Re:Where the fuck is my Ari Gold?
by greghinch on Sunday August 26, 2012 @01:44AM
(#4434466)
I've been contracting for a couple years now and I haven't had to pay anyone commission to find me work. We're much more akin to contractor who work on people's houses than actors: referrals are everything. If you've done more than a few contract jobs of any significance and you aren't getting referrals, you might want to take a look at the work you are producing or the attitude you are presenting and figure out what is wrong.
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Does that mean you now spend little to no time actually finding work? The referrals are all inbound at this point?
Genuinely curious.
I've been having to turn down work. For a while I was able to schedule it for later times as it comes in, but once I have at least 3 months booked into the future, I won't take on any more. A fair amount is ongoing work acting as a part-time dev on a project. I don't do much in the way of short "build me a website" projects
Also want to say that as valuable or even more than building referrals through clients you've worked for is building up a network of other dev contractors you've worked with. Much of my work is a job someone else lands and then needs to bring in additional help, or a job they turn down for lack of availability. And likewise, I do the same for others I know.