17, broke, and delusional help me land my first client 🙏👽
Hey everyone,
I'll keep it real. I'm 17, from a very small city in South Asia (like a tier 67 town) , and I'm starting law college in August. I've been learning n8n and Python for automation work and I genuinely want to start freelancing but I have zero connections, zero portfolio, and zero clue how to get my first client.
I'm specifically looking for US/UK clients. I know that sounds delusional for someone in my position but hear me out ~~ I've already tried working locally and it's just not viable. Clients here don't pay well and micromanage everything, I'd rather build something sustainable from scratch targeting western markets even if it takes longer.
One more thing because I'll be in my first year of law school which is genuinely hectic, I'm specifically looking for *~set and forget~* type projects. Automation workflows where I build it, hand it off, and the client runs it themselves. I'm okay with charging slightly less per project if it means I'm not on call forever. Managing ongoing projects is something I want to get into from second year onwards when I have more bandwidth.
So my questions —
- How do I get my first client with no portfolio and no connections?
- Is Upwork the right starting point or is cold outreach better?
- How do I position set-and-forget automation packages to western clients?
- Any niches you'd recommend for someone just starting out?
I don't know it's so embarrassing asking all this but I genuinely don't know where else to get answers so please help 😭