Freelancers/small business folks in Nova Scotia — how did you land clients beyond word of mouth?

Finished an IT/programming diploma not too long ago and have been picking up freelance web design work on the side. Almost every client so far has come from people I already knew personally, and I'm not sure how to grow past that. For anyone doing freelance or running a small service business here, how did you find your first clients once word of mouth from friends/family dried up? Local Facebook groups, networking events, cold emails, something else? Genuinely just trying to figure out what actually works in this province.