate your journey for achieving your purpose.

Let me know what you think and how I might improve this guide. It's an early prototype of something bigger I'm working on. So meta, I know.

The image of a person with their laptop sitting on a beach with a Piña Colada by their side has become the poster child of “freelancing”.

The promise of ultimate freedom and working anywhere and anytime you want is just so appealing, causing many to jump in without carefully thinking about it.

The truth is, freelancing is far from easy. Contrary to what most people think, signing up on Upwork and sending tons of applications a day will not do the trick.

I think what makes freelancing harder for some people is a two-pronged issue:

• Some people aren’t built to freelance.
• Some people aren’t fully equipped to freelance.

Let’s talk about these in more detail.

Is freelancing right for you?

Freelancing is not a ticket to an easy life. It comes with perks, but it also has pitfalls.

Some people can handle these well while some can not. How hard freelancing is for you may depend on your personality, working style, and how well you tolerate uncertainty.

These are some of the most difficult parts of being a freelance developer:

Too much work or no work at all

Freelancing is often a life of extremes. There’s rarely “in-between”. Either you’ll be buried in so much work you have no time for anything else, or you’re totally out of projects so you can’t afford a nice meal in a restaurant.

There is no sense of security

Several factors contribute to this. Finding clients is hard, the competition is fierce, and it’s hard to stand out sometimes.

The uncertainty puts freelancers into survival mode. You’re afraid to turn down projects even though you have too many already because you’re afraid of letting opportunities go.

Other times, you’ll worry about rent because you have literally nothing going on.

It’s almost like a never-ending worry about whether you will get a project again or if you’ll have to go back to your 9-to-5 job.

Achieving a work-life balance is hard

It’s the ultimate irony of freelancing. You jump into it thinking that you’ll finally have more free time, but in reality, it gets harder to switch off and take a break.

It might be a Saturday morning and you receive an email from a potential client asking to see your portfolio. Will you pass the chance up? The inability to let things wait stems from the lack of security.

Since you’re working from home (or anywhere), the line between work and life gets blurred and you end up mixing the two. Plus, you don’t have a team to help you.

Suddenly you’re an accountant, administrative staff, networker, scheduler, marketer, salesperson, project manager – and you have to do everything on your own.

Managing yourself is also hard

Freelancers don’t have a boss to keep tabs on them, so getting tasks done on time requires a greater deal of self-control. You’ll never know how tempting a bed is in a cozy rainy afternoon until you have to choose between snuggling up or finishing a task.

And because you have no website access restrictions, that “quick check” of your Instagram feed can quickly turn into a two-hour scrolling and watching cute dog videos. And that new Netflix series seems so interesting…

Some days you’re going to be filled with productivity manna from the skies, but some days you won’t. It’s just a part of freelancing.

Difficult client relationships

Although there are clients who are a dream to work with, some are just a nightmare.

Freelancers often have to deal with objections and clients who never know what they want (“I’ll know what I want when I see it”), demand for unpaid revisions, and always seem to find an excuse to delay your payments. Or worse, some don’t pay at all.

It gets lonely

Never having to deal with office drama ever again is one of the perks of freelancing. But when your tasks are piling up and your stress levels are through the roof, sometimes you can’t help but miss the quick chats with your officemates while you’re making coffee in the pantry. Extroverted people often find the isolation more challenging than introverts.

Taxes

Wait, I have to do taxes?! Yep, freelancers have to file their taxes. Unlike employees who enjoy deducted taxes, freelancers either have to do it themselves or hire an accountant. Either way, taxes are a necessary evil for freelancers and no one likes to do it.

How to succeed as a freelancer

As I said before, another reason why freelancing is so hard for most people is that they aren’t fully equipped.

Although there isn’t a life-hack that can guarantee your success, there are things you can do to start off on the right foot and increase your chances of succeeding.

Set a realistic goal

You have to know what you’re aiming for. These goals, if they’re compelling and important enough for you, will help you overcome obstacles, even the ones we’ve talked about before.

Write down on paper the things that you want to achieve as a freelancer. How much do you want to make? What kind of career do you want to build? What kinds of projects do you want to work on?

Plan a good strategy

“If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”

It’s the same with freelancing.

If you don’t plan effectively, you’re going in blind, and you’ll bump into obstacles that could easily have been avoided had you seen them ahead.

Your strategy should answer the following questions:

• What services will you offer?
• What is your niche?
• How much will you charge?
• How do you plan on marketing and/or advertising your services?
• How can you build your credibility?

To come up with a good strategy, you have to research. This is where the equipping part comes in. Read books, listen to podcasts, read blogs, watch YouTube videos, and maybe even buy a course if you think you need it.

The key is to find out how successful freelancers did it. What was their strategy? What worked and didn’t work for them? Then incorporate those into your strategy.

A great place to start is my freelancing bundle where I discuss in more detail the steps you can take to build a successful freelance web developing business.

Stay focused and have grit

As you start freelancing, it’s easy to get sidetracked with minor details or lose heart when you get rejected over and over again. But there’s no other way to succeed in freelancing than to keep going.

You have to have grit and self-discipline to achieve your goals. When times get tough, go back to your goals and remind yourself why you even started in the first place.

Learn, and learn some more

I can’t emphasize the importance of learning enough. Not only will it help you create a good strategy, but it will also help you shift your gears if something is not working. If you notice that your marketing strategy isn’t working, learn more tips and techniques from successful freelancers.

Learning new skills can also supplement your income and maybe even present new, more profitable opportunities. Staying on top of your niche and industry will also give you an edge over your competitors.

Constant learning will also give you an attitude of humility because you know that you don’t know everything yet.

Build your business skills

Freelancing is a business. The earlier you embrace that, the better. Running a business may seem overwhelming, but it can be learned.

The good news is business skills aren’t learned by getting a diploma or enrolling in a business course. They're best learned by experience.

As you build your freelancing business, you will hone your business skills, which will in turn make it easier for you to accelerate your growth. You will learn how to market yourself effectively, how to write amazing proposals, how to connect with people, and even how to deal with procrastination and stress.

In other words, if you maintain an attitude of grit and constant learning, you will have a high chance of succeeding.

Build the right kind of revenue

There are two kinds of income that I like most: recurring and passive.

Recurring income is the perfect solution to the feast-and-famine cycle of freelancing. Instead of charging a one-time fee, what if you could charge recurring monthly fees?

This can be done with a bit of strategizing. What kinds of services do your clients need monthly? Which of these services can you provide to them?

Let’s say you are a freelance web developer. Your forte is websites. There are all sorts of website services that people always need, such as maintenance, security, SEO, advertising, and content production.

Once you come up with a list of monthly services that you can offer, create at least three monthly packages.

This way, instead of charging a client a one-time $1,000 fee for a quick WordPress project, you can turn it into a one-time $1,000 fee plus a $300 (or whatever) monthly recurring fee.

Passive income is another kind of income that you need to focus on. It’s any income that you earn without directly trading your time for it.

