How to make money as a freelance developer - business tips from an expert

0:00 - Should you become a freelance developer?
8:22 - How to stand out from other freelance developers
14:53 - How to sell your services
25:50 - Where to sell your services
Summary of points:
Should you be a freelancer?
- Are you self-motivated or do you need structure provided for you?
- People who can regulate themselves, and require themselves to work set hours from home, are best suited for freelancing.
- People who require someone to provide them with a work schedule and deadlines is better suited to work for someone.
- Can you make money as a freelancer?
- Roughly 30 percent of the 24 million small businesses in the US do not have a website. This equates to 7.2 million businesses.
- If each of these businesses paid $3,000 for a website then that would be a total market of $21,600,000 (7.2m * $3,000).
How you can stand out from other freelancers.
- It’s important to recognize that most developers don’t do a good job of connecting with potential customers.
- There are a plenty of web developers in the US. Despite this, 7.2 million small businesses don’t have a website.
- The fact that there is a high number of developers and a high number of businesses still in need of service indicates a “disconnect” between the development community and the small business community.
- The best way to bridge the “disconnect” is to identify and solve the problems of small businesses.
- Developers must talk to small businesses about their problems and how software will solve those problems.
- Many developers make the mistake of talking about software and code and not about problem solving.
- Taking a “problem solver” approach will help bridge the disconnect between developers and small businesses.
How to sell your services.
- The initial meeting/phone call is your opportunity to connect with the customer.
- Use your initial meeting with a potential customer to identify the customer’s needs and problems.
- Identifying the potential customer’s problems requires in-depth questions and follow up.
- Close the sale by explaining how software will solve the problems you have identified.
- Give specifics as to functions the software will perform and how those functions will solve the problems you have identified. This is more effective than the approach of many other developers
- Your written proposal must be specific as to the services you are providing. This avoids disputes.
Where to sell your services
- Networking events can help generate business.
- DO NOT go to networking events which are mostly made up of developers. It’s better if you’re the only developer in the room.
- BNI (www.bni.com/) is a good place to network with small business owners.
- Third party services can help you find customers
- Thumbtack.com and Fiverr.com are good places to find customers.
- Third party services/platforms often include fees for listing your services and you will often perform work for reduced rates.
- Your own website can bring in business.
- This doesn’t require the time of networking and alleviates the problems of third-party services/platforms
- Google Adwords is a way to promote your website. Adwords, however can be expensive.
Follow Luke on Twitter: / luke_ciciliano
Check out Luke's website, SEO For Lawyers: www.seo-for-lawyers.com/
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Learn to code for free and get a developer job: www.freecodecamp.com
Read hundreds of articles on programming: medium.freecodecamp.com

[@hdremus]

The best freelance web dev advice I found so far! 0% code talkie, 100% business talkie! I want to learn more from you! How/where can I do this? How can we connect Luke Ciciliano?

[@islandparadise]

Great video! Couple of things to note on BNI though. Firstly DO NOT rely on it for 100% of your business, I've seen people make that mistake and eventually they stop being able to give back to their Chapter. Secondly if the Chapter is not run well the pond eventually dries up because no new people (leads) come in. Just my 2 cents. Cheers

[@mikes.1946]

This presentation is SO undervalued. Please do this again for freelancers! ❤️❤️❤️

[@romanlanda]

The most helpful video about freelance development I saw. Thank you Luke!

[@viktorpanko9689]

This is such amazing stuff, exactly what I needed! Much Love FCC

[@chrisfaulkner5522]

Thank you Luke. This presentation is very clarifying. 👏

[@iVuDang]

This guy Luke Ciciliano is really knowledgeable. This is my second video I'm watching from him, and everything he says is fire. Truth bombs.

[@ChrisHaupt]

I wish I'd found this video sooner. Great stuff, thank you very much.

