I would never to identify something not working and tell someone about it - that just wouldn’t suit me. And I’d be annoyed if I were the client - often clients know there is something wrong but there are things stopping them. But I do know people who have used that approach and had it work - it just wouldn’t suit me. I’d write a polite (and short) email to let them know what you do and that you are available - it won’t hurt and might come just at the right time for someone…

Best of luck to you when going freelance. It’s important to enjoy what you’re doing.

I’m in the process of setting up my own consultancy after completing a PhD in HCI and a few years working in the area afterwards. My question is how do you get a good client list? My previous work involved one-off projects (often collaborations with large organisations) but I’m more interested in small-scale work which makes my previous colleagues no use for further work. I’ve noticed a few websites that aren’t working as well as they should and I wondered if it was worth finding out the department responsible for running the website, contacting them with a few pointers and maybe a brief report, and telling them that I can do good work for them (ie, reduce complaints, increase turnover etc). Would this work?

All the best,

Alan.