Not just their language, but their lifestyle and culture.
A big portion of my clients are Jewish; this is because an early client was Jewish and I learned the little things like... sending emails late on Friday afternoons will rarely get a response till Monday. Or, Mondays are bad days to be in touch because a lot of Jewish holdays fall on them. Etc. etc.
I picked up a ton of clients because word got around that "hey, there's this guy who is easy to work with"
> Their hourly rate does makes my brain melt.
Is that the hourly rate for both of them? (they say they work in "pair programming style"). Given the mass of skills and experience they bring that seems and extremely good rate.
I assumed it was for one person but now you've mentioned it, that is probably for them both. In which case I guess it's less extreme on my brain.
Ouch. It looks like they've got the skills and marketing figured out. I think there's a great lesson in there for all of us freelancers.
BTW: I would pay a small subscription fee to have podcasts (and audiobooks) summarized like you just did.
1. Charge more.....
2. Sell yourself as someone who solves business problems, not as someone who implements technical solutions
3. http://thunderboltlabs.com/ - An excellent example of how to sell yourself as a developer, without selling yourself as a commodity coder. Their hourly rate does makes my brain melt.
4. Learn the language of yours customers. This is something I've really got to work on, I have now idea how business people speak.
5. When you're teaching a potential customer new things in your sales pitch you've already won the sale.
I'm not sure I've summarised number five very well. So here's an example from my own limited experience. When I've stepped into a design agency who's looking for a developer and I start talking about version control, the latest technologies, previous projects and how I could make their business better I've actually felt the atmosphere change in the room. At that point I know I'm walking out of there with a new client.
There's more hidden gems in this Podcast and I'm sure I'll be reading / listening to it again before the days out.
So much to learn.... being self employed is awesome.