
Ask HN: How to find clients to start working remotely while you have a job? - blueterminal
I absolutely loved working remotely during the lock-down. I had way more freedom, had more sleep, sometimes had 12 hrs working days when I was in the zone and then having a Friday (or even Thursday too sometimes) off because I was so efficient during the week. And I was so efficient that I also finished some of my projects, and was learning lots of different things. I was just better.<p>Therefore, I want to switch to working remotely eventually (my job requires to be in the office).<p>I have free time in the evenings and weekends, and lots of energy, so I am prepared to work hard. I love what I do, and I am pretty okay at doing what I do. I work with Django, Laravel, and ReactJs. I can basically create the whole site.<p>Where do I start? I am fine with working for little money at the beginning just to grow the clientele.<p>Thanks a lot.
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Jugurtha
If you want to freelance, the option of starting a company to do consulting is
not to be dismissed. There's a difference between an individual and a company,
even if it's only you. You could have very large organizations, including
government entities, as clients which may not be thay easy to do if you are an
individual. Repeat business is also interesting. The amounts you could charge
are also so far apart. Whatever you imagine, multiply it by ten and go from
there. It depends the field, too.

When you speak, it's the company, not the person who likes confinement because
they feel so productive and have so much energy. It's the legal entity.

There are projects that practically one individual can do in less than a year
for which you can charge a huge company say $300,000 to do. Depending your
current salary, this can be a step down, though.

One caveat: not forgetting it's a company helps.

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pelagic_sky
Seems like you have three options. 1\. Talk to your manager to make working
remote permanent. 2\. Find a job that is remote. 3\. Start freelancing, which
is in my opinion the hardest of the three options since you will end up taking
on a lot more than just writing code and have to hustle to get gigs.

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blueterminal
Yes, I want to do the 3rd. Where can I start getting gigs?

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verdverm
Depending on your skill level, Toptal is a good platform for freelancing

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blueterminal
Thanks a lot, will check it out.

I am pretty okayish. 5 years commercial experience, 10 yrs experience in
general. I am willing to work hard to build clientele, as I said in the post.

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verdverm
This is more of a premium platform, years of experience matter less that what
you can produce.

You will have to do less client building, as they have the ops side for both
dev/co managed.

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brudgers
The best way to develop leads is in person during work hours at their place of
business. To put it another way, what advantage would a potential client gain
from hiring a stranger who only works nights and weekends? What additional
advantage does the client gain from paying so little that it is easy for the
stranger to find a better use of their time?

Sometimes first clients just fall into a person's lap and it is easy to
bootstrap up a consulting business. Usually that doesn't happen. Good luck.

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mtmail
Add a comment to the monthly 'freelancer' thread
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring)
It will be posted first work day of the month (June/1st) 9am California time.

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tomtompl
It seems like you have enjoyed your current job while working from home, but
you just said: > my job requires to be in the office which doesn't seem true
(you been able to work remotely during the lockdown)

Maybe the easiest way would be to talk to your manager and negotiate working
remotely in your current job?

