Here are some strategies I’ve used successfully:

1. Do great work; in almost 20 years of freelancing, most of my clients have come to me by “word of mouse”. Repeat clients are always more efficient than landing new ones.
2. Try pro bono work. Track your hours and submit an invoice showing the value of your donated services. Even if you can’t write it off, you’ll spread the word, and get a good feeling. I donate hosting to community groups, and they often hire me for some strategy or training or simple site setup.
3. Blog; John Chow, the Vancouver blogger, makes $40k/month just from his blog, and is in demand as a speaker, writer and consultant.
4. Learn to use LinkedIn to it’s fullest. There’s lots of hidden value lurking there. Seek out the most influential connections.
5. In Victoria, track the government contracts. (It’s a government town, after all.) It’s hard to get in, but once you’re in the loop, I’m told it’s easier to stay there.
6. Partner with established agencies; you don’t make the same rates, since they take their cut, but they can get you in where other methods fail.
7. Concentrate on your niche. It’s counterintuitive for most small operators, but essential.
8. Be patient. Closing times for new sales are about 1 month per $1k in my experience, and longer the smaller the market.
9. Ask for testimonials, recommendations, referrals, leads… and more importantly try to provide value to your contacts by providing tips, leads, testimonials, and networking introductions.

Note that none of these cost anything but time and effort, and are applicable to businesses of all sizes. Do you have tips or strategies of your own? Share them in the comments below!

From their site:

GreenWay Partners provides a range of design, planning, research and engineering services to improve our clients’ economic, environmental and social performance. Our mission is to play a leading role in the development and implementation of the policies and practices that effectively regenerate both human and natural systems.

We work with governments, tribes, schools and universities, private firms, and other organizations using a design perspective and innovative methods to develop solutions that respond to the unique context and specific needs of each of our clients.

See more about their successful “Plan It Green” conference, too. And if you are working to make the world a better place, please connect with me on Facebook or here on the web.

I believe in abundance consciousness. I believe there is enough work, food, love and compassion to go around… if we open to it.

(This is not to say that our environmental problems will go away, and we’ll suddenly have unlimited natural resources if we so believe. But I do believe that we have the capacity to tackle even these big issues with creativity and kindness, and that putting our intention in the direction of a safe, clean, kind world is a lot more likely to get us there.)

Another local design and development group is tacitly advocating competition, by censuring all such fellow groups from their “community” efforts. This does not support a growing professional network, or a sustainable business community, or a vibrant and developing social community. Pulling together as a community, whether local professionals in a network, or other  participants in the local business landscape, is a way to enhance professional strengths, work towards a sustainable business community, and contribute to a more vibrant and developing social community.

After some thought, I am listing below, all the businesses and individuals I know in the area that are working in web design, graphic design, software development, and marketing. I have personally worked with many of them, and continue to seek opportunities to collaborate. It is my personal policy to direct potential new clients to anyone I think will better serve them, or to bring such collaborators into projects, and I will continue to do so.

Do you know of other Gulf Island’s businesses in this field? Please let me know via email or comments, and I’ll list them here.

Are you involved in this field? If so, please consider your professional, business and social communities, and advocate collaboration and network building over destructive, zero-sum competitive practices. I hope to work with you soon!

- Charles Buchwald

This list has been moved here.