Hello everyone, I am a developer working in a corporate 9-5. My salary is below average and I have no job security. Idk may be they fire me tomorrow. I can’t trust the corporate 9-5. When i lost my first job, I was too disappointed, My father had an accident and he had a damage on his right hand and he was unable to perform work until his recovery. I had nothing to invest and have no idea about what to do. My personal life was a mess. I am not an hi-fi, business minded or someone experienced in business. I am just an average person who knows coding. I did some struggle to get a job and then made one single goal in December 2025: I have to build a business in this 2026. Even a mini, tiny, small business but I want to build it. Now I have started reading business mindset books instead of f novels, following entrepreneurship LinkedIn accounts and stocking money from my tiny salary.
Now I am making my first step. I don’t want to make a quick giant step. I want to make the right step. I am deciding to start from Upwork. I have a zero job profile and some 15k for setting reviews and buying connects. I am also setting my LinkedIn for outreach.
The two options that I think of are:
1- Upwork + LinkedIn
2- Bootstrapped Product(Sass)
I know that I have no experience for these things but I am preparing myself for this daily. I want advices from you all and If there any other option you know please share.
If you’re just starting out and need direct cash, I’d say don’t go for a product right away. There will come moments where you’ll need money for marketing, hosting, or other expenses for the product, and if you’re already tight on cash, it becomes really stressful. The exception is if you can get someone to financially support the product idea while you build it.
What I’d recommend is to start with Upwork and get something going there. Within 6 months, you’ll have enough cash to sustain your lifestyle comfortably. Here’s the key: start saving 20% from each payout specifically for your product fund. After 6 months, you’ll be in a much better position—you’ll have a stable lifestyle with income security, plus you’ll have capital saved up for your product.
In the meantime, you’ll have enough time to work on your product as well. With AI tools available now, you can build and iterate much faster than before. Slowly build momentum on both fronts.
Now, if you have a product idea that’s really solid and you genuinely believe you can make money with it from day 1—especially if you’ve already provided similar services and people paid you for it, or you see a clear pattern of people repeatedly asking for this exact solution—then it might make sense to go directly for the product. But that validation needs to be real, not just a feeling.
For most people in your situation though, the Upwork → save → build approach gives you the best shot at success without unnecessary risk.
(Now I am in the same process as well - nearly at the end of Upwork cycle and now moving towards the services agency)
I second Mubashir in going for Upwork. The only caveat I would add is: Upwork may require some investment too, in buying the connects.
It takes a while to build enough proof.
If I were you, I would go for a remote job or at least a better paying job instead. I’ve rarely seen Upwork freelancers make the graduation to remote jobs but what you’re planning on doing on Linkedin may help you in getting there.
Upwork is risk, product is a bigger risk. The least risky thing for you to do right now is to upskill enough so that better companies are paying attention to your work. And when you show up for the interview, you have something to show.
In short: Do Upwork as a hedge not all-in strategy. Your main goal is to upskill + learn to market yourself and aggressively chase the “getting headhunted” status.
From your experience, what’s the best way and domain to upskill in for someone who’s done automation and integrations that sort of stuff. on upwork. What should they do next, ideally, to acquire the “getting headhunted’“ status.
Rephrase “Automation and integrations” into the actual business outcome it delivers. If you can’t draw a clear line that’s a sign that the service you offer is incomplete. You may be tempted to say “cost-savings” but that’s so broad as to be meaningless. Cost saving in what exactly? Which operation exactly can you improve? What automations are you even delivering?
For example, a good place to build authority in right now is IT setup around Claude Code or similar platforms inside companies. Most companies have shoddy security practices and config managements. They are too excited to just get started. You can offer an automation service where you automate the Claude Code deployment across entire teams and cut out the Anthropic enterprise deployment which charges a shit ton. Now that’s an automation that clearly delivers security and speed of a deployment of ONE specific thing.
If you pick that, your content angles also become so much clearer. You now have a concrete THING to talk about. Not an idea.