For web developers, maybe you can sell plugins or creative elements in marketplaces like CodeCanyon. If you love writing, you can start your own blog and eventually earn from affiliate marketing and advertising.

If you're good at what you do, why not create a course and sell it on Gumroad or Udemy?

Having small sources of passive income goes a long way in supplementing your freelancing income.

Wrapping up

Freelancing may be hard, but if you equip yourself with the right knowledge and attitude, success won’t be impossible. There’s always a way to overcome an obstacle if you plan ahead and try hard enough.

I hope you learned something from this article.

You can do it, my freelancing friend!

Much love,

Kyle

Catch you on Twitter

When you're building a product, there are different frameworks you can deploy to think critically about what to build and why. These frameworks apply to business as well.

When designing a product – or launching a startup – you should answer a few fundamental questions:

1. Should I enter the market or not?
2. Who else exists in this market and what are these firms doing or building?
3. What are the costs of entering this market? Are these costs fixed or variable in nature?
4. If I decide to exit the market – or stop building or maintaining my services or software – what are the costs?
5. Who will use my product or services and what do they value or need?
6. Am I uniquely equipped to help these people or constituents?

This article provides an overview of four interesting, dynamic, and different approaches to probe your assumptions and answer these questions. Ultimately this article is about strategy.

Strategic thinking is about the art of outdoing an adversary knowing that they are trying to do the same to you.

Albert Einstein once asked, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” Just because a desk is empty does not mean it’s not contributing utility. For strategies to be effective they too need to be useful, applicable, and relevant.

Oftentimes building a company – or creating a piece of software – is about the application of strategy.

At a more granular level, this article attempts to help you think about the above questions by leveraging mechanisms for transforming inputs – like data, beliefs, and research – into a desired set of outputs that are easy to deploy in your everyday life and useful.

I have learned about these frameworks through a mixture of reading product launch templates, building products with my own hands, and studying how other product and business stakeholders optimize their work to drive the outcomes they desire.

I want to explain each framework and pass on the most salient takeaways from each so that you can rapidly apply these frameworks and build more effectively.

Framework #1: The Airplane Crash Test

Reginald H. Jones, the Chief Executive Officer of General Electric from 1972 to 1981, was in search of a successor upon retirement. He asked each of his executive subordinates a question:

“A plane crashes and you are on the plane. You don’t survive. Who should take over running the company or building the most important products, and why?”

This is an interesting question to ask yourself, and is especially salient as you build and scale products. Who do you know that is best suited to be the leader in an environment filled with ambiguity?

In your mind, is it you? Is it a peer? What does this person do so well that inspired you to think of them? Try to replicate their behavior and knowledge base to better equip yourself as a builder and product developer.

If you did select yourself, think about why. What skills do you have (technical, business, political, and so on) that can help you drive an organization or product forward? How will you teach those skills to others?

By thinking through the airplane crash test you can reflect holistically on what you do well, why those skills matter, and areas for improvement. You can also gain a deeper sense of appreciation for the skills that others in your life – or on your team – may have.

Framework #2: The Airport Test

This framework is very different from the airplane test. In this thought experiment, ask yourself the following: if I were to be stuck at an airport for many hours with someone, what kind of person would I want that person to be? And secondly, if others reflect on the types of people they would want to spend time with, am I one such individual?

Google famously applied an “airport test” to help conceptualize the types of people it would want to hire. On one hand, the airport test lends itself to some admirable outcomes.

If you are stuck at an airport for many hours with someone, it makes sense that you would want to surround yourself with someone who is curious, insightful, and easy to communicate with. These are valuable skills to cultivate in life, and as a builder.

On the other hand, this test has limitations – and the biggest one is seemingly bias. Would you rather spend more or less time with someone who thought and acted like you?

If so, you might be overlooking great people to learn from and spend time with that differ from yourself.

When building products at scale, you will want to think about all potential users. Many users are different from you and come from different walks of life. Think holistically about these users and who they are – their wants, needs, and diverse backgrounds – so that your product or business can best meet their needs.

Think about the airport test as bi-directional. Try to be the type of builder, motivator, or creator that others want to spend time with. Look for others that meet that test for you, too.

Framework #3: The Working Backwards Framework

Working backwards is a framework practiced by many product builders because it helps set a North Star rooted in customer feedback.

At its core, Working Backwards is a belief system that states that you should speak with users and customers and listen to feedback about what to build and why. The product designer, after organizing this feedback, can start building tools and services that users care about and want.

By working backwards, a builder can save time and money.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos once noted that while he can’t predict the future he can’t imagine a future in which people want slower delivery or higher priced items.

By working backwards from the fundamental needs and goals of users he can build solutions, technology, and products that empower these people.

Many great products that you leverage in your daily life are predicated on designers looking at the needs of users and building based on those inputs.

In the case of image searching technology, coders literally saw that people had an end goal of using images to run searches. Working backwards from that destination enabled the creation of reverse image search technology.

When you are building, try to place yourself in the shoes of users and go speak with them. By building relationships and starting these conversations you can be guided by what your users actually care about.

Once you know what matters, you can obsess over the details that best help you help your users. That is what the Working Backwards method is all about.

Framework #4: Jobs To Be Done

A fourth and final framework for understanding how to build businesses and products is to think about why people are “hiring” your technology and what problem your technology solves.

The late Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School famously argued that the “customer is the wrong unit of measurement”. Instead, Christensen noted, people use solutions for “jobs to be done,” or the pain points they face in their lives.

When you are building your next piece of software, or product, or business, ask yourself: why are people hiring me to do this job? If you believe that your customers are rational, evaluate their behavior.

If you think that your rational users are making irrational choices, take time to better understand how your tool is actually being used.

By framing your work in this light you can develop and hone in on a very important skill set for builders to cultivate, and that is empathy. If you can’t empathize with how your product is being used (and for what purpose) you won’t be able to empathize with your users.

Bringing It All Together: Frameworks for Development

I have outlined four different frameworks to help you think about your work, how you devise products, and ways to conceptualize the development of your software or products across users, time, space, and markets.

These frameworks are not mine but represent interesting and influential nuggets that I have picked up watching others. These nuggets have influenced how I think about design, feedback, and content, and I hope they are useful for you too.

The application of these frameworks can help you build.

You can apply all, some, or none of the above. However, my hope is that by thinking about these questions and approaches you can dive deeper into solving real problems for real users and that you can better develop the skills, product design mindset, and empathy to align your products with the needs of your current or future users.

What should you do when you’re trying to sell your services and hear these words:

• “That’s too expensive.”
• “I’ve never heard of you before.”
• “I’m too busy. Call me some other time.”

Give up and move on to the next one?

If you do, your pipeline will soon run dry.

It may be disappointing to hear these phrases over and over again, but these are some of the most common client objections in virtually any industry.

You may not like it, but working on sales is vital to start your freelance web development business.

Client objections are inevitable, but the key to overcome them and close the sale is to come prepared with techniques and strategies on how to handle these objections like a pro.

What are Sales Objections?

