Freelancing appeals to people who value autonomy, variety, and potentially higher earnings, but it requires skill, discipline, girt and hustle—especially at the beginning while building a portfolio and reputation.
Key Takeaways:
• Who is a Freelance developer and how you can make money working as a freelance developer
• Are you a good fit for Freelance Work?
• Proffesonal Tips, Skills and Platforms to gain and acquire new clients
One very common question most people ask me is whether they should go the “freelance” route as opposed to getting a job or kick-starting their own company.
Whether you should become a freelancer developer depends on your particular situation. With that said, you can make a very comfortable living if you choose to work as freelance developer.
So, let’s have a conversation about whether you should go the freelance route and, assuming it is for you, how you can make Big Money 💵💵 doing so!
First,
Who is a Freelance Developer ?
A Freelance developer (also called a freelance software developer or freelance programmer) is a self-employed professional who writes code, builds software, websites, apps, or other digital solutions on a contract or project basis, rather than working as a full-time employee for a single company.
Freelance Developer – Representative Photo
What Do Freelance Developers Actually Do ?
-Common Freelance Tasks include:
Writing and debugging code in languages like JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, PHP, etc.
-Building websites, web apps, mobile apps (iOS/Android), or desktop software.
-Integrating databases, APIs, cloud services (AWS, Azure), or frameworks (React, Node.js, Django, Laravel).
-Handling front-end (user interface/experience) or back-end (server logic) development.
-Maintaining or updating existing projects, often stepping in when a client’s in-house team is stuck.
-Sometimes wearing extra hats: client communication, project scoping, testing, deployment, and basic project management.
Should you Become a Freelance Developer?
The first question in deciding your future career path is to determine whether freelancing is a good fit for you.
This boils down to two questions.
*Do you have the personality type to freelance?
*Can you make Money doing so?
Let’s carefully look at each of those questions in turn.
1. Do you have the Personality to Freelance?
Freelancing entails building a portfolio and a strong reputation which requires having a strong sense of discipline. As a freelance developer, you’re working for yourself there is no one to tell you that. Therefore this entails:
-Building Self Discipline- This means that you need to be able to force yourself to do certain things in different ways, learn new skills and avoid the many distractions that exist in today’s world.
– Building Reliability- you need to start working on a project on the first of acquiring the job to get it done by the due date of the month while keeping your clients abreast with progress updates and customer feedbacks, etc.
2. Can you make Money doing so?
When answering whether you can make money as a freelance developer, the answer is “YES!”. Here’s why: Research shows that roughly 50% percent of small businesses in Lagos the Biggest economic hub of Africa don’t currently have a website.
While approximately 75% to 80% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa do not have a dedicated website. In Nigeria alone, The country has roughly 40 million small businesses. This means that 20 million small businesses (50 percent of 40 million) need web work. If you charge the average company $250 for a website then that means there is $5,000,000,000 worth of work to be done ( 20mx $250). That’s a really frickin’ big market. So, yes, you can make money as a freelance developer.
How to Stand out from other Freelance Developers
If you decide to freelance, it’s important that you stand out from your competition. Fortunately, standing out from the crowd is not difficult. This is because most developers fail to truly connect with their customers. If you choose to connect with your customers the right way, you will most certainly have a lot of Freelance Work lined up for many moons to come.
Bridging the Developer Disconnect
Bridging the “Developer Disconnect” isn’t hard. Most clients think their problems are unsolvable but they are not. You just need to speak to what your potential clients are looking for and discuss how you are going to expertly solve their problems.
First, your own website should explain how you help businesses solve the problems they are facing. Do not use your first impression (your website) to talk about things which people don’t understand and don’t care about. You have to present yourself as a problem solver and tell potential clients how you are going to solve their problems. By doing this, you will be able to bridge the disconnect between developers and small businesses. That, in turn, will make your freelance gig grow by leaps and bounds.
Let’s have a discussion on how to sell your services so you can see methods for presenting yourself as a problem solver.
How to sell your services as a freelance developer
Selling is something that a lot of people aren’t comfortable with. However, you can learn how to sell your services. One of the biggest parts of being successful is being willing to learn about and do things which make you uncomfortable. Don’t worry that it makes you uncomfortable. Just remember that one’s comfort zone is where their dreams go to die.
