What I've learnt

• There is plenty of work out there, for someone who knows what they're doing.
• There are a lot of web development companies looking for full time developer roles.
• It's hard to say no to full time employment when you're starting out.
• Most companies will try to bid you down on price, don't accept straight away. Reach a compromise that works for you both.
• There are a lot of companies making money producing bad code, there's money to be made fixing bad code.
• There are a lot of failed companies with legacy code which now needs to be maintained.
• Debugging and finding a solution to a customers problem despite having to wade through bad code is fun.
• It takes time for people to get back to you, to get contracts sorted, to get feedback on work.
• Waiting is frustrating. Have a side project to work on whilst you wait.
• Getting payment terms down to 10 days is impossible for some companies, but not for all.
• If you don't ask you don't get.
• People want to pay you hourly/per project, convince them it's better for both you and them to pay you daily. I'll explain why in a future post.
• Get the specification of work nailed down as thoroughly as you can, it's mutually beneficial to you and your customers.
• There's a lot more to learn.

How I found work

• Created this blog, hosted it on Rackspace, made it run fast.
• Emailed web design companies in and around the local area using this Blog as my CV.
• Posted adverts on Gumtree. ( a free classified ads service in the UK )
• Posted on web forums for those technologies which I used in their advertisement section.
• Getting in contact with friends and telling them I've started freelancing. ( A big thank you to all my friends who have been incredibly supportive so far).
• Entered a programming competition, this hasn't directly lead to work, but I'm hoping might work well for me in the future.

How much money have I made

• £1,785.25

What's my plan for next month

• Continue to satisfy my existing clients producing quality/maintainable code.
• Branch out and try to find some hosting/long term contracts with monthly recurring revenue.
• Continue to work on my start up ideas.

Suggestions Any thoughts or advice you'd like to share for someone starting out would be greatly appreciated.