Sales objections are problems that prospects tell you are the reasons why they can’t buy your services.

The key to handling objections is seeing them with the right perspective.

Some objections are valid, such as a real lack of budget (in that case you have to move on). But sometimes they represent an opportunity for you to explain the value that you can bring or clarify any questions they might have – which brings them one step closer to a sale.

When your prospects object, you have to understand what’s really going on in their minds so you can handle those objections accordingly.

As with any skills, handling sales objections takes a lot of practice. But over time and with enough practice, you will develop an instinct and familiarity that will help you handle objections with more finesse.

4 Types of Client Objections During Sales

Sales professionals use a qualification methodology called BANT to help determine whether a prospect is a good fit based on their Budget, Authority to buy, Need for the product, and Timeline.

Since a successful sale usually happens because all these four qualifications were met, it makes sense that the most common client objections are the opposite of these.

Almost all client objections can be grouped into the following four categories:

• Lack of budget
• Lack of authority to buy
• Lack of perceived need for the product
• Lack of urgency

“It’s too expensive.”

Any concerns regarding cost, budget, or ROI fall into this category. Clients are worried about the cost often because they’re not sure if it’s worth the risk, or they’re not sure what makes your service worth the higher cost than a competitor’s.

Your job is to justify the cost by showing the value of what you have to offer.

How to handle budget-based objections:

Sometimes, when people don’t want to deal with another sales conversation or aren’t ready to commit to a sale, the first thing they will say is they don’t have any money, even if that’s not the case.

Ask a few questions to uncover the real reasons behind the objection. Try to find out what makes the prospect think that your service is expensive. Putting the price in context will often help ease their minds. Explain the ROI in relation to the price or how much it will cost if they don’t get your service.

This is also why it’s best to offer a pricing tier, like 3 options. Learn how to write winning proposal templates.

Clients with budget concerns will feel more at ease availing of your lower-priced options. You can then upsell them later on.

Learn more about how to price your web development services here.

If the client really has no budget for your service, let it go and move on to the next prospect.

Lack of authority to buy

“I need to clear this with my boss”.
“Let me run this through with my partner”.

You’ll hear this if you’re talking with someone without the influence or authority to buy. What you’ll hear specifically depends on how big the company is.

If it’s a large company, they’ll say they need to talk to their boss about it or they can’t decide on that matter. A small business owner with a business partner will tell you they need to talk about it first.

How to handle authority-based objections:

This one is pretty straightforward. If they really don’t have the authority to make the decision, ask them to connect you to someone who does.

If they need to talk to their boss about it, you can help out by anticipating questions and providing clear, convincing answers.

Lack of need

“I don’t see why I need this.”

This is when a client expresses doubt about whether they need your services.
The key here is to understand and evaluate their needs by asking open-ended questions.

How to handle need-based objections:

Get them to elaborate on why they don’t think they need your service.

This kind of objection commonly arises when you’re proposing a website improvement project and they’re not convinced that something is wrong with their current website.

After all, people don’t want to fix something that’s not broken. In this case, ask them why they think they don’t need the website improvement.

Then explain to them the website’s flaws and why these problems need to be fixed ASAP. What are they losing because of the issues with their website?

Then ask for an appointment where you can show them how you can fix it. You can also send a detailed proposal.

Likewise, if the client is not sure if they need a website for their business, ask questions to understand why they think this way, then respond accordingly.

It often helps to explain how a website can contribute to their bottom line. You can also throw in some data. If you can cite a case study about one of your clients, even better.

Lack of urgency

“I don’t need it right now.”

When prospects say this, it’s important to identify if the timing is really an issue or if they’re trying to brush you off.

How to handle timing issues:

Ask them to elaborate on why it’s not important to them right now or what competing priorities need their urgent attention.

If their response conveys a concrete timing issue, it’s best to ask when is the best time for you to call back.

If they’re giving vague excuses, they’re most likely just putting off taking action on a real pain point, so you may have an opening. In this case, it works best to explain the cost of NOT acting right away.

Tips on Handling Client Objections

Listen to what they have to say.

I’ve come across some salespeople trying to dismiss my objections perhaps in hopes that I will realize that I was wrong and they were right… You can be sure they never heard back from me!

Selling is, in essence, communication, and communication is supposed to be a two-way street. Your prospect needs to feel that they’re in a real, engaging conversation so you can build a good relationship with them.

A trick that always helps in making prospects feel heard is repeating what they just said. When a client objects, confirm their concern back to them: “So what I’m hearing you’re saying is __. Is that right?”

Then you can answer their objection. Don’t dismiss their objections right away. It’s a little way to show that you actually care about their situation.

Ask open-ended questions.

Objections are often great opportunities to understand the needs of your target customer. After all, there’s no better way to know what your target market needs than asking them yourself.

Ask as many questions as you can to help you understand your prospect’s objection and get down to the real reason for their hesitation.

But it’s important to have the right tone – you don’t want it to feel like an interrogation. You have to sound calm, positive, and inquisitive.

Once you get down to the root of the problem, you’re in a better position to deal with it effectively.

Share customer testimonials.

I’ve found that one of the best ways to handle objections is to share the stories of your past clients who had a similar objection but went ahead with your service anyway and saw a positive result.

This approach shows that you are acknowledging the validity of their concerns and the value that others have found in your service.

Be honest.

The last tip that I’ll share is being honest about your service. Don’t make false claims – ever.

Don’t say the website you built for a restaurant directly resulted in a 200% in-store traffic if it didn’t. It’s just part of business ethics.

Always be upfront about what you can offer, your past results, and back it up with customer stories if you can.

When No Means No

The tips above will help you get past your prospects’ first line of barriers and help you understand the real problem.

But at a certain point, no means no.

If you’ve tried to identify what your prospect is really concerned about and you’ve said your piece, and the prospect still objects, let it go.

A good rule of thumb is if the prospect says an objection twice, it’s true.

Client objections can seem daunting at first, but once you understand the psychology behind it, it gets easier to handle.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this will help you handle client objections more confidently :)

Check you on Twitter.

While there's no exact science that dictates the best possible times to share content on Instagram throughout time zones and disciplines, there are strategies you can use. And there are certain times and windows that seem to be consistently better than others.

In this article, we'll use the freeCodeCamp Instagram account as an example – since I run it, I'm the most familiar with its behavior and trends.

I'll share my reasoning behind our timing strategies along with what works best for us. I'll also discuss some general advice about posting times and how you can decide when to share your content.

Let's get started.

What's the best time to post to Instagram, in general?

As I mentioned above, there's not really a universally right or wrong time to post to Instagram. It depends on your audience, your goals, where you're located, and many other factors. But let's try to get some insights.

First, some data:

A graph showing how many posts people share in various time slots throughout the day (Source)

This is a very general graph, but you can see that there tend to be the most posts between around 9am and 6pm. This makes sense, as people are generally awake and active during those hours.

To get a little more insight into when people post and why, let's dive in deeper.

