My first year of freelancing

I am writing this article from a frontend developer perspective, as I am one. I have specialized in User Interface, Static Page Generators, Wordpress, and page speed optimization. About a year ago, I started with a freelance career. This experience has changed me as a professional, but also as a person. Clients I am a member of talent network, and most of my clients are part of this as well. I worked with seven Toptal clients. I also worked with a couple of clients. Two of my clients engaged me via my website. I worked as a mentor on . I also worked on a couple of projects with my friends, pro bono. Toptal formidable networks Upwork Codementor Toptal is a private, elite talent network with thousands of members across 100+ countries. Of the hundreds of thousands who apply each year, fewer than 3% gain admission to the network. In total, I worked with thirteen clients and seventeen mentees. Clients came from all over the world: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Romania, and Croatia. Most of them were agencies, but I also worked with designers and developers, too. In my opinion, investing in the relationship with a client is the most critical part. Earning trust from a remote position is not easy. Being kind could take you a long way with your client, and it doesn’t cost you a thing. During my first year of freelancing, I didn’t have a single negative experience with any client. ❤️ Getting the job done is also important. Never promise what you cannot deliver. It is okay to say that you need a couple of hours to do research. It is okay to say that you are not the right person for that task. It depends on a project type and the team. Projects I worked on various projects last year, mostly on Wordpress platform: developed a custom theme for , a wedding photography website developed a custom theme for a digital ID validation solution website, installed a premium theme for , another wedding photography website installed a premium theme for , and a travel journal website helped a few clients to finish Wordpress projects by applying style improvements and making websites responsive. I created a couple of styleguides: one for a Wordpress-based website for a large real-estate company, and other for a website built using static site generator. I developed a few websites using static page generators: a website for an agency from Germany using Middleman framework, using Middleman, and a personal website for a designer from Montreal a personal website for myself using the Hexo framework. I have worked on web speed optimization: on Wordpress-based projects, and on . a Shopify project In the spare time, I worked on open-source projects. I published and for the Hexo framework, , , and . three simple plugins a theme an Angular directive a JavaScript plugin a boilerplate of Gulp tasks Problems Not everything is perfect. Freelancing comes with difficulties. Searching for a job is one of the biggest I came across. Last summer I had a difficult time to find a client. I created new profiles on different hiring networks. I searched on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, AngelList, newsletters, everywhere. I found out that biding all over the place is a time-consuming and counter-effective process. I caught myself getting responses (negative ones) from clients that I didn’t even remember sending. I became nervous and felt terrible about myself. I was feeling more tired of bidding than when I worked on an actual project. Eventually, I learned that it is better to bid on a couple of places and invest more time in a more quality cover-letter or application. There is enough job for everybody. The key is to find a proper way to get one. Lessons Working as a freelancer is hard, and it isn’t for everyone. Many obstacles are on that way. Here is what I have learned in the last year: how to manage time more efficiently, how to become more productive, how to get away from a computer, how to decline a job offer, especially if I am not fully qualified for the position, that saying “I don’t know” is OK, it takes time to find a client, it takes time to land a client, it takes time to get paid, and to be kind to others. Summary I am happy to be able to share my experience as a freelance developer. Successful freelancing takes time and patience. Luckily that is something that could be learned along the way. If you like this article, share it with your friends. 👋 If you want to become Toptal professional, use to join! 🔗 this link Originally published at www.silvestarbistrovic.from.hr .