How I turned my childhood hobby into a £33 hourly rate
Brief background
My first taste of programming was in secondary school, I just loved it! In 2007 I joined a software and consulting company called Accenture. I was placed in the Java team as an Associate Web Developer – it went well and I was named employee of the year (Achievers Award 2008).
After working for 5 years as a Web Developer for Accenture and Aon Hewitt. I left my job with Aon Hewitt when they failed to agree to my requested pay hike. I decided that I would never work for someone else again, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I would do.
Joining PPH?
After leaving my job, I had nothing. Until one day, while browsing the Internet, I came across PPH. In the past I had signed up to many freelance websites. In comparison to those sites the PPH ‘hourlies’ were unique & amazing. I loved the idea of not always having to find the work, you could simply create an hourlie to sell your expertise and skills and clients would come to you.
I created a unique offer – website development for $100. I waited but didn’t hear anything for weeks. With only $30 left in my bank account I had a decision to make. Should I ‘Feature’ my hourlie? I decided to go for it. Once I featured it I received a request, for which I worked tirelessly to ensure that my first client was 200% happy with my work. My hard work paid off I received 150 words of fantastic feedback.
After that, there was no stopping me. Since then I’ve been inundated with requests to develop websites. I have sold more websites than any other hourlie on PPH. I’m ranked 32nd out of 600,000 freelancers and my $100 10-page website is a trend setting hourlie, which many freelancers copied & still do now. They’re making a good return using my original sales copy, something that I feel very proud of.
Fast forward to today, and we are now 4 employees and a registered company – Credofy Solutions Pvt Ltd – here in India, serving clients across the globe.
Challenges faced when starting A software company?
Getting clients was a major challenge; I had to travel a lot and attend many events to build a professional network, promote the company services and win work. In spite of this, the work we secured was not enough to sustain the company; moreover, we were restricted to a local area, but we wanted to reach a global market. This is where PPH really helped us to grow and sustain our business.
How PPH affects my business?
PPH does so much for our business; it really is invaluable. Beyond finding customers, it also provides us access to other quality freelancers to whom we can outsource work when we are overloaded. In this way it helps us to make good connections and grow our network.
In short, I was a trend setter; I created an initial offer for developing a 10-page responsive website for $100, which now has been revised to offer more services, including a fully secured and fast loading website for $199 with pretty cool and competitive add ons like on page SEO, keyword research, paypal integration etc; which is now the offer that has given us most of our repeat business and clients.
REMEMBER: You will always reap the rewards of hard work, determination and dedication. If I can do this, so can you!
Thanks to Rahul for sharing his inspirational PPH journey
