Our freelancer of the week has known right from the beginning, that one day she would like to be her own boss and possibly start her own company. With that in mind, Zaneta Baran started to work on some smaller projects while studying Software Engineering and after that kept going while working as a regular employee to gain experience. Now Zaneta fulfilled her dream and is freelancing full time. She does Magento development and is very happy with it…
1) First off, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi, my name is Zaneta Baran. I’m a 23 year old developer, based in Cracow, Poland. I’m a certified Magento frontend developer. Mainly I’m successfully working on Magento (frontend as well as backend): creating shops from scratch, handling ongoing maintenance, creating dedicated extensions. Also I know WordPress, Woocommerce and Prestashop very well. I’m making graphic design (website designs, logo etc) too.
I have been a freelancer for six years now and while that time I was also working for several IT companies, where I´ve gained experience while working on various Magento projects for Polish and international clients (mainly from Germany, US, UK and Australia). Now I’m focusing on my own career. I’m working as a freelancer; also I’m running my sole proprietorship, which is named NoRestrictions. It allows me to work with clients on B2B rules. For both at work and in private life I love challenges and the thrill of adrenaline. I ride a motorcycle, jump with a parachute and like boxing.
2) If you would search for your profile on Google, which are the keywords you would type in the search bar?
Depends, which services I would be looking for:
- Magento Developer Freelancer
- Experienced Magento Developer
- WordPress freelancer
- Magento Frontend Developer
- Magento Backend Developer
3) What was your inspiration and when did you actually decide to become a freelancer?
During my studies I knew that I wanted to work as a freelancer or start my own company. I like being my own boss. I´ve always admired the young people who threw themselves into deep water and at young age founded a company. Then I thought to myself that in IT I can be a freelancer! It’s even better! At studies I caught some small projects. Then I worked for several companies to gain experience and references, which were useful to me in search of customers as a freelancer. In addition, the work in a company allowed me to acquire the ability of working with clients. Right now I work as a freelancer full time, eight hours a day, from Monday to Friday.
4) What kind of services have your clients asked you to provide?
Mainly I was creating websites and webstores. I made specifications with clients or their sup-port documentation. I made templates, PSD to HTML/Wordpress/Magento. Also I maintain some of my projects I’ve created. I made amendments to existing websites/webstores, I also developed them. I was running big, time consuming projects as well as some small two hour jobs. Also I made some Magento and WordPress extensions. I’m also a graphic de-signer.
5) Do you use other freelancers or companies to provide skills that you don’t possess?
I have my own trusted team, which consists of two developers behind me. We know each other from studies. Each of us has its own, separate projects, but sometimes we help each other out when needed. It also happens that the customer needs a few developers in a single project. Then I arrange to meet with my team on clients request and we work together.
6) Now tell us, how do you find new clients that are interested in your services?
Mainly I use freelancing websites. When I have time I’m going to conferences or some train-ings in my home city to meet new people = potential clients. Also, if I have the time and mon-ey I travel to other countries, make new friends, come to BNI meetings or others and try to sell my services. But the best ways to raise the number of clients are recommendations from others and their feedback- then clients come by themselves.
7) What about freelancermap.com? Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with our IT-network?
I set up an account on this portal recently. I found mention about the portal on Twitter with a „#”. The site is well designed and clear. I´m just beginning my adventure with freelancer-map.com, but I can see huge potential.
8) How do you set yourself apart from your competitors? What makes you special?
First of all, working with Magento which is not very popular among freelancers helps. Work on Magento requires extensive experience and knowledge, especially best practice and moreover definitely an experience and positive feedback from customers. I always work at 100%, or even 120%, so that the customer is satisfied and he wants me to come back and share the experience in other projects as well.
9) What are the top three books, blogs or magazines you read to stay up to date in the IT-market?
Wesbites:
Magazines:
- PCWorld, ComputerWorld
10) Freestyle! Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
My trick is to look for unusual ways to find projects. A great tool is for example Twitter. This way I found freelancermap.com. So try to think in not hackneyed ways.
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Where to find Zaneta Baran?
- Link to freelancermap.com profile: Zaneta Baran at freelancermap.com
- Link to website: http://no-restrictions.com/
- Skype: karolina.osmeda@no-restrictions.com
The interview was conducted by Doreen Schollmeier – freelancermap.com team.
Pic: © Zaneta Baran
You would also like to be introduced as a freelancer in our “freelancer insides”?
Send us an email to info@freelancermap.com with the subject “freelancer insides” and shortly describe your services, experiences, and status!