Put yourselves in your audience's shoes

Alright, let's think about this logically. Perhaps, if you're an Instagram user, think of your own behavior on the app.

If you're a somewhat typical user, you likely check IG right when you wake up. Nothing like a little shot of inspiration/FOMO/political commentary to start off the day right.

Then, when you're eating lunch, you probably open up the app again to check out all the juicy goodness that's been shared while you were working or doing other things all morning.

As your day winds down, and your brain becomes tired or distracted from work or taking care of kids or job hunting – or however you spend your days – you might check in with Instagram again just to escape and browse for a minute.

See what I'm getting at? People tend to check Instagram before work, when they need a break, or when they want inspiration or information.

Of course, Instagram isn't always restful – many people use it for active learning, sharing their art, consuming and sharing information about politics and social justice, and so on.

But it's up to you to know your audience. Whether you're posting travel photos or tech tutorials, think about who might be interested in those images or videos and when they might be browsing the app.

How to choose the best times to post to Instagram

Now that you've thought about who might be viewing your posts (and whom you want to view those posts), let's talk about some general trends in Instagram viewership. I'll focus on the tech and education spheres, since those are where freeCodeCamp lives.

First of all, here's something to keep in mind: if you have a relatively global audience – meaning your viewers are spread all over the world – it matters less when you post. Or rather, you can't cater to all time zones at once. If you can figure out where most of your audience is, or even a small majority, focus on times that are ideal for that area.

This is one strategy I follow. I live on the west coast of the United States, and there are many people in the States that engage with freeCodeCamp in some way (whether through the curriculum, publication, forum, YouTube channel, or our social media channels).

Part of freeCodeCamp's strategy is that we don't schedule posts ahead of time. I like to keep the content fresh and current, and I post to freeCodeCamp's account a few times a week.

By way of planning, I simply reach out to the people who's posts I want to re-share, and ask their permission to do so. Once I've gotten it, I add that post's URL to a spreadsheet so I can keep track of which posts I've shared and when.

Now the main question – once I have my planned posts, when do I share them?

Well, I think about the factors I've discussed above, and here's my general strategy.

Focus on weekdays

I want to catch people when they're studying or working or doing something from which they might need a little break. A little zap of inspiration. Most of the content I share on freeCodeCamp's IG account is being re-shared, so it's content someone else has created and posted.

I do this, in part, to show the global nature of the freeCodeCamp community. Many of the images I share feature developers and new coders who have used or are using the freeCodeCamp curriculum to learn to code. And people are doing that everywhere, so I want our Instagram feed to reflect that.

So throughout the week, around lunchtime (Pacific Time), I share photos of people coding, photos of people's setups, and photos of people learning to code. That way, when a person scrolling through their feed sees something that freeCodeCamp has shared, they hopefully receive a jolt of positivity, inclusivity, support, and inspiration.

Focus on daytime

As an additional note, I do try to share content when a large part of the world is awake.

Of course, not everyone will be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (as my mom says) when I post, but the goal is to give as many people as possible an opportunity to see the image before the world of IG moves on and floods people's feeds with too many more posts.

Think about the days of the week

Lastly, I think about what people's schedules might be like. I realize that I don't have a completely typical schedule, but I admittedly use myself as a case study.

I generally work Monday-Friday, and spend my weekends focusing on other things. Sometimes something work-related requires my attention on a Saturday or Sunday, but I try to stick to a regular schedule.

When I start the week on Monday, my inboxes are quite full, various repeating tasks demand my attention, and I have a meeting or two. Tuesday is often much the same.

By Wednesday, I'm pretty much caught up and can work on larger projects or other tasks that aren't so time-sensitive.

Thursdays and Fridays are also more free-form and I often have time to write articles for freeCodeCamp's publication and catch up on backlogs.

All this being said, I'll generally share images on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and then again on Thursdays or Fridays. It fits in nicely with my work schedule, and I imagine that other people find time on those days to check IG once or twice.

Turns out that these times are fairly ideal – people seem to use Instagram a lot on Wednesdays and Fridays (in the tech sphere, especially), and lunchtime is a popular time for perusing.

I check in on each post throughout the day after I post, and then a day or so later, to see how much engagement it's gotten. If it has over 1000 likes and at least 5-10 comments, I know it's done quite well.

Ok, so when should you NOT post to Instagram?

I've been discussing how I strategize and figure out when I should post to Instagram. But how do you determine when you shouldn't?

Well, I did some research, and the general consensus is that Sundays are the worst time. Fewer people use the app and share during that time, which makes sense if you think about it.

In my house, Sundays are often used to get done everything you didn't do during the week. Or, barring that, to decompress and rejuvenate before starting anew. I don't spend a lot of time on social media on the weekends in general, and sometimes I'm just tapped out on screens by the time Saturday and Sunday roll around.

Other than Sundays, there doesn't seem to be one day that, across the board, is bad for Instagram views and engagement. This is where you'll need to do some research specific to your situation.

Figure out your own ideal posting times

You can also go through this mental process – thinking about your audience's potential schedules, cross-referencing with your own, and so on. It might take some trial and error, but keep track of the results and you'll be able to hone your strategy.

But perhaps you know that most of your audience is in a certain geographical area. Then you should do some research on when people use Instagram in your region, or country, and base your posting schedule off that (as it makes sense for you or your brand).

Here are some generalizations to think about as you conduct your research and figure out a posting schedule (again, based on the tech world):

• Weekdays tend to bring about higher engagement
• Sometimes you can catch people when they first wake up, so early morning can work
• Lunch time is pretty reliable, as many people check/browse their phones as they eat
• Later in the workday is also decent, as people get tired of work/whatever they've been doing all day and need a break
• Sundays tend to be relatively quiet in IG land

Do you have data that you've gathered about the best times to post to Instagram? If you share it with us, we might be able to include it in this article :) Just reach out on Twitter.

Good luck reaching as many people as you can with your Instagram content!

If you're thinking about striking out on your own, you'll likely have two questions. First, you may ask “what is freelancing?” This is understandable, given that the phrase can mean different things to different people.

The second question you might have is how you can get clients. This is, of course, important, since working for yourself without having any customers will result in you looking like this:

The good news, if you're thinking of spinning up your own brand, is that if you go about it right then you can wind up looking like this:

So, with all that said, let’s first answer the question “what is freelancing?” And then, let’s talk about how to get clients online as well as locally in your city.

If you're like me and prefer to take in written content, read on. For those who prefer video, I've prepared a video presentation on these topics:

I’ve written for freeCodeCamp on how to make money as a freelance developer. I’ve also written a comprehensive guide to working as a freelancer. This article is going to be different in that it is going to solely focus on two issues.

First, I’ll give my personal opinion as to what it means to be a freelance developer. Second, I’ll give my thoughts on getting the customers once you’ve struck out on your own.

I'll break the latter of these points into three parts. First, I'll discuss the tasks you should complete before you even begin attempting to get customers. Next, I will go over how to get clients through your online presence. The third part will cover ways in which you can get customers locally in your own city.