[@gregfierro2365]

Great video Luke! Thanks so much for the info. I hope you put up more videos along this topic. This helped me a lot. Also, I really liked that you put all the info on the video notes. When you're trying to learn something, having the notes right there is better than having to rewind the video to find the info. Keep up the good work. Thanks!

[@gregfierro2365]

Dear Luke: I think that the "intangibles" that one encounters in the course of starting a business would be interesting. The stuff that you really can't find in books or videos. 1) If a client asks me to build a site that I think is atrocious (blinking robots on a black background 'cause he thinks it's cool). It's his web site after all and I need the money. Should I build it for him? 2) Who should own the source code for the web site I built for a client? Can the customer give the web site I built for him to his brother who has a similar business? Or resell the site to other businesses in the same sector? 3) Cold calling (on the phone) to drum up business is something I hate and I don't think is very efficient anyway. Are e-mail campaigns just as bad? 4) Who should write the "copy" of the web site? Some businesses don't know what a tag line is or even have a logo. They don't have any idea what the web site should say. All they want is to increase their sales. What is the best way of creating the text for a web site? Who should provide the images for the site? 5) Should maintenance time be included in the contract or should it be a separate contract for that? 6) Should developers get a "white label" hosting site so we can sell hosting space and domain registration to our clients? Is this upsell income worth it? 7) What systems do you use, as a successful developer, to keep track of clients, billing, invoice generation, online payment sites (Paypal)? Is WHMcs worth the subscription? 8) If the sites we build for our clients are supposed to increase their business, are we more of a marketing firm? Do we need to conduct marketing test on their logo (if we are asked to create one) or their tag line? Do we need to understand their target audience and create the copy accordingly? Or are we just creating an electronic "brochure"? At times I feel we need to have both marketing and web design skills to solve the clients problem and at times I just want to create the site and not worry about the other. Do you do everything in your business for your clients: marketing analysis, UX and UI design, requirements analysis, accounting, Wordpress development, etc.? Some of these topics may not require a whole video tutorial but are just some of the topics that come to mind. Looking forward to more of your videos. Thanks! Greg F. (ps: wow, sorry I went a bit long! :-)

[@anirudhanand5610]

@Luke Ciciliano sir , omg , great work. Never felt boring. Thanks a lot for this.

[@Freebird1122]

@@gregfierro2365 bump. This needs to hit the top of the comments. So many good questions I'd like to know the answer to as well. @Luke Ciciliano could it be possible to maybe do another video on Greg's questions?

[@elkhanhamet2561]

Amazing!!! Thank you very much Luke!!! So much valuable information 👍👍👍. Enjoyed learning from pro

[@s.a.9503]

an awesome presentation, it summs everything very good up.

[@joecooper5801]

Great video, Luke! I learned a lot!

[@DotNetHow]

Great video! Thanks for sharing it with us. :)

[@utubejunkie77]

Awesome info! Thanks alot. Any resources for a Proposal template for developers?

[@msrahmahfaizal1146]

Thanks!, I'll try this idea.

[@AlgerMakiputin]

This could change how I talk to my clients so far.

[@ruffneck718]

Thank you for this video Sir.

[@lalaithan]

Everyone says people are cheap and don't want to shell out the cash, but you can see the ones where businesses have scrimped on web pages from a mile away.

[@nicethings9211]

This description section with important points is good...

[@darkolite]

I would not say "do not go to dev networking events", you will probably found people with business you can do but they cannot. I do give business contacts to other dev (for free) and they do the same for me. I am not a good business talker so I don't know what to do to in Business events. Usually I feel alone. But in dev tech events, I meet and talk to dev who might have business for me. I had 1/3 of my business from other dev !

[@historianthomas]

This is some great advice!

[@ztq9117]

Thanks for the video. Only question I have is when do you talk to them about the proposal?

[@mayny03]

Good discussion, Thanks

[@kateye2716]

I love the emphasis " you can sale".

[@KhalidTubing]

Thank you very much!

