Workshop

Intro

Developer for 6 years
Attended online boot camp
Started applying
No traction. Started freelancing.
After about 2 years of freelancing, I didn’t need a job. Got an offer I could never have dreamed of before.
Made it my mission to help others transition like I did
When thinking of this month’s programming, realized I was only providing resources for the method of getting in that doesn’t work well. Wanted to provide my own method.
Not a shortcut
Reduces the need to get lucky
Bootcamp grads, self-taught developers trying to squeeze through the same tiny front door as every other junior in town.
In this workshop, learn to start freelancing from nothing. Some of you are ready. Some don’t think you are but you are. Some aren’t yet. You can put this in your back pocket and pull it out when you are.
Anyone familiar with zines? Kind of like homemade magazines. Offshoot of punk rock DIY culture. Each of you will get a zine that serves as the workbook this workshop. It will capture the progress you make here so you can refer to it later. I wrote and printed these and my daughter assembled them. children = free labor
I’m going to charge for this workshop, but you’ll get it for free. Actually, you are going to pay me for it but not in money. You’re going to fill out a quick survey at the end. Honesty is appreciated. I don’t take it personally.

Connection Inventory

If you were going to start doing freelance work today, who would your target audience be? What kind of clients would you want to serve?
Most people say “small businesses”.
Not wrong. This is too broad. Hard to reach people. Hard to speak their language.
Point out bike shop example. Not resource limited, who would want to buy a bike at a department store instead of a bike shop?
- Conversation at bike shop
  - Many different kinds. What do you want to do with your bike?
  - Hybrid bike is half-way between a mountain bike and a road bike. Narrower wheels so less resistance on the road but can still take a few bumps on a light trail like a mountain bike.
  - What size do I need? Let should be nearly full extension when the peddle bottoms out for best efficiency when you’re riding.
- Conversation at department store
  - You want a Huffy or a Murray?
  - Stand over it. Looks like you clear the bar, so that bike should fit you.
  - We’ll get one assembled for you. I put them together when I’m finished stocking the toy aisle each night.
- Bike shop employee understands the problems and options much better
- Delivers confidence that he can do the job
- Peace of mind/less risk is worth $
You want to be that person who understand the people you’re working for and can charge more as a result.
If bike shops are so much better, why do people buy bikes at a department store? (may answer price or convenience)
Drive home price. Don’t be the person people go to for software because you’re the cheapest. One way to help: specializing.
Think of the people in your life you have close relationships with:
- friends
- significant other
- parents
- children
- co-workers
What industries do they work in?
May already have an “in” with these industries. They might be able to sit down to talk with you or might be able to set you up with someone in their industry to talk to. Might even be able to make introductions to help get you started.
Knife classified thing story. Ad was vague; dangled the carrot of $10/hour. Got in the room and found out we were going to be hitting up people we knew to buy knives. How sustainable? How many people and how often are the people I know going to buy knives?
Not what we’re doing here.
Talk to people to discover problems. We’re going to come back with real solutions to those problems. Not knives.
Fill in the person’s name and their industry. You can even put yourself if you’re not already working as a developer. You may already have connections in an industry and already understand the big problems.
Pick one and highlight it.
Don’t sweat this. We’re not carving anything in stone. Not Mr. Right. Mr. Right Now. You can change this every 6 weeks if you want until you hit the right thing.
Some criteria:
- “Industry” for a reason. No hobbies. Need to make money on what they do.
- Some lines of work have loads of people at the bottom making no money and a few at the top making buttloads. If your cousin is The Rock, can you successfully work for other actors and filter out the 99.9% who are making nothing so that you can work with only the 0.1% who are making bank?
- Should be able to find people somewhere. We’ll explore further in next exercise. If you can’t find them, you can always come back and make a new pick here.
- If you already have some understanding or familiarity with the industry, this is a bonus. Warp whistle in Mario. Can work against you. Double-edged sword.
- Doesn’t have to be your passion. I like solving problems with software. I’ve done that for sports gambling even though I have little interest in either. I’ve done that for a summer camp even though I never went to summer camp. Interest alignment is great but not necessary. Again, Mr. Right Now. Mr. Right can come later.
Time to go around and help people.

Prospect GPS

“Prospect” is someone who might want to hire you.
In order to get work, you need to find people who can eventually become prospects.
Where do people go to find freelance work?
- Upwork
  - Comes down to rating and price
  - Race to the bottom in an international marketplace
  - Some people make it work, but it’s hard
By developing relationships, you can discover jobs that aren’t posted anywhere. Be the only person bidding for them.
If you know of places where you can find your ideal clients, put them down.
Do research to come up with as many others as you can.
Can be in-person or online.
Start with in-person. These are most valuable.
Regular recurring are better than one-off or yearly.
Look for meetup groups, local organizations, conferences, etc.
- Example: realtors who like technology
Online: Good for noticing trends, understanding problems and solutions. Not as good for getting clients.
- forums
- subreddits
- Facebook Groups
- Twitter hashtags
- Probably other stuff too. Stopped understanding social media about 10 years ago.
Go around to help. For people who don’t need help, go ahead and start making a problem inventory from some of your online places. Find problems people are asking questions about
Go to each group you’ve identified at least once.
Find the ones you click with and keep showing up (very important)
Consistency with the group acts as a proxy for reliability in work down the line
Consistency builds relationships
You can do this even as an introvert. I’m an introvert. I would love to stay in my apartment all the time and just write code without any contact with anyone.
Even as an introvert, you have your own brand of charisma. Many people in business are introverts.
As you become regular at your groups, you’ll find people you click with and people you don’t. Let it happen.
If you’re an extrovert, that’s another warp whistle.
As you’re interacting with people, interact with them as equals. Different dynamic than employer/employee.
You want to find people you can partner with to help solve their business problems.
You are not selling. You are making friends. You are learning. Be curious about what people are doing. Listen far more than you talk.

