Stew's Plunge into Freelancing
After taking the plunge into freelancing, Stew Heckenberg has successfully transitioned from the cubicle to the cafe.
Through his superhero alter ego, Web Coder, Stew has wrangled the wild business of freelancing to the point where in the last month, he brought in just over half of the entire previous financial year’s income.
That’s why we’ve teed Stew up to present Freelancing FTW! at WordCamp Gold Coast.
Through his presentation, Stew will divulge the wild adventures of his freelance journey and unveil his mission to make web development sexy.
I had a quick chat to Stew about his story, playing hard to get and why he thinks web development is so hot right now.
In our previous discussions, you mentioned you ramped up your business to make in the last month over half of what you made in the entire past financial year. In a nutshell, how did you achieve this?
A lot of it came down to getting the word out and building good relationships with clients that could offer me repeat work, i.e. web agencies looking for sub-contractors. There’s a lot of hit and miss when it comes to pitching for new work, and so you’re best off keeping
it short and sweet, telling potential clients the kind of work your after and the skills you can provide.It also helps to play hard to get sometimes, and there’s a bit of psychology involved. The more desperate for work you seem, the less you get, and vice versa. The key is to hunt for clients because clients aren’t going to hunt for you.
What are you most looking forward to about WordCamp Gold Coast?
Meeting other WordPress developers and encouraging them to take over the world!
Short of taking over the world I really want to impress upon my audience that being a web developer is a very sexy job, and they can make it even sexier. Not only by using WordPress, which we all know is the hottest publishing platform on the planet, but by owning their work instead of letting their work own them.
I’m not about to start a revolution, but if I can at least make a few developers realise they possess the ability to increase their happiness while increasing their bank balance, then that will be awesome.
We see you’re a fan of bungee-jumping, any plans for fun on the side during your weekend at Gold Coast?
Maybe I should learn to surf something other than the web while I’m there!
Hopefully I’m fully recovered from injuries I incurred snowboarding recently. Before you start thinking I’m some kind of X-Games wannabe, I must admit that I hurt myself falling over after dismounting a chair lift.
As for fun things to see and do on the Gold Coast I’m open to suggestions. By the time the WordCamp is on the weather should be nice and warm, so I think relaxing on the beach with a cool beverage is a good plan.
Thanks Stew, we’ll have suggestions for must-do activities on the Gold Coast. Freelancing FTW! might just be on that list.
You can follow Stew on Twitter and you should definitely follow WordCamp Gold Coast on Twitter.
If you want to be a part of the awesome group of WordCamp Gold Coast speakers, apply now!
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