In my earlier post, I outlined a couple techniques which have worked for me in finding clients. More precisely, these were mostly network building techniques that pay off over time – I’ve still not found a ‘quick fix’ that has ever led to quality clients. No doubt those techniques may exist, or work for some people, but the successes I’ve had have come primarily from networking over the long haul That said, a friend of mine tipped me off to a technique he’s been using over the last year or so, and I thought I’d share it here.
My friend was an independent web developer, basically taking any sort of web work that came his way. He partnered with some friends and started focusing on social media a couple years back, but hit some issues and that partnership split up. He was back to working on his own. He did get a bit of work from a small design agency, and he started to spend some more time networking with other small design agencies. The work started to flood in. He was focused on providing web services to a particular sector of his geographic market, stuck to that, and it’s worked like a champ for him. He now employs two developers, and may be expanding more soon to deal with the workload.
I’ve heard it said a number of times – focus. It’s been great to hear/see him succeeding with that technique – finding a small subset of a market and focusing on that. It’s not been something *I* personally have been able to bring myself to do yet. To the extent that you focus, you have to say ‘no’ to some types of work, and while I do occasionally say ‘no’ to work, I’ve not made a strong commitment to one specific direction yet. In taking stock of things over the last few months, I have noticed that a larger portion of my work is coming from the education sector, and if some more opportunities present themselves, this may be the industry to focus on.
For those of you who’ve found success by using laser-focus on a particular niche, congratulations. For those of you who still struggle with defining your direction, you’re not alone 
How do you find client?
