Weekly discussion by freelancers and professionals about running a business, finding clients, marketing, and lifestyle related to being a freelancer.

Episode 14: The Ruby Freelancer Show 014 – Finding Clients that Can Pay

May 11, 2012 43:59 52.78 MB Downloads: 0

Panel

Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp)
Eric Davis (twitter github blog)
Evan Light (twitter github blog)
Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog)

Discussion

Elance
Odesk
Start local
Be involved in the community
User Groups
Subcontracting
Go to conferences
RailsConf
Get involved in Open Source projects
Screencasts
Ruby DCamp
Join Mailing List
Speaking at Conferences
Write an ebook
Freelance Switch
Blogging
Comment on other People's sites
Join and participate in forums
Podcast
List everyone you know and tell them you're freelance
Referrals
John Jantz - The Referral Engine
Michael Port - Book Yourself Solid
Build systems around your marketing
Set the expectation at the beginning that they will give you referrals
Do a retrospective or review
Survey your client and if they're happy then ask for referrals
Deliver underbudget and early
Ask for referrals on milestones
33 touches (Real Estate)
Be specific
BNI
Project Rescue
Communicate well
Set accurate expectations
The quality of your website
Make it easy to contact you
Put together a well defined persona the represents the market you're trying to reach
Talk to other freelancers
Talk to local companies that need staff augmentation
Never Eat Alone

Picks

It's not what you read, it's what you ignore (Eric)
Cats trying to knock things over in my office (anti-pick) (Evan)
CloudApp (Evan)
RubyVis (Evan)
RubyMotion (Jeff)
Worth Every Penny [amazon.com] (Jeff)
GitlabHQ (Jeff)
Never Eat Alone (Jeff)
Doctor Who (Chuck)
Users' Groups (Chuck)