Finding Clients Offline Dražen Lučanin https://punkrockdev.com 

Online marketing can be difficult • Lots of new tools to get familiar with • Content marketing via blogging • Google Ads • Newsletter campaigns • Ads can be costly • You are competing with the whole world • Platforms like Upward • “Outsourcing” type developers – low cost bids • Hard to stand out 

“Offline marketing” • Friends • Colleagues • Meetups • Conferences 

Personal experience • I keep track of who referred me to a potential client • All of my successful leads so far – from “offline marketing” • Offline – 23 leads total – actually the best leads • 8 successful projects in the last 2.5 years • 15 unsuccessful leads • Online – 2 real leads only • 2 unsuccessful leads (+ some spam) • Would usually expect lower rates 

My social / client graph (portion) • Most of my contacts come from Vienna, since that’s where I mostly reside • Names changed for privacy reasons • Skipped many contacts/activities that didn’t result in work (yet ) Alex Matthias Ivica Albert Ruby Meetup Herman, Australia 2 year project University friends Django Meetup Maximilian & Melanie, Austria 9 month project (ongoing) Richard, Austria 1 month project (ongoing) Sam, China 3 month project (ongoing) 

How to start? • Announce that you’re looking for work • Tell all your friends • Give a talk at a meetup, show your skills & announce you’re looking for work • Give a talk at a conference • Possibly larger audience and as a speaker you are in an even better position • Downside – costlier if there are travel costs involved • Apply for a hackathon • Do a workshop to teach others • Be nice to people in general :) 

Referrals • Use your first wave of clients to refer you to more clients • They have a business network of their own • Try to be professional • Avoid radio silence • Bad experiences with a few coworkers • If you made a mistake admit it early and try to fix it 

Light online helping tools • once someone knows you in person, even roughly, it’s a different story if you contact them online • Twitter, Facebook, Slack (Zagreb Freelancers )