marketing, lean-startupI have been a software developer for many years now, but have always worked full time for someone else at a company full-time. However, now I am trying to get a small independent business going as an independent software developer contractor, but having trouble trying to figure out where to gather contacts for clients? I would like to build a list of contracting companies that supply developers with business through contracts or referrals but don’t really have contacts that would be decision makers in business settings, so I would like to use LinkedIn (or another business platform) to gather details for the type of people at businesses that would make decisions to hire software developers on contract (B2B) and also contracting companies that supply independent developers with business (through referrals for a fee/percentage)?
How would I identify these specific key people?
Does anyone have a query previously built that would help with finding contacts to engage with on LinkedIn? Or know of a different way without ‘buying a list’ of B2B contacts?
Is there a better way to gather contacts to get a business like this quick started? Any advice is welcome and appreciated? (Please note that I realize that building a business is not a quick process, but I feel like I am spinning my wheels without getting any business because people don’t know I am available for work because they don’t know about my services offered - so I need to get some contacts built that would be interested in buying my services)
I don’t think you’ll be successful as a stranger. Nobody would take you seriously.
It’s not hard to be a programmer. The entry barrier is incredibly low. What makes you successful is not how well you can program, but how well you are are connected.
It sounds like you don’t have any private connection, and that’s very bad. You can’t really gather clients randomly on Linkedln, you’ll need to know those people personally.
Unfortunately, if you don’t have personal connection you won’t go anywhere. This is life. Your business will most likely fail.
Example
I hire contractors frequently, but I wouldn’t pay anybody I don’t know. I’ve received countless invitations (on LinkedIn) for working with me, but I always rejected. My contractors must be referred by someone I trust.
I agree with most of SmallChess’ answer, in that cold calling or messaging via LinkedIn won’t work, and you need to establish personal connections.
To extrapolate on establishing personal connections for software development work, consider the process that happens when someone needs a contract developer: they’re either a manager of a dev team that needs to augment their team with contractors, or they’re a business person that needs a contract developer to build/maintain something for them.
The best way to find contract dev work is to insert yourself into that process. Steps #1 and #2 are basically the same: you need to establish a network of people that need your services. All the normal advice for networking applies: go to meet-ups, have coffee with people, etc.
In my experience, it’s best to ignore step #3, because it’s very rare for anyone to reach that step (and it usually only happens for small projects), and it’s very saturated already.
One last thought: networking will get you jobs initially, then the quality of work you do will drive more networking via word of mouth. If someone has a poor experience with a contract dev, then they won’t recommend that dev when asked (see step #2 above). You need to be both good at maintaining a network, and good at software development.
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