Here’s a quick roadmap of this article so that you can jump to a particular section:

1. What does it mean to be a freelance developer?

2. What to do before you try to get new customers

3. How to get new customers online

4. How to get new customers in your city or locale

5. So…...let’s get to it.

   What does it mean to be a freelance developer

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   The term “freelance” has been thrown around a lot in today’s society (including in lots of areas outside of software development). So much so that it has really become a buzzword that can mean different things to different people.

   If you’re thinking of striking out and doing your own thing, then being a “freelancer” can really mean one of two things.

   First, you may be considering creating your own side-hustle. Second, you may be thinking of actually being self-employed. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

   Some people choose to hold a steady job while running a development business on the side

   Going out on your own can be a great way to supplement your current job. Maybe you’re completing freeCodeCamp and are hoping to work a dev job at a company while doing projects on the side.

   You may also have a non-software related job, that you want to keep, but you would like to be a part-time developer on the side.

   In either of these cases, your business is a part-time activity. Since you already have a full-time commitment it’s unlikely that you’ll work with more than a few clients (or maybe even only one) at a time.

   When going this route, getting customers is still important, so the tips below will apply to you even though you’re not necessarily trying to scale up your business.

   One of the downsides of going the side-hustle route is that it means working a full-time job while trying to run your business. While this comes with the benefit of having steady income (from your primary job), it comes with the downside of being really busy.

   Going this route tends to result in Friday only meaning that there are two more working days before Monday. It also comes with the stress of not being able to respond to your customers right away because you have your main job to deal with. These are just some of the ups and downs of going this route.

   Some people may choose to make their development business their sole occupation

   Many individuals either leave their current software job, or start out their development career, by working for themselves primarily and not as a side-hustle.

   This allows you to focus more on development of your own products and working for your own customers. As a result, you have much more flexibility with your schedule, since you’re not juggling against a full-time job.

   Some who go this route are attempting to grow as much as possible while some are just hoping to maintain a steady stream of income and have a flexible lifestyle.

   Focusing solely on your own thing can result in having a much higher income. This is because I, and many others, find it easier to make more when working for yourself than when working for a paycheck from a company.

   The biggest downside of going this route, however, is the fact that you have no other income stream. This means that your income will be unsteady at best.

   You may have noticed that neither of the aforementioned descriptions mentioned employees. That’s because once you get to the point of having employees, you’re no longer a “freelancer” - you’re a business owner.

   In a future article (spoiler alert), I’ll discuss how to scale your freelance dev gig into a full fledged business.

   Which route you decide to take is really up to you. Just remember that it’s important to base your choice on your personal situation, preferences, and what it is you want going forward.

   Now let’s talk about what going forward looks like.

   What to do before you try to get new customers

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   The best way to grow your business is to do a good job for your existing customers. But before you can worry about that, you have to set up your branding.

   Not setting up branding, which I’ll discuss in a moment, means that you go out and try to get business before potential customers might be willing to take you seriously. Don’t do that.

   So….two tasks to complete before even attempting to get new customers are:

   1. Understand the importance of repeat business & referrals, and

   2. Set up your branding.

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Freelance developers must focus on existing customers if they want to grow their business

If you ask anyone who has their own business (not just developers) how to grow sales, they’ll almost immediately start talking about marketing of some sort. In other words, they focus entirely on getting inquiries from people who haven’t yet heard of them.

These business owners often devote time and other resources to marketing and, as a result, they take time and resources away from serving their current customers. I refer to this approach, in very technical terms, as:

When you take time and resources away from your current customers, then those individuals/companies are waiting longer to get their product, they're waiting longer to hear back from you if they have questions, and are less likely to be happy with the service they’ve received.

They, in turn, are then less likely to call you for future work and are less likely to refer you to anyone.

The results of this can be disastrous. This disaster comes from the fact that not having repeat business or referrals means that you are one-hundred percent reliant on getting your customers from advertising or some form of networking.

Suppose you’re spending money or time to get new customers (money in the form of advertising and time in the form of networking/reaching out). That time and money means that your profit margins are going to be low.

First, suppose you charged $3,000 for a website, but spent $250 in marketing to get the customer. This means that your profit is only $2,750.

Second, suppose you charge $3,000 and can complete the product in fifteen hours. That’s $200 per hour. But if you spent 2-3 hours networking to get the customer, then you have to consider how that time impacts the amount you are making per hour.

Incurring these financial costs and time losses means that you’re going to struggle to make any money. This is not the case when you build up a referral base and repeat business base.

Let’s look at how things go when you focus on your existing customers first. Yes, you spend some form of resources to get a customer. But then that customer is likely to come back to you in the future when you need something else. This means you pick up additional work without spending any additional resources.

Second, they then refer you new potential customers - meaning that you get new business without expending any time or resources. This drives up your profit margins, leads to exponential growth, and helps you look like this:

I’ll explain with a personal example.

I built a website for a lawyer in 2013. She was extremely happy with the service I provided and roughly six months later had me build a second website for a niche legal area she was going to begin handling. I’ve also provided ongoing maintenance to the lawyer for several years now.

Importantly, this same lawyer has referred two more people. The first of these two people hired me and, in addition to building out their initial product, they have also hired me for ongoing support and maintenance.

So, I put time into going out and getting a customer (the lawyer) and the time I spent meeting with one person has resulted in my building three different websites and providing additional maintenance services.

For obvious reasons, this is more profitable than going out and having to meet three different people to get three separate jobs. Exponential growth can occur in your business when you take one inquiry (the lawyer, in my case) and turn it into several jobs over a period of time.

Building up a referral base means, again, focusing on your existing customers first. This approach is simple. If you have something to do, or something you can do, for a current customer, then do it. If you have time left over at the end of the week, then such time can be devoted to going out and trying to get new customers.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to your growth that you take a “current customer first” focus.

Self-employed developers should establish their branding before trying to get new customers

The next thing you should do as a self-employed developer is establish your branding before attempting to meet new customers.

Understanding why requires you to put yourself in the role of a small business owner.

Suppose you own the local bakery and someone comes in offering their website & app development services to the bakery. If the developer doesn’t even have a website of their own, has no portfolio of work, no online reviews, no business cards, and is using a personal email address for work purposes, then the business owner isn’t going to take them seriously.

Instead, it is much better to get these things knocked out before even attempting to meet a client.

The first order of business is to build out the website for your business and to display your portfolio of work (you can have a portfolio even if you haven’t had any clients yet).

In terms of putting together your own site, you can do it yourself or, to save time, you can use a template from html5up (make sure you follow the creative commons licensing if you use one of these templates).

For your portfolio, I’d suggest including at least five to six projects. If you haven’t completed anything yet, then you can create mock ups and include them.

An example of this would be creating a website for a fictional bakery and including it in your portfolio. Just make sure it is clear that, when someone clicks on that site from your portfolio, they will be viewing a demo and that it is not a real business.

Having a professional looking website, and a portfolio of quality work, makes you appear more legitimate to potential clients.

