1. The Internetz!
2. Brother’s contacts (change ‘brother’ for partners)
3. Get out there!
4. Start a Blog or Newsletter
5. Answer/Send Emails
6. Traditional

The Internetz!
My first option, as a web developer is most obviously going to be the internet. Hey! sorry for the push but really… Yes, this is the largest service market in the world! Need proof? check out Liveperson, a site that is looong overdue in latin markets; It even includes a desktop installer. My experience with freelance sites however is a mix bag, normally the job will go overseas but Puerto Rico is ‘overseas’ to many people so that’s the table turned. To my amazement, the most visited area in that site is the ‘Spirituality’ section, who knew? With millions of gods maybe that’s why many outsource to India.

Brother’s Contacts
At some point I realized that having partners is the single-most important aspect of making your business grow. I have different partners in diff.. actually its almost always the same industry or similar, well I have many partners and for this post’s purpose believe-you-me that most business comes from us (the team) and our contacts. Even in cases like mine where socials skills can be compared with those of a goat. However, in most cases a partner could mean double the contacts or at least half the work!

Get out there!
My brother and I agreed that we would go out at least 3 evenings during the week just to have people see us. Do this and it will greatly improve your social life and not affect your wallet that much if you do it right. Invite a couple of business related friends for some drinks and be sure to be back home before 11pm; leave the partying for weekends. Doing this gives us at least one new otherwise lost client per week and helps us stay current with related industries.

Start a Blog or Newsletter
Having so many projects all at once has put me in the situation where people sometimes don’t know what I’m talking about or which project I’m referring to. People go about their lives with their own stuff in their head so reminding them what you do every 2 weeks in a newsletter will help them tune into you when they need to. Furthermore, keeping a blog and maintaining a healthy post frequency will let potential clients know where you’re coming from.

Answer/Send Emails
Oh I’d like to stress on this more, I’m not talking about sending email campaigns. Just send an email. You see a product you like? Send an email, tell them you like it. Countless relationships have grown from a simple email. Don’t go about saying “Hey I like your product. By the way, I make web pages”. Let your signature do the talking. You distribute food and receive an email from your site asking for recipes? Write them back and show you care for clients; maybe they have a cousin with a supermarket chain.

Traditional
If you’re not into “getting out there” for drinks there are more traditional ways of reaching people like, jogging… Did you think it’s a coincidence that many business people run marathons every year? Any topic, any hobby will help you connect with other people. Not into hobbies? Join a country club, easy as that.