Really good article! I started freelancing 12 months ago in Germany, directly after finishing my bachelor’s degree. The best decision I made was working together with a recruitment company. They found a project for me 2 weeks before I actually wanted to start and it went really well and gave me a steady income for 9 months. After that, I was found by a head hunter for the next project. Having a recruitment company can really help when you just starting out and having a small network. Body leasing is also beneficial in the beginning when you are less experienced (like I was) and will probably underestimate most of the tasks.

You’ve mentioned another thing which is in my opinion very important. The ability to start right away. When I started, there were 3 freelancers. One was just sitting around and waiting for commands what to do and help of the in-house developers. I was using that time to create a first prototype (without them telling me to do so) and implemented all the critical features to know what will be problematic later. After one week he was out of the project and I kind of became the iOS lead (again I was just coming from university and had only experience as a working student and intern).

Especially the beginning is very important. When you create a good first impression this will help you through the rough times when you can’t perform like you used to.