[@nickfleming3719]

If you only knew sales, you wouldn't even need to learn to code. You just sell your customer on your service and then sell a coder on making it for you.

[@tGoldenPhoenix]

Thank you.

[@benjaminswitzer8435]

I like this guy, there's no bullshit

[@JP-zp6ob]

this is fantastic

[@timothykeith1367]

If you're good at selling your freelance skills you should became a full time salesperson and earn more. If you're not good at marketing your freelance skills, you can't work alone.

[@nitilpoddar]

glad I found this video

[@RoyerAdames]

Great content

[@sathishbandolero]

Thanks

[@rifathossain328]

I want to be freelance developer . I am a cs student . I really can't decide which area I should lean in to. Which skills I should lean to prepare myself. I know c++,java,c# . Anyone reading this comment your opinion is valuable. Please give suggestion . I want to do this for experience and want to lean real world development.

[@rickgomez7480]

"Roughly 30% of those small businesses..." Do you have a source to this percentage?? I have a proposal/project I am working on and these stats would help out greatly.

[@rickagz6086]

Thanks so much for this resource. This definitely helps.

[@jahovashalom17]

Great!

[@newworld3844]

How is this free?

[@karantiwari1060]

i learn from free code camp

[@tsouchlarakis]

www.bni.com/ BNI link for your convenience.

[@iaziz786]

Thanks. I was searching for it in description.

[@ignaciosavi7739]

im already a freelancer but i just dicovered its not right for me by watching this video

[@ahmedpak5602]

Is it 21.6 Millions or Billions?

[@albertprincemensah3679]

Pretty sure it's billions

[@DEJUNHODE-SAOCARLOS]

can i hit like 200x?

[@jamesbradford1153]

Jordan Peterson is that you? lol.

[@alexcomas3528]

No small business is gonna drop $3000 for a website with all the do it yourself cms softwares out there.

[@y2knoproblem]

That's what I was thinking.

[@benjaminswitzer8435]

You'd be amazed with what people spend money on

[@paz1359]

apparently, this guy has not heard anything about wix godaddy or ...? lol

[@amircanteetu2966]

Alex I work for an agency and our starting price for a custom wordpress site is more than double that. Sure, web dev can be easy, fast and cheap if your client likes a particular theme and does not need any custom functionality. But if they want a fully custom design with custom (imagine e-commerce!) functionality then it's a different matter altogether, and damn time-consuming, which justifies quotes of $5000 or even way more!

[@thanosandnobill3789]

Most small business owners i know barely know how to use facebook or excel. Wordpress for them is like physics and coding more like quantum physics

[@fathah9298]

hey id appreciate it if somebody could answer my doubt i understand getting the clients building the website part but i dont understand what to do after that like should i sned the the files or should i host it on my own etc

[@devhypercoder6772]

What I do is I send it to them in a encrypted zip and then once the pay comes give them the password. Also most of the times, they have a seperate hosting provider or if they don't, mostly I ask them to find one. If they insist and it's a static site I host it on netlify with thier custom domain

[@Elregar71]

People are cheap and don't want to spend the money

[@cBake0]

People need to see the value in what they are buying, that's where selling it comes in

[@hamalaw4490]

show them how what you create can make them money in the long run

[@LeBronJames-ns6to]

Guy looks like jon stewart

[@abdoesam2011]

exactly!!

[@clw1935]

3k for a website?!? 😂

[@kameraadthomas]

I've seen higher quotes at my company..

[@smartwolf9045]

How much do you think getting someone to devote, to grow your business online (because it's all about that, not wrighting ligns of html code) will cost you? 3k is not expensive at all if you consider the work and most of all the expected value obtained... For a big project, it can cost about 35 to 50k to get a freelance providing you with a great website. If you go into this business to be poor, don't go into freelance. If you bring 100 000 dollars of revenues a year to a business, don't you expect a return...?