Securing freelance web design/development/app work

maxmarmalade

Hi
Myself and a friend have recently setup a web design & development company. I have 7 years .net and php experience and my friend has 10 years graphic design experience.

We've created a portfolio site (not available at the moment as we are between hosting companies). We have done 3 websites but all was unpaid work to boost our portfolio.

We have quoted to about 6 clients. 1 we met here on boards.ie and the 5 others were Americans we met on PHP Yii forums.

Unfortunately we didn't secure any work despite quoting as low as possible (most ended up choosing ultra cheap Indian companies on guru.com and elance.com).

I think getting local clients is the way to go as the personal touch may secure us some contracts. But we're finding it very hard to source. I know there is a Work thread here on boards.ie and I keep an eye on that but it doesn't get many posts.

We are going to spend some time on SEO and try to get onto the first page of google results if someone, say, googles "web design dublin". Aside from that, is there anything else we can do to source freelance design and dev work in Ireland or UK?

Thanks

Peterdalkey

You have at least sixteen years of working/studying etc between the two of you. In that time you have made hundreds of contacts through work, college and social contacts, these are your most likely source of actual work in the initial stages, you need to leverage your contacts by asking them if they have any work or know anyone who has. This is the down and dirty of getting a business up and running, tough stuff but it has to be done.
Once you have some work under your belt, it gets easier and while your website will support your marketing efforts, few will buy such services by Google search alone. Building a professional services business is done by exploiting contacts and referrals. The best way to get referrals is to ask out straight from an existing customer, no cost but requires constant work!!


Good luck

Peter

maxmarmalade

Thanks for advise. Yes we have tried that too but as both of us lived outside Ireland for a good few years we dont have too many contacts here..

billybunty

Pm me if ye like. I have just tendered out work to 4 companies & only one has returned to me. Not huge money involved, but its a start

ontour2

Dublin has an amazing community with events on every week to get your name out there and find opportunities. Whether it is Dublin Beta that was on earlier this week, ISA TechBrew or Pub standards in the Bull & Castle, there are lots of opportunities to meet people in the industry and meet people looking for work to be done.

Don't wait for work to come to you, go to tech and startup events, get your portfolio live and always have business cards in your pocket and be willing to use every opportunity to give a 60 second pitch and hand over your card. Make sure that your Linkedin profile is up to date and reconnect with former colleagues, college friends. They will see what you are doing and so will their contacts.

karlkarlson

We're in business development mode right now. We will be looking for a designer with experience building on top of an e-commerce solution such as Magento or Shopify a little later in the year (dependant on funding).

If you have this experience please pm me your portfolio when ready and we can take a look.

maxmarmalade

ontour2 wrote: »

Dublin has an amazing community with events on every week to get your name out there and find opportunities. Whether it is Dublin Beta that was on earlier this week, ISA TechBrew or Pub standards in the Bull & Castle, there are lots of opportunities to meet people in the industry and meet people looking for work to be done.

Don't wait for work to come to you, go to tech and startup events, get your portfolio live and always have business cards in your pocket and be willing to use every opportunity to give a 60 second pitch and hand over your card. Make sure that your Linkedin profile is up to date and reconnect with former colleagues, college friends. They will see what you are doing and so will their contacts.

Thanks for this advise, we will definitely start attending tech events

Trojan

I know it's only a minor thing, but you've twice used "advise" instead of "advice". Once could be a typo, twice just bad spelling.

I know many won't agree, but I always take spelling and grammar into account when considering proposals.