2024 comes to an End

I failed. One year has been almost over. One year ago I was at an exciting journey of self employment and opportunities.

I put goals onto myself, goals which seemed doable to achieve if all would have gone well.

The plan, start freelancing as a software developer. Easy I thought, 50€ per hour simple starting salary, not too high and yet nobody wanted me.

I’ve asked myself why?

3 months in being basically jobless, I’ve found my first freelance gigs. Earned even double the amount per hour, yet it didn’t last long cause with my knowledge I’ve shared, my customer didn’t had the need to work further with me. They had the tools, they had everything they needed. That’s where my point was, why am I selling for hourly rates if what I’m creating is only value.

In April, the turning point. I want to start a business, I’ve made up my mind. A business for software development upon fixed pricing, quick Workshops and simple development. And I’ve went and tried to find my first customers. Nobody took me serious, how I’m able to fullfil enterprise software projects with my young age.

So I didn’t give up, going onto conferences positioning myself as a sales rep, as a founder, as a startup owner, as a ceo. I took many hats to try stuff out.

Every encounter with a person was a beautiful opportunity to grow. During summer I’ve done additional sales training to learn more about communication. Going to all sort of networking events and conferences I have tried to understand the problems. And the problem of what people thought of when you are positioning yourself as a software agency building software exactly for you is:.

Custom software is super expensive
Competition are indians
We use simple automation tools
We solve it differently

I wasn’t able to close my first enterprise customer. Because sales cycles seem so long for bigger projects. I’m not sure if I’m aiming to high. I’ve done many follow ups, and couldn’t find a customer because they expected me to tell a price without knowing what they want.

Seems unfair, and a workshop to clarify things were also no option for them.

This is where I’m taking another route now. I’m not sure why, but whenever I positioned myself as a startup, people took me serious again. It’s like I suddenly fit into their category.

So this is what I’m now building. A startup. With the goal to be faster than my competition, because my competition is having a head start.