How Do I Find a Programmer?

So you have a great idea. You have some budget. It’s now time to make your vision into a reality. The problem is - you don’t know any programmers. You don’t even know where you’d find one. What can you do?

The answer is so simple… you’re going to kick yourself. Let me explain:

Ask around.

Yeah. Ok. But ask who?

Anyone. Anyone who remotely is in the IT space can help you. You just have to ask the right question.

The question is this: “I have an idea of an application/website/mobile app that I want to make. Do you know anyone who can do this work for me?”

It’s a simple question. Just put the general stuff together and ask the first IT person you see. They will help you with the rest.

Also, notice that you didn’t say “can you help me” - maybe they can, maybe they can’t or don’t want to. When you ask like this, you leave the door open. Remember, programmers are in a support role - so when we hear ‘can you’ we think we have to answer ‘yes.’ When you say if they know anyone who can do it the programmer can say “Yes I can do that” or “I can help you find someone maybe - describe the project more.”

Let me give you an example of how one of my leads worked.

• Business stakeholder has a brick and mortar style business. They ask their IT Networking specialist about building an app.
• IT person asks them more details. Turns out they don’t want a mobile app like they thought, they want some automated middleware stuff that integrates one system with another.
• That IT person doesn’t know anyone who does that - but knows an app creator. The IT person refers them to the app creator with acknowledgement that that’s not the end person.
• App developer has worked on apps solely - but knows some back end programmers they’ve worked with that sound perfect. They refer the business person.

See - sometimes it’s this networking that is used in Sales that can also be used for finding a programmer.

Don’t know where to start? Ask your designer. Your programmer. Your app programmer. Your backend programmer. Your database admin. Your support person. Anyone in IT to get the ball rolling.