 The first step to get a new iOS project, is to find employers and/or clients. I'll show you how in today's lesson. You want to get hired as a professional iOS developer, right? You're either looking for freelance iOS projects, or you want a job as an iOS developer. The workflow to get iOS projects, freelance or employed, is surprisingly simple: - Find potential clients and/or employers
- Talk to them and find out what they want
- Offer to build what they want, for a price
- Get hired (or not)
The first step is to find potential clients and employers. That's where we'll focus our efforts today. Later on in your iOS career, you'll see that clients and employers often come to you. You've delivered work beyond spec, like we talked about, and your work is doing the talking for you. As a beginner you don't have that advantage. You'll need to get out there and showcase your work. You make a connection with potential clients and employers, to see if there's a match. How To Find Employers And Clients How do you find them? Here's some ideas: - Go to networking events and talk to people about your work (and theirs)
- Go to online marketplaces and bid on projects (I recommend against this)
- Build your network online by showcasing your work on social media
- Use LinkedIn to reach out to companies and/or recruiters
- Pick up the phone and call every company in your neighbourhood
You see that every one of these strategies has two things in common. The first one is: make a connection with people. I'll tell you about the second one in a moment. Make A Connection Finding a job as an iOS developer isn't about going on LinkedIn and "connecting" with everyone. It's about making a deliberate, personal connection. Take a networking event, for example. What makes networking so successful, is a member's ability to generate value for another member. - Someone's looking for a consultant to provide service X, and someone else can help them get in touch with a consultant who does exactly that
- You're looking for an introduction at company Y, and someone in your network can help you because they know someone who works there personally
- An agency is looking for a new iOS developer, and they get introduced to you because of that person you met last Friday at a networking event
I'm not a fan of traditional networking events, because they're so niche and formal. Case in point: I came to work for a world-class fashion brand because of someone I met at a 10-day music festival, while not having slept (or showered) for days... Your world is one big networking event. All you have to do is make a connection with people. Make A Sale Everybody is a salesperson these days. Sales happen more often outside the sales department than inside it. From politics to Instagram to dating to job interviews to who's-doing-the-dishes: sales happen everywhere. How do you make a sale? The secret is this: focus on what the other person wants. And then offer to create it, if you can. Let's take a look at an example scenario: - Thanks to the efforts you put into making connections with people, you've caught a "lead." A company you know is thinking about building a B2B app.
- They've invited you over for an informal meeting. You come well prepared, knowing everything there is to know about this company. And you know how to build iOS apps.
- In the meeting you discuss their project. What does it look like? What does it need to do? What are the business' needs and desires? What's the end result that they want?
- You present yourself as a professional iOS developer, without losing sight of what they want. As you're talking over the project, it becomes apparent that you're the perfect candidate to take it on.
And then you make the sale: - If you're a freelancer, you present the next step: letting them sign of on a "discovery project" that pays you to make a project scope, quote, and offer
- If you're looking to get hired, you suggest to come in later for a formal job interview with HR
Making a sale is a step-by-step process. You won't go for a right hook straightaway. Instead, you work your way up from mini sales to a big sale. And of course, a sale can fall through. You may not be what a client or employer needs. Conversely, they might not have what you want either. What's Next? Make a list of companies and persons you can approach. Go to a networking event and see if you like it. Strike up a conversation, and find out what the other person wants. Try to genuinely provide value, and I bet you'll run into an app development project sooner than later. —Reinder
PS. Never make a project quote for free. Charge your day rate to get to know the technicalities of a project, and then make an offer. You avoid the risk of spending time on making a quote, and having the client walk. And you get paid for your good work.
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