New Company - Where to find projects?

[AdnanAhsan]

friends i am a freelance web developer, i want to launch my company, but i get tensed when i think where to find projects, i dont have any reliable source of projects. But i get good projects but not too often, Please friends advice me how and where to find projects once i open a company ? please share tips too.

Thanks

 

[SwiftLives]

I hate to point this out, but I believe you have it backwards. Find some clients...then start a company.

That being said, before you find clients, you need to brand yourself. Do you have business cards? Do you have a web presence? Have you registered a domain name?

Can you show a portfolio of previous work? If not, make a portfolio of dummy websites for fake companies - sort of a technical demo of what you can do.

Go to some networking events. Talk to your local Chamber of Commerce. Go to the Addys. Get to know fellow creatives.

Ssome people have had success looking on craigslist. Some people have also gotten screwed.

Send a resumé to local ad agencies. Sometimes, they like to outsource.

There are plenty of ways to network. Most of them require going out and interacting with people. (Not my favorite thing to do.)

 

[yezza]

Try scriptlance.com, getafreelancer.com and elance.com

 

[AdnanAhsan]

no one is here able to guide another person. lol

 

[GoCubsGo]

You may want to remove http://jrm1.jbservers.net/suspended.page/ from your list as their account is apparently past due. And SwiftLives you need to reverse your thinking. You need a website that sells yourself. Right now all I see is some kid who wants to start a company but has nothing to sell.

 

[SwiftLives]

You may want to remove http://jrm1.jbservers.net/suspended.page/ from your list as their account is apparently past due. And SwiftLives you need to reverse your thinking. You need a website that sells yourself. Right now all I see is some kid who wants to start a company but has nothing to sell.

branding ≠ starting a company. But they are pretty close. And this probably shouldn't devolve into a game of semantics.

I think that's my nice way of telling you that you said it better than I did. Thanks.

 

[THX1139]

Don't quit your day job.

 

[iOrlando]

http://www.nookeet.com/ also forgot to pay their bills..


you know...i wouldnt be too comforted knowing that sites you "worked on" are having problems paying their monthly hosting bills.


my advice:

try to work for a company doing web development. Learn the ropes and then in a few years branch out. You wont make a living just making kitcken cabinet company websites

 

[AdnanAhsan]

You may want to remove http://jrm1.jbservers.net/suspended.page/ from your list as their account is apparently past due. And SwiftLives you need to reverse your thinking. You need a website that sells yourself. Right now all I see is some kid who wants to start a company but has nothing to sell.

hey mate you dont know any thing about me you cant judge my skills . Wel paying bills is a client's responsibility not mine. You say but you dont know what are you talking about lol . actually i saw you didn't get what i am asking here, http://www.adntech.net is a domain i own, not a hosting. so this will be open once i run my website, did i ever say i am running my website? so please advice not discourage. your words will be useless unless they are sensible.

http://www.nookeet.com/ also forgot to pay their bills..


you know...i wouldnt be too comforted knowing that sites you "worked on" are having problems paying their monthly hosting bills.


my advice:

try to work for a company doing web development. Learn the ropes and then in a few years branch out. You wont make a living just making kitcken cabinet company websites

friend i am in this business for last 2.5 years. i worked for companies too, but they dont tell me where their clients upload the work i do, because they outsourced projects to me, other developers also hire me to do their client's work, lol i saw many people offering development services but they dont know any thing about development. I opened this thread just for some information to extend my project sources, i am aware what i do and i am 100% satisfied with my business. i get medium/large projects but to make some people mouth shut i am thinking to launch some my own projects.
Thank all of you.

 

[iOrlando]

There are plenty of people on macrumors that help others. Here is your current situation:

1) You come on here with very broken English. Thats not a problem but If I were you I would keep my post short and to the point so people dont get confused as to what you are trying to say or ask.

2) Your main question is so broad and general, its almost impossible to answer with alot of value. You are basically asking how do i start a web development company, but the way you say it you are asking what do i do when i already have my web development company, to which people on this thread replied..if you dont know the answer to that maybe you shouldnt start your company yet.

3) We here at macrumors pay attention to details and when you post random sites that dont even work...we have a problem with that...regardless of whether someone didn't pay their bills or whatever the excuse is. To us, that shows you didnt even pay attention to what links you were pasting in your message. And it also seemed like you are implying you didnt create those websites but did work for the companies that created those websites. This can be very misleading.

In summary, if you are looking for advice...try to ask a very specific question that is short and to the point. Example: I'm a web developer..wheres the best place to get clients...

dont do: i'm a web developer that will start his own company and I have tons of skills and experience but no clue where to get clients. Advice that agrees with me will be appreciated.

macrumors forums can be very helpful...just treat it better than a random internet forum board.

 

[angelwatt]

Smashing Magazine often writes articles directed at freelancers, and their write-ups are generally well done and useful. Here's their latest article on 6 Simple Ways for Freelancers to Increase Productivity. The article itself may directly be relevant to your question here, but at the end you'll find it links to related resources such as sites that list freelance work. Do some searches on SM and you'll likely find some good information.

 

[miles01110]

friends i am a freelance web developer, i want to launch my company, but i get tensed when i think where to find projects, i dont have any reliable source of projects. But i get good projects but not too often, Please friends advice me how and where to find projects once i open a company ? please share tips too.

Craigslist, local business, get your name out there and start offering your services.

 

[yezza]

Wow, some people are quick to judge

Personally I thought that OP's question was fairly straight forward - how would one go about finding/increasing business, and/or did we have any tips for him.