Problem Inventory

As you explore your niche, keep track of your problems and how often they come up.
Frequency helps you understand how many people might buy into a solution you offer.
Doesn’t mean you should disqualify any problem. Just lets you know where quick wins might be.
Even just gives you things to talk about to let your clients know you understand them
Level of pain (in $) i s a l so im p or t an t . C an so l v e a p ro b l e m t ha t a ff ec t s a s in g l ec l i e n t an d cos t s t h e m$ 1,000,000 a year and make better money than you can solve a problem that costs 100 clients each $10 a year.
When you’re talking, find out how they currently deal with the problem. Additional employees? Expensive software? Losing money?

Sales Kanban

Kanban board is an organization tool that shows stages of a process. You move individual items through that process by moving through the columns left to right.
This board shows you the steps to get a client.
Won’t use this now but you can use it as you start to implement what we’re learning tonight.
Each of you has a pad of sticky notes. Each note represents one prospect.

New Prospect

Create a mock “prospect” tonight so you’ll remember how to use this when you’re ready.
On sticky note:
- name of the prospect at the top
- Name of business under that
- Some way to contact them- You want to be able to contact them, not have to wait for them to contact you.
- Brief description of the project
Move the sticky note to the right as you move your prospect through your sales process.
Don’t put everyone you meet in “New Prospect.” Put people here when they have a problem you can solve, they know you can solve it, and they are interested.

Follow-up

When you reach out to them the first time, move them to the “Follow-up” column. Note the repeat arrows here. That means you’re going to keep following up until you get an answer.
Two approaches:
- “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
- False pretenses approach- find an excuse to reach out and “bump” email thread to the top of their inbox.
  - Google alerts to find news to discuss and share
- Pair these with important timeline updates
  - “I remember you said you wanted to have this done by January. I’m going to have to start in the next two weeks to make that timeline.”
Reach out with something every week or two.
If you’ve sent 6-7 emails without any response, try the “magic email” pioneered by a guy named Kai Davis.
- “Since I have not heard from you on this, I have to assume your priorities have changed.”
- Lets them know you’ve moved on.
- Works because people are loss averse.
- You think it’s rude, but it’s really not. Gets people’s attention. You have nothing to lose!
If you don’t hear back after the “magic email,” you can assume that’s a “no”
Some email clients show you when recipients have opened your email. This can be helpful to decide how to proceed.
At some point in this step if the client is on the “yes” path, you may get to pricing the project. I’m working on a book to help with that which will be released later this year. I have some resources on my site. You’ll find some helpful links in the workbook.

Decided

This one’s easy. If they say “yes” or “no,” move them here. If they don’t reply to the “magic email,” move them here.
If the answer is “no,” follow up to see what drove this decision. (Probably no reason to do this if they don’t answer the magic email.)
If the answer is “yes,” start prepping a contract for your client.
Quick overview on contracts
- Protects you and the client
- More importantly: sets expectations
- Define what work will be done, when it will be done, and what each party’s responsibilities are.
- Contract Killer: https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/contract-killer/
- Modify to suit the solutions you deliver
- Run your modified version by a lawyer

Closed!

Celebrate these wins with a nice dinner out, seeing a movie, or doing something else you enjoy.
Now, your job is to build the thing you promised on the timeline you promised.
Communicate with your client to let them know how you’re progressing.
Bring them in on important inflection points with broad implications for the project but not on every decision. For most decisions, you should evaluate the options and choose the best one.
As soon as you learn you will miss a deadline, let them know and tell them why. Good clients will be understanding and know there are factors outside your control.

The End

If you don’t like the paper kanban, use another system.
- Set up a whiteboard
- Use Trello or Notion for a digital kanban board
Sales moves at the prospect’s speed, not at yours
- Solution is to have lots of prospects in the pipeline, not to try to force a prospect to sign on your timeline.
- Businesses have lots of different tasks they’re working on. Software is the most important one to you, but it may not be to them.
Not many of your prospects will close. Don’t take it personally. Focus on filling the top of the funnel and doing a better job telling prospects why your solution is valuable. You can’t control their priorities.
Keep sales pipeline full even when you have tons of work. Most freelancers go through cycles of too much work/not enough work. Keeping pipeline full helps you avoid.
That should be enough to get you started getting some clients.
Next steps: Take the freelancing crash course to help you get your business set up
Don’t wait to start getting out in front of your ideal clients. You don’t have to have a business established to start doing that.
If you have any questions, email me at devon@raddevon.com

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Workshop

Intro

Connection Inventory

Prospect GPS

Problem Inventory

Sales Kanban

New Prospect

Follow-up

Decided

Closed!

The End

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