The second thing to get done right away is to set up online review profiles for your business. Whenever a client is happy with you, it’s important to ask them to leave you good reviews online. The presence of these reviews helps ensure that future customers are more likely to hire you.

The two most important places to have review profiles, in my opinion, are Google and Facebook. This means that you need to start a Google my Business account for your new brand. You also need to create a Facebook page for the brand.

When you’ve completed a project and the customer was clearly happy with your services, you’ll want to send them links to these profiles so they can leave you good reviews.

The final step in being ready to market yourself is to set up a branded email, order business cards, and get a business phone number.

For your cards, I would suggest going the simple route. This means using a service such as Vista Print. Setting up your email is self-explanatory.

As for your phone number, I would use a free service such as Google Voice, which allows you to have a dedicated number which will ring to your cell. Once you have all of these items completed, you’re ready to go and to start hustling up business.

How to get clients online as a freelance developer

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If you have a quality web presence, it can result in an ongoing stream of business for you as a freelance developer. When establishing your online presence, however, it is important that you go about it the right way.

I strongly, strongly, strongly (strongly) suggest that you invest into your web presence as opposed to spending time and resources on it.

Because this point – investment – is so crucial, it’s the first point I’m going to discuss in this section of this article. I’ll then talk about optimizing your website for your local market and will then briefly make a few additional points about getting online reviews.

You should invest in your online presence as opposed to spending on it

One of the things I am most thankful for is that I came to appreciate the difference between investing and spending, in terms of my business, at a very early stage.

The concept is straightforward. When you invest in your web presence, you then own something at the end of the day. These owned items can take the form of blog posts, YouTube videos, and so on. You don’t have to expend any more money or time to keep these assets and no one can take them from you.

Spending money on your web presence, by contrast, involves renting ad space from third parties (which can include pay-per-click advertising, Facebook ads, and so on.).

Investing in your online presence can result in your profits going up like this:

While simply throwing money at it can result in a constant struggle and will make moving your business forward about as easy as actually getting somewhere on a treadmill.

Let’s look at why this is.

Suppose you spend $1,000 on advertising this month. Now suppose it brings you $10,000 in revenue. It’s easy to look at that and go “woo hoo!”

But there’s a problem. The $1,000 you spent on advertising is now gone and will never bring you anything past the initial $10,000. Moreover, if you don’t spend money advertising again next month then your revenue will go to zero.

This means, with a near certainty, that relying on paid ads for your online presence will lock you into recurring advertising costs that you’ll never get out of. This is a far cry from actually owning your marketing assets.

I’m going to use a personal example to demonstrate the value of owning your web presence outright.

My previous brand was acquired in May of 2020. Over the years I had written roughly four hundred blog articles targeting my potential customers. From the time I launched the website through its acquisition, my top performing blog post had received over 10,000 clicks in search.

If I had been using pay-per-click advertising to get customers, then I probably would have spent somewhere in the area of $10 per click. So that one blog article that got 10,000 clicks gave my business the equivalent of $100,000 in advertising ($10 x 10,000).

I probably spent a total of five to six hours researching and writing that one article. Once that time was spent, however, I never put another moment into that article – I owned it.

This is different from paying for an ad where you don’t own anything at the end of the day. If you own your online presence then you can grow your business exponentially and avoid large recurring marketing costs.

Again, the assets you own can take on multiple forms. In addition to blog articles, consider YouTube videos and other media which can be used to target your potential market (more on this below).

One point I want to emphasize is that you can create content which you will own. I’ve spoken with a lot of developers over the years who didn’t write blog articles or create videos because they felt uncomfortable doing so.

While I understand and appreciate this, it’s crucial for you to understand that working for yourself means doing a lot of things you don’t feel comfortable doing.

If you’re unwilling to create web content that you own, and you choose to rely on ads, then you will still be able to make money as a freelance developer. That money, however, will be nowhere near what you can earn if you choose to step out of your comfort zone a little bit and engage in regular content creation.

So, with that said, let’s move on to actually building out your web presence.

You must optimize your web presence for a target market

I’ve seen a lot of independent developers who put together a website for their business without making sure it’s actually targeting a preferred market. Instead, such websites tend to be overly broad or vague.

Such a website may simply say “I’m a developer who builds stuff for the web” or something of the sort. They then link to a portfolio of various projects, list languages and frameworks that they are familiar with, and that’s it.

Instead, it’s best to identify a market you can reach through your website and optimize your site for it.

I’ll be writing more on freeCodeCamp over the next few months about optimizing websites for search (so stay tuned). For right now, prior to building out your website, I’d suggest you familiarize yourself with Google’s SEO starter guide. Then identify a market segment that you think you can capture and optimize your website for it.

To do this, make sure that your website clearly spells out different services and is clear about what you do.

I understand that this may sound a little vague. The content of your website, however, is going to largely depend on the type of work and the geographic areas that you are targeting. To put a little more meat on the bone, I’ll use myself as an example.

I try to focus my business exclusively on building websites and apps for small to medium sized businesses (I’ve written previously on the importance of choosing a niche). My website focuses exclusively on Ohio and its various cities.

I focused my web presence solely on my home state for two reasons. First, if I was trying to compete for Google searches on a national scale, then the competition would be absurd. Going after my home market is a lot more practical.

Second, while I get many calls from out of state clients and build products for people all over the country, there are a large number of people who want to stay local when looking for a developer. Also, my website clearly focuses on website or app development, instead of trying to broadly convey everything I could conceivably build.

So what's been the result of this approach? Well...when I perform an incognito Google search for “Ohio website design” then my site appears first. This means that potential customers call me without my business having to pay for any form of advertising. I also did not pay for advertising for my prior brand, which was acquired earlier in 2020.

Does my approach result in my website reaching all of the potential customers for all of the work I’m willing to perform? No. Does it reach a high percentage of the people I’m targeting for specific work? Yes.

This results in my getting more business through my website than many freelance developers get through theirs. This is why I choose my approach over one which makes it sound like the developer can do nearly anything for anyone regardless of where they are.

You must ask satisfied clients to leave you online reviews

I mentioned above that it is important to set up online review profiles for your business. When you have completed a job for a customer it is important that you ask them to leave you a review.

The reason for this is simple. The more good reviews you have, then the more you will receive contacts through your website. While having a bank of good reviews doesn’t make more people land on your site, it does make a higher percentage of your website visitors pick up the phone and call.

Let’s look at a few quick “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to getting reviews.

The first thing to remember when getting reviews is to not ask a client for a review unless you are certain they will leave you a good one. You may have just read that sentence and are now thinking “duh,” but, trust me, you would be surprised at what some people do.

Second, it’s not enough to ask the customer to leave the review. If you want them to actually do it, you need to call the client and talk to them about leaving you a review. If they are willing to do it, you then want to email them links to your review profiles.

You will find that doing the phone call and email, in conjunction with one another, will result in a much higher percentage of the people you ask actually following through and leaving the review. Otherwise you’ll ask, and ask, and ask, and few customers will ever actually do it.