Some people come here for help, not to be told that they should just give up! Sheesh

Good luck AdnanAhsan

 

[Designer Dale]

All I really want to add here is to stress the need for a portfolio site. It is just about impossible to sell graphics online if prospects can't see what you can do. Elance has been mentioned here and is a good setup. You can start out for free and the subscription prices have come way down since the became established. They provide portfolio space, but I think it is just for subscribers. There is an outfit called zenfolio that is a good resource. Try Deviant Art, also.

http://www.elance.com/

http://www.deviantart.com/

http://www.zenfolio.com/

Dale

 

[Dal123]

Wow, some people are quick to judge

Personally I thought that OP's question was fairly straight forward - how would one go about finding/increasing business, and/or did we have any tips for him.

Some people come here for help, not to be told that they should just give up! Sheesh

Good luck AdnanAhsan

Agreed; some people here have been very pessimistic.
AdnanAhsan I'm in a similar position to you, I'm 25 and I've worked in a specialist area of construction since 17. I know pretty much everything there is to know in the game now and working with people that have 10 years on me but because they're older they try to tell me what to do (and I know a better way they don't listen). I find it amazing how these people get by. What amazes me is that some of these people are earning big money.
I'm not a web designer or developer; I'm just trying to learn a little and build my own site until the construction business picks up here in the UK. Here's my input for what it's worth:
I would hire an accountant to register your company NOW. Not a few years down the line, I'd build up a credit rating on your company so when potential clients check you out you'll be good (They probably don't do this in internet but in construction it's essential). Also at least your company will be registered and you can boast been trading since 2009, so in a few years will look better than ones in 2011.
Everyone says that you should "poach" your clients, but you can end up getting the sack for doing this as someone at my work has just recently been sacked for doing exactly that. When you start-out advertisement is key (I think) you can't get any contacts at first. Like others have said go to relevant meetings, events and try to build your contacts. The hardest part is starting off, once you get a couple of jobs you'll be laughing as you're probably good at what you do, so it will just snowball from there. The hardest part is getting them first few jobs . Same as myself . Good Luck with it buddy, let us know how you get on.

 

[arkitect]

I would hire an accountant to register your company NOW. Not a few years down the line

No need to hire an accountant to register a company.
Easy to do it yourself (UK at least.)

 

[Dal123]

If you're a penny-pincher you can do it yourself, but for the peanuts the accountants charge for this basic task it's not really worth the grief.
People at work do their own tax-returns; I pay my accountant to do mine; sure he costs but I get far better rebaits than others at work . He's worth his weight in gold.

 

[arkitect]

If you're a penny-pincher you can do it yourself, but for the peanuts the accountants charge for this basic task it's not really worth the grief.
People at work do their own tax-returns; I pay my accountant to do mine; sure he costs but I get far better rebaits than others at work . He's worth his weight in gold.

Nice little gratuitous insult there… I was just letting the guy know that he doesn't need to hire someone to do something that takes him a few minutes.
And grief? What grief?

 

[Dal123]

Nice little gratuitous insult there…

Sorry I don't know exactly what grief, once the company has been registered you need to file annual accounts. It wasn't worth me looking at it, just got him to sort it for me as I'd have to be paying him to perform my annual accounts anyway.
Many people try to avoid paying an accountant; but if you can find a good one they really, really are worth their money.
Sorry again, I was rude.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

The OP's question was very fair, and some of the responses here crossed the line a little resulting in the OP understandably saying, "hey mate you dont know any thing about me you cant judge my skills

. Wel paying bills is a client's responsibility not mine."

He's right on both counts.

But, OP, getting beyond the misunderstandings and personal zingers going on here in this thread, remember this - perception is reality. By that, I mean you should have taken the time to check each link for accuracy before posting about it, much less using it on any resume' or web site promoting your freelancing skills. The reaction you got was over the top a little, but by no means surprising. I'm sure you're a real pro with years of experience, so do what a pro would do and learn from the experience you had here. Details are very important, it separates the amateurs from the pros, to be succinct about it. The links provided to assist you in promotion and increasing productivity are invaluable, and is the real and correct answer to your original question, so take the time to read them and increase your knowledge. When you come back and see this response, I hope you recognize we are trying to help you, but it goes both ways, you need to help yourself, too. Best of luck to you in the future, honest.

-jim

 

[AdnanAhsan]

Sorry my friends now i learned some thing from some people here Thanks to all of you, next time if i need to show any previous work i will check link first then post atleast i will be able to show working links, it was my mistake i didn't check links often. Thanks to all of you again

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Cheers.

 

[AdnanAhsan]

Hi Everyone, how are you ? i am so happy to find this oldest forum thread that i had created approx 11 years ago when i was a intermediate web developer, that time i had asked question how to find project, old memories when i seen this thread i was so surprised that the forum and thread is still live, so i thought to come back here and meet old guyz .. Now i am very experienced web developer over 12+ years exp, and this thread is another proof of my experience time hahaha but you know guyz my own site is still down its a long time but i couldn't get chance to work on my own site or may be i had not enough interest in my own site because i have been busy with my clients and their stuff, i got expertise in so many technologies and also became android developer too, i am commenting here just to say, thanks to all my old friends here time goes so fast. i worked alot, and done so many big projects, i have been a successful developer, i hard worked alot, did so much efforts. experienced good and bad time both, still my english is little bad though.
Cheers guyz