Hi,

I'm looking to start as a freelance design engineer on the side of my full time job. My question is, what is the best way to approach this? I am in the process of pulling together pictures of some of my best work, with a description next to each image to produce a portfolio. This will display my capabilities to give evidence for the services on offer, the main obstacle in my way is how to build up a client list and maintain steady work thereafter.

Many thanks, Ed

 

Hi Ed,

Usually you need to have a couple of clients who know your capabilities and for whom you've done a lot of work in your regular job. This way you are not stepping into nothing, and they will help you maintain a cashflow that will give you time to find other customers. You probably need a website where your portfolio will get hosted and make sure to make the most of Linkedin. If you are lucky, you'll get word of mouth referrals, but don't be shy asking your exisiting customers for some help with this! Also ask for references on Linkeded and for testimonials for your site. Also, you may want to contact some CAD agencies because they sometimes have ad hoc work.

Good luck!

 

When I was freelancing, most of my customers came from word of mouth from other customers, but I did get some work by reading job ads. Often a company, especially a small company, advertises for a full time engineer because they hadn't considered a freelancer. I would explain how I could save them the overhead of a full time person, and sometimes they're willing to give it a try.

 

I agree with the replies posted thus far.

If you have exhausted your own network and contacts, can I suggest www.giganeer.com

You could also consider posting on sites like Freelancer and Fiverr, but these will be highly competitive short term tenders and often you end up in a race to the bottom on pricing.

Good luck in your new Freelance venture

Rgds J