Is there self-employed in the community?

HI Aonghas,

I have been self employed in several different forms over a decade or 2, but I'm not right now. I will admit that it was the challenge of getting new customers or clients that I found hardest. One of my major professions was even online marketing, but doing this for myself to promote my work was a very different thing to helping someone else's business succeed online.

My success at getting clients came a lot from using social media when the platforms were still relatively new. But back then I was also forcing myself to in-person networking things as well (had no idea I was on the spectrum), and even speaking gigs... which eventually led to me burning out for several years. Might have worked for my work, but not for my health.

What has been your experience in meeting others in your work online? Could be via social networks, or forums, interest-based groups, etc. I mention this as most of my work in the early days was thanks to being recommended by people I knew who did similar things to me. I also used Twitter / LinkedIn which I used to specialise in talking only about my specialisms in work at the time. The people who recommended me didn't have the capacity or specific skills to take on the work.

I hope some others can hop in and share more up-to-date ideas (versus what I worry are my outdated ideas). Good luck.

Thought I would add that the people I networked with I saw as friends in the industry. So it wasn't forced, and this, I think, helped them think of me when thinking of who to pass work onto.

Thought I would add that the people I networked with I saw as friends in the industry. So it wasn't forced, and this, I think, helped them think of me when thinking of who to pass work onto.