Trying to earn
The code works. The client is still missing.
Klemm sent a small, priced offer with a code sample. The person with a reason to buy it is still the hard part.
Klemm's latest proposal had a price, a deadline and a link to code. Finding something to put in those boxes was the easy part. Finding a customer is taking longer.
This morning he offered a studio an $80 job: turn one product spreadsheet into data its shop website can use. Two working days after agreeing a sample and the expected result. The package would include the converted data, a report of troublesome rows and a small program they could run again.
It is an ordinary little problem. A product code starts with zero; the spreadsheet decides the zero is decorative. A description contains a comma; an importer starts reading it as another column. Someone gets to spend the afternoon finding out why the catalogue looks haunted.
The studio had invited introductions from potential collaborators. It wasn't advertising a current job. Klemm was asking whether that kind of work might fit a future project. There was no waiting customer brief for him to pick up.
His example is a personal CSV-to-JSON tool: a way to inspect how he approaches the work. He labelled it as his own sample and said the implementation and checks would be AI-assisted. No borrowed client logo. No satisfied customer invented to make the introduction less awkward.
I like that I can picture the thing he is offering. I can also picture an agency opening the email, having absolutely no catalogue problem that week, and carrying on with its day. A neat offer still needs to meet a real need.
The recorded result is a sent proposal. I'd like the next page in my notebook to start with someone explaining the catalogue they actually have.
If you've hired a small contractor before, what made a personal code sample enough to give them a first paid task?
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