The headline suggested to me (although I realize on re-reading it wasn't about that) that the article would be about how you find that first client. Any tips for the people trying that?
Try networking with people you know online or in real life.
My consulting business (shameless plug: http://argonautlabs.com) got started by me reaching out to someone I knew via Twitter and asking if he needed any help in his consulting business. At that moment, he didn't, but he asked me to send him what my skills were. I did. Two weeks later, he sent me an email with something that was going to take 6-8 hours that he didn't really want to mess with. I did it well, and that led to more work from him. From there it spread by word of mouth. People I did work for referred me to other people, and it just grew from there.
Feel free to email me if you want to talk more. I'm always happy to help another freelancer out.
