Honesty is such a lonely word. Yes, for Billy Joel. But not, for Ademar Tutor.
Meet Ademar Tutor, the freelance software developer extraordinaire and founder of Codetoki.
During Episode 21, we asked Ron Cirujano, GM of Elance-oDesk, to refer us to an actual living and breathing example of a Filipino success story from oDesk and Elance. And we thank him for introducing us to Mr. Tutor. (In fact, Ron even wrote about Ademar in a guest blog post for When In Manila).
In this episode, Ademar will talk a lot about how he started as a freelancer, his killer tactics on how he got the right clients and how he eventually used his learnings to become an entrepreneur and founder of his startup comany, Codetoki.
The most important thing that I learned from Ademar during this interview is the value of honesty and relationships in the world of freelancing. You will know why after listening to this episode.
Meanwhile, here are some key takeaways from this episode.
Takeaways
- Why he took freelance work for free and how he got free training in software development during college.
- Why being honest to yourself and to your clients is important in freelancing.
- How he discovered oDesk and why it was easier for him than finding clients from Craigslist.
- His strategy when bidding for projects even when there are some tasks that he does not know how to do.
- His methodology when bidding for projects and criteria in selecting clients.
- The importance of focusing on just a handful of clients.
- The number of bids he sends in a week, his response rate and his winning percentage.
- Why you can bid on any job even if you don’t have the experience.
- How he managed his money to survive while working on long-term projects.
- Calculating your burn rate (monthly expenses) to know your runway (emergency savings).
- How he started his team and then forming his software company, Codetoki.
- Taking Codetoki to the next level via funding from a Singaporean accelerator, JFDI.
- His dream and advocacy for the Filipino IT graduates.
- The advantages of Filipino freelancers.
- Why he avoids “rescue” projects.
Quotes
“The first project is the hardest to get.”
“Try to build relationships instead of acting as you are working with someone behind the computer that you don’t know.”
“The lesser clients I get, parang mas-easier I can deliver. For the next client that I get, I can charge higher because I had a successful project before.”
“Money was not the criteria for me…because your rate just goes up when you focus on solving problems.”
“If you want to really go into freelancing, you really have to have the discipline to work on projects because you know wala ka nang boss.”
Resources
- Craigslist.com
- Elance.com
- oDesk.com
- Bootyard – web design and development shop.
- iamademar.com
- Codetoki.com
- JFDI Asia
- Email: ademar@codetoki.com
- Twitter: @iamademar
Inspired by Ademar’s success? How will you improve your freelancer skills to become like him? Please share in the Comment Box below.
Do you want to become a freelancer but don’t know how to start? Then please attend our “Freelancing for Beginners 1.0” Workshop.
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2014
Time: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Venue: Go Hotels Mandaluyong, 5F Edsa corner Pioneer St, Mandaluyong City (beside Robinsons Pioneer)
To register, please go to www.freelanceblend.com/beginners1.
Special Discount for Freelance Blend members!
Just use the Promo Code: “Blend” to avail of the special rate of P1,000.00 (originally P1,800,00).
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