Five Important Tips When Starting as a Freelance Software Developer

So in this article, I am going to be discussing a few key points about freelancing. For example, how to go about freelancing and how to get your very first project as a freelance developer.

These five tips I am confident will be super helpful, especially if you're a beginner in computer science or information technology.

Don’t delay, just get started

My first tip is just go ahead and get started. Like I mean this week; just start now. It is not important that you are not yet an absolute expert of some particular technology. If you're getting into it, let's take an example of web development, even if you have very basics of web development, say you just studied basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

If you are wondering whether you are not ready enough or whether you're not perfect enough, then I'm really going to tell you one thing. If you're going to be running around trying to obtain perfection, whilst being at a beginners level, then you'll never start freelancing.

When I waa first starting as a freelance web developer, my first project was a portfolio website for a fashion designer. My friend and I had approached him, and he wanted a portfolio website. The interesting bit was he was going to be uploading new photoshoot images every week, and every month.

It was a dynamic website and we did not know anything about dynamic websites. We had learned a little bit of HTML, and a little bit of CSS, as ell as basic JavaScript, just by watching YouTube and Googling. We were confident enough that we could build a static portfolio website, however we did not know how to go about a dynamic website.

So what we did is we literally took that order. We charged him a lot less than usual rates and what we did is we came home and we googled out and we came across this concept of WordPress.

I'm not going to get into a lot of detail, but basically what it does is it gives you a dynamic template wherein you can drag and drop pages. You can drag and drop images and create dynamic stuff. So it's built on top of PHP, and we started learning PHP a little bit, because we did not have it in our curriculum and we got the basics.

We literally took that order, before even knowing if we can do it or not. We just did it, and then after we learnt WordPress, we made that website and we deployed it and it worked out pretty well.

Use your existing network

Tip number two is to start off with your contacts. You are all hyped up, and you are all pumped up, and you are super ready to get started. However, you're like "Okay, so where do I get my first project?".

The best way when starting as a freelance web developer looking for new sales prospects, is to start off from your contacts; that is, your family and friends, old school friends and the like. Now the reason why you should start off with your family and your friends is because the level of risk is low.

When you are approaching a random person, the risk of you making a mistake in the project is very high. You know the stakes are high, so let's say if you are relative, such as your Aunty who owns a business.

This is just an example. Let's say she's an IT professional, and has her own managed IT services company. Maybe it’s your cousin, and he owns a business mentoring business.

Anyway, you can approach them and say you're into web development, and you want to develop a website for them at a very low rate, since you are just starting to freelance.

Get collaborating

As a freelancer, you should be embracing collaboration. You need to work in a team at times when on larger projects, and it is actually beneficial on the smaller projects too. If you are feeling less confident, the best way to overcome that is to partner up with some of your friends who are like-minded.

Let's take an example. Your mom or dad is a dentist or a doctor, and he or she has her own clinic. You want to develop a website for that clinic, so you can approach your friend who is also into web development, and you can suggest to her that you both do it together.

The biggest advantage of this, is that you will have one more smart mind working on the project. When you have more than one mind working on a project, there is a lot of knowledge transfer as is happening between the two of you.

You know maybe she is stuck with some problem, and you can resolve it so the speed of the development of the project increases. The success rate also increases, and you learn a lot from your friends. Fantastic! One more amazing thing that you learn is you learn how to perform teamwork.

Getting social

This will definitely help you when you are starting as a freelance web developer. My tip is to get on social media. You need to create a Facebook page, and a Twitter account at least. Ideally, you should also create a small blog or website if you want.

I would really recommend this because creating social media accounts will help you grow more than your friends, and more than your family. Social media will help you reach out the entire world.

Being social is very important. You might get your next project, your next freelance order right from the social media platforms. You can even sign up to other portfolio sites, and directories like the Australian Software Guide. You know, so once you've exhausted your list of contacts and all the list of family members, you can actually go social.

You can promote your recent web development work online, and that will really help you a lot. Creating a digital identity on social media, and creating a website or blog also helps give you a more professional look.

Jack of all trades

My last tip for you today, is you need to be jack of all and king of none. When you are starting off with your freelance career, and you haven't really got into the corporate world, you don't have a lot of experience. When this is the case, I would suggest you try out a lot of different technologies rather than sticking to one particular product.

So let's say you want to become a master of PHP. You're keen to stick to PHP, but you know that technology keeps on changing. A lot of things become obsolete and outdated, and new technologies just keep on coming. So what if PHP gets outdated? What are you going to do then? How about you first start off with PHP, then try a little bit of ASP.NET as well. Maybe then get into JavaScript, etc.

What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to be a master of one particular technology. You need to know a lot of things - at least at the fundamental level - so this reduces the risk of being redundant.

Summary

So here these were my five tips for starting as a freelance web developer, based on my own experience and in discussing this with friends. I hope these were helpful to you, and all the best in your freelance career!

James lives in Nebraska with his family and enjoys camping, fishing and writing guest posts.