Business Doesn’t Come with Errors and Tracebacks

The Freelance Mindset #2

By now you’re aware that your skills don’t matter as much as how you’re packaging them into sellable solutions when it comes to freelancing. But, that still doesn’t shed light on how to get paying clients. 

Infact this is the first question people ask when I tell them I’m a contractor.

“How do you find your clients?” Every time that question pops up, my mind goes back to my early days.

Three months into freelancing, offering my services on Fivver and Upwork, showcasing what an amazing developer I was, but no clients were willing to believe me. It was a depressing phase. It was hard to muster courage and keep going. Motivation was depleting.

Heart Pounding. That unexplainable anxiety? No! There is a reason. 

Aug 2023 Balance Sheet

The accountant fee:         3000 INR, 

the freelancing income:   2000 INR

Total Income:                -1000 INR

*Sigh*

The imbalance on the balance sheet was the imbalance I was feeling inside.

How long is this going to last? 

How long should I try?

Should I go back to a regular job?

By the end of 3 months, as I was mulling over the  -1000 INR in my balance sheet, two conflicting voices erupted through my mind:

Anxious voice: I keep trying and trying, nothing’s working 

Awakening voice: “What did you try? What didn’t work?”

Shedding the Developer Neurons 

Coding has spoiled us. The instant feedback, the red squiggly lines, and the tracebacks with the line numbers lead us to exactly where the error propagated from. 

Business is not like that.

Life is not like that.

When has life ever been anything like that?

The biggest problem with developers is we try to Google our way out of our life problems. Relationship problems? We search Reddit. Coding problems? We search Stackoverflow. We are the ones who would be Googling our way from a simple Flu to Cancer. Imagine asking Chatgpt why people are not looking at your profile. Will you get an answer?

In an ideal world, all you have to do is put up your portfolio and people will line up to use your services. But this world is a fantasy. We all know that conceptually, our brain still struggles to assimilate this reality. Your brain is trying to find the red squiggly lines whereas the fact that there isn’t one is enough to signal that something is not working.

Once you enter the world of freelancing your brain goes through the most humbling phase called Facing the Reality. 

Facing the Reality 

The reality, 

You don’t know the value of your skill, because someone else is selling it for you.

You need to learn how to package your skills and sell your services as a freelancer.

You don’t know who your customers/clients are

You need to find your target audience and build marketing channels so that they can find you.

You don’t reap immediate rewards, worse yet, there is hardly any feedback as to what’s not working.

You need to learn to listen to market signals. No signal is a huge signal. If you post something and there is no reaction for two weeks, that means it’s not working. You need a new strategy until you can engage people to have a conversation with you.

You don’t have a manager to cover you or give you a pep talk during downtime.

You need to show up every day even when you feel things aren’t going anywhere

If you try to stackoverflow your way into finding your business value, it won’t happen. If you copy-paste someone else’s guidebook, it won’t work. When you’re freelancing, you are no longer operating in binaries of “it works” or “it doesn’t”. This is why we see so many people trying freelancing for a few months and giving up. We are not trained to play the long game.

It’s not your fault. Your brain has not been trained to think like a business person. You need something new, new neural pathways, new mental models, and new frameworks. But worry not, thanks to the neuroplasticity and your ability to learn complex things as a Software-ian comes handly. You can learn this skill too 💪

Iteration and Experimentation

In business(freelancing), uncertainty is the only certain outcome. The best way to combat the uncertainty is by Experimentation. In a language that you’d understand, you need to POC(Proof of Concept) the shit out of life.

But how?

Should you start creating content?

Should you start networking?

Should you upskill yourself on the latest technologies?

There is no silver bullet when it comes to business. Everyone starts at a different point. Don’t worry, the goals are the same. 

You need to find those 2-4 people who will pay us money in exchange for our services to start a conversation with you after looking at our profile.

That’s the first goal.

We have established that there is no silver bullet, Googling won’t work. Then what is the way? You can read, learn, and absorb what has worked for other people and Carve out your way and that’s what I am leading you towards.

Rather than looking for answers outside, let’s look for the ones that already lie within you. With no business to set your goals and no managers to plan your sprint, you need to figure out what are you going to offer.

1. What’s a service that only you can provide? What’s your expertise? 

A typical engineer takes 3 months to set up an Airflow infrastructure on Kubernetes, I can build it in one.

That was my pitch. Because I was combating Airflow Infrastructure problems for 3 years in my career I mastered it in and out. Similarly, create a map of services you can offer. Play your strengths. Figure out what your expertise is and focus on that.

Two things to note here, 

• I’m being super specific about what service I offer

• I’m using my efficiency(time) to my advantage. Think about yours.

2. Who can be your customers and where can you find them?

It doesn’t have to be your close friends. It can be past managers, colleagues, companies, online communities, LinkedIn followers, or people whom you met at a tech conference.

Strike up a conversation. Don’t tell them anything about freelancing or your services. Ask for 30 minutes of their time and talk about the problems they’re facing.  

Just so you don’t forget. This is an experiment. You are collecting data. There is no right answer, no there are no squiggly lines. Carve your freelancing journey your way.

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Yes, there is no documentation that you can use out of the box. This series is my way of theorizing my freelancing journey. This is what I tell my close friends when their balance sheets read negative and when they lose hope. If you can shrink my 8-month journey into 3, I’d call it a success.

Thank you for reading this far. We are going deep from here. I love hearing from you, so do hit that Reply button to share your feedback or your questions.