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5 Traits Every Freelance Developer Should Have
Being a freelance developer is not a career for everyone. You might be a great developer, but do you have all that it takes?
For more than five years I used to work as a freelance programmer. Or a web designer, I called myself back then. I’m talking about a while ago and made great money with it because my skill set was quite rare at the time.
During those years I realized something. Yes, I could do magic with code and create products that my clients were after. And perhaps you can do the same.
But I quickly realized that being a freelancer, working for myself, was much more challenging than you might think upfront. Despite having a useful skill set.
Today I’ll sum up some thoughts about this topic. Let me take you on a small journey and describe five traits that I believe every freelancer should have. It might be worth it to give these traits some thought before entering the wild world of freelancing or working on your own in general.
1. Social Skills
I know many great developers and designers who don’t achieve as much as they could because they’re lacking social skills. And to be a bit more philosophical: this counts for many humans in general.
You need to have great social skills. Communicative skills, in speech and writing. Because you will use it a lot. A lot more than you anticipate when you start your freelance career. A lot of freelancers I’ve met thought, “I’ll be developing and creating for most of the time, and every now and then I’ll focus on networking and communicating with my potential clients.”
In reality, it quickly becomes the other way around.
How will someone buy your product or service if you’re not able to explain to them why it’s so great? How will you gain the trust of a potential client if you’re not able to have lunch with them and engage in both small talk and a professional chat about the value that you can provide for their business?
Do not underestimate this aspect of freelancing. It will be a big part of your freelancing life. Answering the phone, sending emails and messages back and forth…
