Is it possible to go it alone WFH as a freelance front end web developer?

[SimLondon]

I've freelance (contracted) for large companies/banks/digital media agencies for many years in London and would like to WFH and just bill on a time/materials basis.

I'm wondering if the market is saturated?

In my experience, the market is better than it has ever been - I am earning more working from home for a few hours a day than I did working for an agency.

(I'm a developer too, though mostly backend.)

I think there's definitely room for freelancers. When you say front end - what skills do you have? You might need to adapt a little to offer more. My work experience has been mostly what you might call front end client side, but now I'm freelancing as a web designer making bespoke Wordpress themes. Small business are looking to avoid expensive agencies that and don't necessarily want to go DIY and use pre-made templates. My projects have been for friends and friends of friends so far, so it's very much about them feeling they can trust me to do a good job and not rip them off. Early days for me however so we shall see how it goes!

Thanks both, jemjabella can I ask how you find work? I was thinking of contacting local agencies and seeing if they wanted to outsource any work.

I have just set up as a social media consultant. It's very early days and I did my website myself in Wordpress (although I have no coding skills at all).

However, down the line, I imagine hope that some of my clients may also want full blown web design which I can't offer. At that point I would want to team up with someone like you.

It's not an offer but there may be other people in a similar position.