Part Two: Five routes to paid work · Chapter 4
Paid work that isn’t a job.
Do defined delivery work for freelancers, developers and small agencies that have already found the client and sold the project.
Before you compare the routes
These are different trade-offs, not stages.
The five pathways are not ranked from best to worst, and you do not need to pass through them in order.
They offer different money, different speeds and a different kind of working day. Each chapter uses the same structure so you can compare them properly:
- How the work arrives
- Why the pathway pays
- Who tends to do well at it
- What the money looks like
- What is genuinely bad about it
- One thing you can do this week
How the work arrives
The job is already sold before you arrive.
A freelance designer I know takes on more work than she can build.
She sells a website, the client signs, and then she is stuck with three weeks of implementation she does not enjoy and cannot fit in. Every so often, she pays somebody to take a chunk of it off her hands.
That person could be you.
This pathway means doing defined work for people who already have the client: busy freelancers, small agencies with a capacity problem and established developers who need another pair of hands for a fortnight.
They keep the client relationship and most of the commercial risk. You are handed a defined piece of work, you complete it and they pay you.
What you might be asked to do
Defined delivery work, usually behind the scenes.
Implementation
Build what somebody else sold
Turn an approved design into working pages when the designer cannot code or does not have time to complete the build.
Repair
Fix work already in progress
Resolve bugs in a codebase you did not write, finish incomplete features or rescue a delivery that has fallen behind schedule.
Ongoing support
Handle the work nobody wants
WordPress implementation, migrations, maintenance, content changes and the dull middle of projects that other people would rather avoid.
Why it works
You are offering relief to somebody who is already behind.
Most routes require you to find a buyer who does not yet know they need you. This one does not.
Your buyer already exists. They already have the budget, the work is already sitting there and the deadline is already causing pressure.
You are not trying to persuade anybody that software is worth paying for. You are offering to remove a specific delivery problem from their week.
The client is already convinced
The project has been sold. You do not need to create demand or explain why the outcome matters.
Visible inexperience is survivable
A freelancer running late does not need you to be brilliant. She needs the agreed work finished by Thursday so she can concentrate on the part only she can do.
Who tends to do well
Capable builders who are not ready to sell directly.
- People who can build competently but would rather not sell yet
- Developers who want to observe how professional projects operate before managing a client relationship
- Anyone who needs a realistic route to money in weeks rather than months
- People who are comfortable contributing without receiving public credit for all the work
2–6 weeks
A realistic range for securing your first paid work if you are actively and consistently approaching suitable people.
£15–£30 an hour
A typical starting range, or a few hundred pounds for a clearly defined piece of delivery work.
Rates can rise quickly
Once somebody has successfully used you twice, replacing you may cost them more than paying you properly.
What is genuinely bad about it?
You are often invisible and low in the chain.
The end client may believe that the freelancer or agency completed all the work. You might not be allowed to say otherwise, and your name may appear nowhere on the finished project.
You are also working to somebody else’s schedule and may absorb scope changes passed down from their client. Much of the work can be dull because you are being handed the parts nobody else wanted.
Agree the work, price, payment point and deadline in writing before you begin. Their relationship with the end client should not make your payment indefinite.
What to do this week
Find twenty people who already sell web work.
Look for people near you who sell web work but are not full agencies.
01
Build the list
Find freelance web designers, independent WordPress specialists, small marketing consultancies and one-person branding studios.
Search LinkedIn, Google, local directories and Instagram. Record twenty names and a specific detail about each person’s work.
02
Offer capacity, not your life story
Send a message about their delivery problem rather than your situation. You are not asking for a job or an opportunity to gain experience.
You are offering overflow capacity and naming the specific work you can take off their hands.
Chapter 11 includes the complete outreach wording and explains who to approach first.
Continue comparing the pathways
Next: The local small-business market
Chapter 5 looks at the £300–£3,000 problems that are often too small for an agency but too important for a local business owner to ignore.