I can’t stress enough how important a bank of good reviews is to growing your business. Also, just as with web assets which you own (explained above), those good reviews can’t be taken away and don’t require you to pay out money each month.

Now let’s look at ways to get work in your local market which don’t involve your website.

How to get local clients as a freelance developer

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As I just explained above, a web presence (done correctly) will actually bring in quite a few local clients. There are other things you can do, however, to get clients on the local level.

These things include talking to larger development shops about outsource/contract opportunities, going out and talking to potential customers one on one, and attending networking functions.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these methods in more detail.

There are more opportunities than you might realize when it comes to picking up work from other developers. Larger dev shops, which work on large scale projects, often are willing to (or need to) outsource a small component of the project.

There are several reasons for this. First, they may have a one-time project with which they need help. It may not make sense to hire someone for that one particular thing (since there wouldn’t be a need for the employee once the project is completed) so it makes sense to outsource.

Second, a larger shop may be in a “middle area” where they are too busy for the amount of staff they have but not busy enough to hire. Again, someone in this situation may outsource. It is common for freelance developers to get work from larger shops who find themselves in this situation.

The best way to start getting this type of contract work is to reach out to the larger dev shops in your area and introduce yourself. Again (as explained above), you need to have a website, a portfolio, and so on before reaching out. Otherwise they won’t take you seriously.

Many freelancers who reach out in this way make what I think is a mistake in that they simply send an email to the head of the larger dev shops. Instead, you want to make sure you are more personal in your approach.

I would suggest calling the head of operations on the phone, explaining who you are, and asking if you can send over a cover letter and resume stating that you are available for outsource work.

And, importantly, don’t stop there. If the developer doesn’t send you anything right away, I would follow up over the phone once a month or so. Until you’ve been bugging them for a solid year, or until they’ve told you to go away, keep following up in this manner. By showing that you are organized and persistent, you’ll actually manage to get work in this way.

Another great way to get customers in your city is to simply meet them one on one. This means walking into local businesses and discussing web services, and so on.

Again, many developers who do this tend to go about it wrong. Don’t just go door to door. Make a list of the businesses you intend to visit and actually research them. Look to see if they have a website, organize your thoughts as to how their current web presence can be improved, and also take the time to research their competition.

Being informed when you go to meet someone will go a long, long, long,........long way. Also, as with local dev shops, do not be shy about following up until you are specifically told no.

A third option for getting local clients is to attend networking events. This is something that I’ve suggested before in prior freeCodeCamp articles. This is a good option for quite a few freelancers as many don’t feel comfortable with the more direct approach I just described above.

As I said when it comes to creating content, however, stepping out of your comfort zone is important if you want to take your business to the next level. While I believe that the more direct approach is better for getting customers, attending networking groups, such as BNI can yield results as well. It really comes down to how far out of your comfort zone are you willing to go.

Conclusion

By no means is this meant to be an exclusive guide as to how you can get business, both online and in your community. The methods and approaches I've described above, however, have worked for me in my business and have led to my previous brand being acquired.

The last point I’ll make is that your web presence and local reach is the result of the amount of effort you put in it. If you are willing to step out of your comfort zone, and put time into the methods described above, you’ll be ahead of your competition.

About Me

I am the co-founder of Modern Website Design. I enjoy reading about and writing on issues related to running your own business. To keep with my ramblings, follow me on Twitter.

Having a side income isn’t a luxury anymore that you can put off for a later time when you “feel like doing it." This is especially true considering how economies left and right are spiraling downwards.

Nearly 10 million people in the U.S. alone were laid off or furloughed at least temporarily in April due to the Coronavirus. And it’s still unclear how many will be able to return to their old jobs.

When job security is out of the question, side incomes will get us by.

For many of us, building a side income is no longer about improving our lifestyle. It’s about surviving.

Luckily for us web developers, the demand for our skillsets just shot up because more businesses are going digital.

That means more business owners need websites, apps, and digital marketing services.

There’s an incredible opportunity for us if we know where to tap and how to continuously build up our side hustles to earn at least $500 a month.

We personally use these strategies to earn a lot more than $500 a month, but if you can get to $500, you can get to $5,000+.

This article deals mainly with earning an income through web design, but there are obviously many other income streams.

In the future, I'll be writing in-depth content on drop-shipping, digital products, and others, but for now, let's mainly look at web design as an income stream.

Here's what you can do.

Look for Clients in the e-Commerce Industry

It’s no surprise that more people are turning to online shopping and delivery services to get their basic needs met.

The reality is, for many families worldwide, online shopping, grocery, and apparel will replace store and mall visits until a vaccine is available.

In fact, a Morning Consult study of 2,200 U.S. adults found that 24% of consumers said that they wouldn’t feel comfortable visiting a mall for more than six months.

Now is the perfect time for existing businesses to create more experience-driven mobile apps and websites and for new businesses to aggressively build an online presence.

Let's look at what you can do in more detail.

Discover the challenges they're facing

First, you should discover the challenges existing businesses face in adapting to changing consumer behaviors.

Let’s look at the real estate market as an example.

Normally, people would have to personally visit a property to purchase or rent or to buy at an auction. With the threat of the virus, this is proving to be not as straightforward as it used to be.

This presents a need for real estate companies to turn to online viewings and online auction biddings. They will need an app or website that is secure, stable, and fast enough to process the leads and bids.

Look for real estate companies (or any kind of business) in your local area and see if they already have a website or app that can meet their customers’ changing behaviors. If not, send an email where you briefly discuss your proposal and why it can benefit them.

Then invite them to a call where you will discuss it in more detail.

Connect with e-commerce business owners

Look for new e-commerce stores and find out where they commonly struggle when it comes to building their stores and generating sales.

One good place to find them is on Facebook groups for e-commerce business owners.

A quick search of “e-commerce business owners” returned the following results:

Once you join a group, give value to the members by answering their questions, offering help where you can, and giving genuine feedback.

Once you’ve been an active member for a while, you can then start sending direct messages to members who seem to be having difficulties that you can help with.

If you want to learn more tips for looking for potential clients, here’s a great in-depth resource we’ve written on it: How to Get Clients as a Freelance Developer: The Complete Guide.

Get Monthly Retainers

I personally almost always aim for monthly retainers because it provides stability.

You only market and convince a client once, but you’ll get to enjoy a steady source of income month by month.

What kinds of projects demand a monthly retainer?

• Website SEO – This is a long-term project and needs at least 6 months or more to see results
• Website Maintenance – Maintaining fast loading speed, ensuring security, analyzing website statistics, updating a website, backup services
• Social Media Management – Posting, responding to messages, social media campaigns
• Blogging/Content Writing – You can outsource this to a freelance writer so you won’t have to do any writing yourself. Make sure to explain to your client the benefits of blogging for their business.
• Shopify/WordPress Store Management – This involves checking inventory, uploading new products, monitoring sales, and more. You can also outsource this to a VA that you can find on Upwork, Hubstaff Talent, or other remote work websites.
• Email Marketing – These can be email marketing campaigns you manage for an e-commerce website as an example.
• AdWords/PPC – Any PPC related ad spend you can set up and manage.

