
Ask HN: Looking to start freelancing - bjw181
So unfortunately the web development company I was working for downsized and laid me off. It had nothing to do with my performance, I&#x27;m a competent developer and hard-worker. Currently, I think freelancing may be a good route to try.<p>My questions regarding this are pretty straight forward.<p>1) I know I&#x27;m lacking a portfolio. This seems to be a chicken before the egg situation. How should I build a portfolio? Should I just make websites with no business behind them? How can I monetize an SAAS in a short time?
I even struggle to think of an idea of a service to offer and get slightly discouraged to look out there and see almost every service covered.<p>2) How to market. I know freelancing is mostly about the hustle. But all the sites I look into either have people willing to work for $3-$8&#x2F;hour or require a &quot;professional&quot; certification process requiring a portfolio as well as an interview and selection process. How can I compete and win the gig?<p>3) Time. I have a severance but it will run out eventually. I have savings but in all actuality how long would it take to build a service that brings in say, $100,000 yearly? That seems like a lot to ask for, but self-employment taxes are insane and living in America isn&#x27;t cheap.<p>Any help you guys can offer would be great. I love the discussions here and am a regular reader. I also love software development and I never have had a day where I woke up and didn&#x27;t want to do my job. I have a true drive and passion for this and I would regret every day if I was forced to leave it behind.<p>Thanks for your answers in advance.
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Random_Person
I'm in the same situation. I have started on a SaaS that will be profitable
next year, but as it's education based, I won't be able to monitize until
July. My job is ending in June... so I have to figure something out in the
meantime. I'd love to start building a portfolio, but don't know where to
start.

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bjw181
I've read a couple answers on here regarding the situation, but they were all
from ~3-5 years ago. The landscape has probably changed quite a bit since
then. I feel the market is over-saturated and clients outsourcing to ultra-low
bids is a real hurdle. Every freelance site has thousands of these bids. Can
be discouraging at the least. Fingers crossed!