This is is easy for me to say because I have been into the business of building websites (including this one), creating & marketing quality daily contents for many years past so this naturally comes to me, but you can learn to do this and after a while it will seem as easy as pushing a button.
Selling your services can be broken down into three parts
*Marketing your skills, services and products.
*Gaining your initial contact with a potential client
*Putting together a good proposal
*Closing the deal
Let’s look at each of these.
-Marketing your skills, services and products.
As a Freelance developer who wishes to sell himself effectively, you need to think about solving the problems of your customers.
While advertising your services, it’s important to speak from the perspective of a “problem solver” and not from that of a “developer.” The more you speak the language of your client then the more likely they are to hire you.
Freelance Web Developer – Representative Photo
Gaining your initial contact with a potential client
The initial meeting (usually over the phone) is the first and most important contact you’ll have with a potential customer. First impression matters.
Most developers swing and miss by using this meeting to talk about their skills, coding, etc.You should use this meeting to ask questions about your potential client’s business and to determine the problems that they want to solve.
If you’re speaking to a Building Materials Shop owner, who needs a website, then you need to be asking questions about his business. For example,
What range of Construction Materials do you cover?
Do they offer Wholesale and Retail sales?
Do they offer Material Delivery services?
How many Locations do they have?
What are the demographics of their customers?
There are plenty of questions to ask on top of these. Once you have an understanding of their business, then you can identify their problems.
Once you’ve identified your client’s problems then you can tell him how you can fix them. This is the proposal stage. Sticking to the same example , if the pizza shop has a dining room, you can propose including plenty of photos
When you try to close the sale, it’s important that you explain how your proposed solutions will meet the need of the client.
Where Freelance Developers can sell their services
Freelancers can be just as frustrated over figuring out where to sell their services, as they can be about the topic of how to sell. Let’s look at three places where you can start getting some clients.
– Networking Events (In-Person & On-line)
A good way to connect with potential customers is through networking events. One of the biggest mistakes I see developers making, is that they go to networking events where most of the attendees are other developers. Don’t do this. Instead, you want to go to events with lots of small business owners. A great way to do this is to join your Local State Business Associations thereby gaining you access to Business Workshops and Summits.
This is a group where you’ll meet many different types of small business owners and you’ll all open your address books up to each other. For example, if an auto mechanic in the group comes across someone who needs a developer then you will get the referral. You, in turn, will refer people other members of the Business chapter.
You’ll find this far more effective!
-Businesss Training and Mentorship programs
Another way to gain more clients is to apply and join different Business Training and Mentorship programs (Local and International). These Business Training and Mentorship programs just like a recently concluded African Business Training and Empowerment initiative i was lucky to be a part of “African Impact Academy” hosted by Mofund Africa and The United States International University USIU comprising of 257 selected High impact Business cut across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria receiving one year intensive business training, development and empowerment.
These types of Business Networking platforms & programs, create opportunities for Networking and Advertising your Freelance Development services to Businesses who most likely are in need of your technical skills and services but don’t know how to go about it.
-Through Upwork, Fiverr, Thumbtack, or Linkedin (more competitive, entry-level friendly)
Another great way to sell your Freelance services is through third-party services such as Upwork, Fiverr, Thumbtack or LinkedIn.
The upside of using these services is that they have a lot of people looking for the same services you are willing to provide.
The downsides to this method are that:
*Premium advertising fees might be requested inorder to get your Freelance Development services to a wider number or clients
*You might have to pay a fee for each client you get through these services (Upwork, Fiverr)
*You’ll tend to do work for customers at a rate much lower than what you would normally charge. That website you would normally build for $3,000 may only go for $1,200 on one of these services. These types of platforms can get you a good number of clients but you’ll be working with really small profit margins.
-Building your Personal Website
Another good option for getting Freelance Gigs, is to do so through your own website. The upside here is that you’ll be charging customers your full rate. The one thing to think about is paying for the promotion of your site. The easiest way to promote your web presence, in a manner which will actually bring you business, is to use Google’s Adwords platform. These are the ads which you see on top of search results. Paying for the ads can be expensive but you should certainly see a return on investment.
Do these things and you’ll get ahead of your competition. Are you currently freelancing? What has your experience been so far? Let me know in the comments.
Leave a Reply