When I tell people that I do freelance web development, they become interested. Usually, I get a few questions. So to avoid hearing myself replying with the same terse two-liners to the same questions over-and-over again, I have decided to write a blog post where I can explain my answers leisurely in depth.

There are two questions that I always get. The first one is how is it going, to which I always respond OK. And the second question is how do I find customers, to which my answer is somewhere along the lines I don’t. They show up unexpectedly.

Let me explain my answers. By OK, I mean that things are somewhere in between. I could actively seek out more customers. I could work on more projects…if this was indeed my goal. But it’s not. This kind of explains my second answer, which is that I don’t really try to find customers. But even with this apathetic approach to self-promotion, I’m still doing OK.

Indeed, I find myself in this unique situation, where working with the biggest names in Silicon Valley or earning the most money with long-term contracts, is not my primary objective. My primary objective really is to get my own personal projects underway. And freelancing buys me time to do these things.

Of course, some of you might ask, if that is the case then, then why not ignore what’s out there altogether. Why not get your set your course straight, and just finish what you are doing? Oh, but then, wouldn’t that be a crime. I think of all the companies out there, who have these great project ideas. They couldn’t hire anyone, because the best and the brightest have already been taken and locked in long term. And when I think of their situation, I become sad.

This is precisely, where I see I can help out. I can fill this gap a little. And now the arrangement becomes interesting. Because unlike other developers, my goal is not to stay on a project as long as possible. My goal is the same as my client. That is to finish the job and get me off the project quick as possible.

And so far this arrangement has worked out OK.