Freelancers, how do you find new clients?

I've only ever had 2 clients personally get in touch with me. One from GitHub, the other from word of mouth.

I found that approaching local companies in your area works best. It's mind-boggling how many family-run coffee shops are in desperate need of technology, whether they know it or not.

This does create another issue though. When I first started, I'd find a local company, come up with a solution to one of their problems and drop them an email explaining how I could make them even more money or automate some kind of process. No one likes this.

You have to imagine that they're not very technical, have no idea what you're talking about, cannot envision the solution, and also has a massive ego that you're offending.

Being able to visually show them the solution is a game-changer. It allows them to understand it, no matter how non-technical they are. Building the solution first is of course too risky BUT what's stopping you from designing or wireframing the solution in Sketch? The potential client then believes that you have a near-enough ready-made solution that they can envision, which is bound to get you an email back at least.

I've written some stuff around this earlier in the year, you may find it helpful - https://www.devtoagency.com (hoping to get back to writing more when life settles down!)

I find my clients mostly via LinkedIn. But to be honest, I participate mostly in quite long projects for multiple days per week. Because of that, since I started freelancing more than 2 years ago, I've only had 4 clients. Simply because I don't have time to service more.