If you charge $300 a month for basic SEO and Content Writing, you only need to close at least two clients and you’ll already surpass the $500 mark.

There are many more kinds of services you can offer depending on the needs of your clients. Understand the specific needs of your clients, and from there see where you can offer help.

Want to know how much to charge for your services? I wrote a very detailed guide on this topic.

Learn More Skills

Expanding your skillset lets you offer more services that can complement your main service.

For me, the best service that can complement web development is digital marketing.

Clients want websites because they want to bring in more leads and close more sales. But for their website to perform well, they first have to bring in traffic.

Digital marketing services can help bring in a steady stream of traffic to your clients’ websites. Digital marketing is a broad area of practice, but it mainly involves the following:

• Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Paid advertising
• Search engine marketing

You can read more about how you can market your client’s website here: 12 Actionable Tips to Market Your Client's Website.

Once you’ve learned a skill (or found a business partner that can handle that side for you), come up with packages to offer to clients.

Here’s an example for an e-commerce site:

The more value your services provide, the higher you can charge.

If you’re not sure what to charge for a website, this article might offer some insights: How to Charge for a Website in 2020 (and Beyond).

To know how to prepare a web design proposal in detail (with a free download), you can read it here.

Build a Passive Source of Income

Having a passive source of income is always a good idea because you will be earning money while you sleep. It’s a good cushion for challenging times like when you get sick and can’t work.

When we hear of passive income, blogging and affiliate marketing are the first to come to mind (and they are both great income streams).

Blogging - you can write for other established blogs for $$$ or you can write your own blog and get advertisements or sponsored articles on your blog.

Affiliate marketing - this is simply the process of promoting a product or service and if someone buys the product or service you promote, you will receive a commission (usually between 10-50% of the value) for each successful sale.

But there are more sources of passive income including the following:

• Sell information products like e-books or audio/video course
• Sell digital files on Etsy – Etsy is a marketplace for handmade items including jewelry, clothing, shoes, and more. You can also sell digital prints like artwork.
• Build your own app – You can earn money through app sales and/or adverts.
• Invest in dividend stocks – This is a proven way to earn passive income, but you have to study it well before making any investments to avoid costly mistakes.
• Flip websites – This is only a semi-passive source of income, but I’m including it here because it can be very lucrative. It involves buying domain names for cheap, parking them, and then selling them later on at a higher price. It’s pretty much like online real estate selling. Granted, it's not as easy as it used to be, but there are many people who do this full-time because the income can be lucrative.

Keep in mind that no passive income will make you rich overnight. Most forms of passive income require an initial investment and a lot of time and strategy to set up. But you will eventually reap the benefits if you do things right.

Sell Products on Amazon or Your Own Website

Selling products online is a lucrative source of income with unlimited growth potential.

We are in a fortunate position where we have 2 successful e-commerce businesses and it's going really well.

It all started with finding popular products sourced in China, bringing them in, creating a website and a brand, and implementing effective marketing. All that resulted in a successful e-commerce store.

That brings me to how you can sell your products.

You can choose to sell products on Amazon or your own e-commerce store.

Selling products on Amazon is the easier route because you’ll take advantage of Amazon’s credibility and huge traffic, but there is generally a lot more competition.

The way it works is really simple: you buy products at a discounted rate (wholesale, clearance sale, thrift stores, and so on), ship them to Amazon, and mark them up to their market prices.

This business model is called Amazon FBA, and it can easily earn you $500 or even more a month.

You can also build your own e-commerce website which will take more time and effort. But, unlike Amazon which takes a cut from every sale you make, you’ll keep all your profit and you’ll have total control over how your online store looks.

If you go this route, you’ll have to learn paid advertising and marketing tactics to steadily drive traffic to your website. You will also take care of the payment and fulfillment (if you’ll sell physical products).

Wrapping up

This was a very brief article on how to earn $500 on the side each month.

There's a lot to take in, and there are so many options available, but I hope this helped shed some light on the process for some of you.

Until next time,

Kyle Prinsloo

Follow me on Twitter

Efficient means doing things right. Effective is about doing the right things.

I am an advocate for efficiency and effectiveness. There must be a more efficient way to share contact details other than manually typing details into my mobile phone when I meet a new business contact.

Name cards with QR Code

Add a new contact on your mobile phone by scanning a QR Code

When Google launched the Google Contacts app in 2017, users could share contact information with QR codes. To add a new contact, simply scan a person's QR code to save their contact information on your phone.

I personally think that such an efficient way to save contact details should be implemented on business cards and marketing brochures.

The trend did not seem to take off, maybe because people did not know how to create the QR Codes in the first place.

Create a list of customized contacts QR Codes

I made use of a Google Sheets template to generate the contact QR codes.

Open the template (template link here) in another tab. Then click on “File -> Make a copy” to save it to your own "My Drive" (Google Drive account).

Google Sheets template to generate the contact QR codes

Note that this Google Sheets template seems to only work on desktops, not on mobile phones.

You can use this template by updating First Name, Last Name, Mobile Phone number and Email address. The contact QR Code will be generated in the next column based on these 4 fields.

=image(“https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=150x150&cht=qr&chl=BEGIN:VCARD%0AN:" & A3 & “%20” & B3 & “%0ATEL;CELL:” & C3 & “%0AEMAIL:” & D3 & “%0AEND:VCARD”)

Then another person can scan the generated QR code to add the contact details to their phone.

New iOS and Android versions are equipped with QR Code scanner in camera mode

After scanning, simply click on “Save” to add the information to Contacts.

Scan QR code and save contact

This contact list QR Code template will be useful when you meet new people in a team or at a tradeshow and want to gather everyone’s contact details.

To create a single customized contacts QR Code

Go to QR Code Generator, and select ‘vCard’ where you can customize various fields. Remember to test it out, as some fields do not allow special characters like "," or "@".

https://www.qr-code-generator.com/

You can also add this QR code to your business cards and marketing brochures. Customers and business people can then easily scan and save your contact details to their mobile phones.

Go to a website by scanning a QR Code

Newer versions of iPhone and Android phones are equipped with QR code scanning in the camera app. Simply turn on the camera and hover over the QR Code to scan it. Then you can click the popup to go to the web address URL embedded.

For example, try to scan this QR code:

Web URL embedded https://www.qrcode-monkey.com

To create your own customized QR Codes

I usually go to QR Code Monkey to create a customized QR codes. It is friendly and free to use, and there are more options if you want to:

• add a logo image in the middle (this can be your company logo!)

• set a color (to follow your corporate identity)

• use some other other customized design

So now you can easily create marketing materials with QR code of your company's website.

Marketing materials with QR codes

QR Codes for name cards and marketing brochures

I hope the tips above are useful for getting things done more efficiently and effectively. All the best to your marketing and outreach efforts!

Thank you for reading!