This is one of the most common question that has been asked by many of my friends who want to jump onto the business wagon. And, honestly I was asking this all the time when I started up. The bad news is there is no simple way of getting it. Most of us never give a thought about it. We just concentrate on the “getting” part. The good news is you can do it.
To know how to get projects, we first need to start from the first step. We should think about all the activities and functions that revolve around the whole “getting” part. When I started I never got the answer. Maybe I didn’t search a lot. I felt either the answer is too simple or it was too sophisticated that I should have my own version. I started by thinking why would someone give me a project? What reason can I give to get a project? There are millions of programmers & designers out there. Why should someone give a project to me? And the simplest answer was – If they trust you, they will give it to you. Cool. So, now my next question was how to win their trust? Why will someone trust me? Moreover how can I make someone trust me? And as the answer unwounded I realized that someone will trust me only if they know that I do good work. Good work just doesn’t mean the quality of work but the overall service that you provide right away from approaching the clients in a convincing manner to flaunting your knowledge about the project to delivery to maintenance. Yes you heard me right – Flaunt it if you have it. But be careful – if you don’t have it you will be caught bluffing. Simple.
Coming back to the answer of doing good work I then started separating the parameters that will decide my credibility. Here only two things matters as far as I have broken down – Your portfolio and how well you are known in the market. I ask you a very simple question – Will you buy a product from a company that you have never heard of or from a known company? The answer is simple and obvious. But, how can I have a portfolio unless I have projects? I nearly hit a deadlock with that question. Here your finances will come handy. Thankfully my bank balance was enough to let me sit and market myself. I started by joining communities online, forums and offline entrepreneurial meetings. Meeting a lot of like minded people helped me understand what is going around the world. Whenever someone needed any help I tried every possible way to help them. This is a long continuous process. You really need to put in a lot of time and patience. And, it ultimately paid off. I got a couple of people telling me that they have seen me around and would like to know if I can develop websites for them. BINGO !!!
Most of us just forget the simple point of making yourself visible in the market. If you want work you need to be seen around. You need to be visible to the market. You need to tell the market that you exist. And, then you need to “flaunt” your knowledge to add value to your visibility, hence, gaining the advantage over others and finally “get” the projects that you have always wanted.
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