How did you get started? How did you get clients?

Past vs present, offline vs online, or share some stories

[explorador]

Work, tools and techniques have been shared on this forum for years, but I don't remember a thread looking back on how did you actually get clients or just discussing it. I wasn't sure where to put this topic, hope this is the right place.

Like most of you around here, I was already around when the web appeared and had the luck of watching it grow: no smartphones, no internet, then the internet finally appeared, few people had a personal email account, few had a website, etc. Most promotions happened on paper, newspaper ads, flyers or posters on walls, etc. I often think it's interesting to share stories on "how did you get your first client?".

My curiosity arises because today I see some forums and specially FB groups where people offer their services over and over, and honestly it sounds more like begging, it doesn't look as if they actually understand the business or the marketing, like many "community managers" who struggle to get clients and don't have any digital property on their own, I don't see people contacting them, and their own comments make clear this is also not happening via private message. Besides, their "online efforts" don't look like efforts. I might share a bit later, but in short, in my case: most clients came due to my personal projects gaining traffic, and clients spreading the word.

[csdude55]

Similar here, I built a portfolio piece and used it to promote doing web design. Over time, though, that portfolio piece became more profitable while custom design work became more scarce, so I dropped the commercial web design altogether.

This was my FOURTH business, though. My first business did surprisingly well, but I knew nothing about marketing or budgeting money. My second and third businesses were great ideas, but I just didn't have the capital to get them off the ground. This was the first one that I was able to take what I had learned from previous failures and apply it.

You're right, most people are completely clueless about basic marketing. Or even how social media works... they don't realize that very, very few people will even see their post, and the odds of those specific people being interested in their service is slim to none. We used to call that "spray and pray marketing", but I don't know if that's still a phrase. It's sad to see these people with the entrepreneurial spirit, but then it fails and they just give up forever :-(

[tangor]

Got involved by accident. Started pre-net with BBS, Fido, 300 baud acoustic modems... real pita! By the late 1980s I was running a six line dialup with membership approaching 1,000 24/7/365, with most of the expense in the phone lines themselves. Had a bit of artistic flair with making ANSI screens "slick and colorful" by the time 800x600 monitors became ordinary...

When the net finally arrived I ran both concurrently for about a year, then dropped the BBS side as redundant and becoming a time sink. Had a few topics of interest and posted all and grew a readership of like minds, discovered which topic had the most interest and which had the most passion and satisfaction, and split that first site in two and ... became a webmaster! (heh!)

The hobby side has remained all these years later. The other site led to monetization, ads (self served), and interest from others of "how'd you do that?" and "what would it cost to have the same?" and I built a three man crew business that served the regional area until about 3 years ago when I sold it off and "retired". Apparently I can't stay retired, sigh, as there is always "just one more job" that needs doing, or "one more intern to train".

But I have never been dedicated to the web for a living. Still a professional musician, music teacher, computer tech, graphics artist, and, for a time, ran two b&m music stores until the web made that near impossible.

That was then, this is now: a gentleman coder who still does it the old fashioned way, though I will help out newbies who insist on plug and play CMS/WP..., but unlike the really early days, I don't do that for free any longer!

[robzilla]

It's a little ironic, but I've never had a website of my own, as in: where I advertise my services. All my freelance work is local these days. When you do business mostly with smaller organizations, once they learn you know something about IT and the Web (and you can explain things in a way they'll understand) then they'll come to you eventually, either directly or through word-of-mouth, and not infrequently through contacts in my personal life. Nobody's even asked for my URL. But the freelance work has always been more of a side hustle, I've only rarely really depended on it financially. Still, if I did, I think I'd take the same route, just more aggressively: reaching out to people locally, making sure everyone knows what I do. At least in my experience that's always been enough to get the ball rolling.

It may now be a sunsetted term (one-sidedly, I should add), but my background as a webmaster, as opposed to "just" web developer or web designer or SEO, has proven invaluable. There's not a lot my clients can throw at me that I can't solve for them, and they really appreciate having that one person they can trust with all that "IT stuff", or to be their advisor in more complex projects such as having a new website built (for slightly larger organizations anyway).

So basically I never get clients through online channels, and I prefer it that way. Most clients seem to feel the same way, it's very much a matter of trust, of a human connection. With that in mind, spamming social media groups feels completely pointless. Advertising a little less so, but still not very personable.

[explorador]

Getting a job Vs getting your first client are VERY different things.

My first offers to the world involved photography and graphic design, dial up internet was just taking off and I literally printed proposals, a brochure, and went out to knock on doors. Visited graphic design studios and advertising agencies. Being really young helped (people see you positively and perhaps projecting themselves), I think it's very different than being old(er) and knocking on doors, people often think things like "his person should have something already", I guess most people don't exactly like older people starting from scratch, I don't know. I was treated nicely, SPAM wasn't such a thing and people were more willing to listen than today, because today: the first 5 seconds trigger the smile or run away from desperate sellers trying to shake your hand.

The value of photography was also different, as it was easier to get something on your hands after selling 1-5 high resolution pictures for commercial use, something you might be able to get today for free. Already had a website where people could check my work and portfolio, and people were more likely to dial a number and tell a friend "hey, I have here mr X in case you are interested" rather than sending a Whatsapp. There is very little else to add to the answer, as that's how I got my first clients; I already had a job so I wasn't entirely new to the battle, but as said, it's very different to get a job where people pay you, VS actually getting your first client on your own.