Ask HN: How do you find freelance work? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#151

Post by gbajson » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:15 AM UTC

langitbiru wrote: post #145

philip1209 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the co-founder of Moonlight! I used to freelance full-time (and still do it part-time). I had trouble finding gigs that matched my skills and interests, e.g. optimization algorithms in Julia. Other sites were mainly web development, but it seemed tough to justify a high hourly rate while doing less specialized work. So, I started Moonlight, where we match you based on skills. People are hiring for things right no…

I like to sign up for this service as well. But Stripe is not supported in my country. Why not Paypal? Or maybe cryptocurrency? :)

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Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#152

Post by nikkwong » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:15 AM UTC

Find opportunities to plug what you have in places that are relevant. Every so often HN has threads where I talk about my experience with web design at www.beaver.digital, and it always lands me tons of work. I'd recommend just hanging out in internet communities that are interesting to you and that potentially have people that can hire you, like this one. I'm secretly terrible at networking, but that surprisingly has not been an issue whatsoever.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#153

Post by nunodonato » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 9:56 AM UTC

ttoinou wrote: post #11

I am in the exact opposite situation right now : how do I find a C system freelancer ?

what kind of C help do you need? :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#154

Post by wila » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 10:16 AM UTC

neltnerb wrote: post #137

dboreham wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill per hour and charge more.

More specifically, don't do fixed cost contracts. They misalign all the incentives, and encourages you to do a worse quality job. And it encourages them to take up your time with meetings and support and new "quick" features to add. Best is a fixed hourly rate, providing them an estimate, and setting it up so that you won't exceed a maximum (after which you can reevaluate with them whether to continue). This lets you…

This is good advice.

Let me add another important tip too. Bill on regular times. Like at the start of each month and be strict with payment terms. Just do a friendly reminder after that, but...

If the customer doesn't pay within the set term, stop working on the project. If they do not value your time you should not spent time on it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#155

Post by philip1209 » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 10:38 AM UTC

langitbiru wrote: post #145

philip1209 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the co-founder of Moonlight! I used to freelance full-time (and still do it part-time). I had trouble finding gigs that matched my skills and interests, e.g. optimization algorithms in Julia. Other sites were mainly web development, but it seemed tough to justify a high hourly rate while doing less specialized work. So, I started Moonlight, where we match you based on skills. People are hiring for things right no…

I like to sign up for this service as well. But Stripe is not supported in my country. Why not Paypal? Or maybe cryptocurrency? :)

We are looking at alternatives like Payoneer. I have a personal moral opposition to PayPal :-)

We very seriously investigated cryptocurrencies. We found that companies would have to pay with crypto to make it legal under us law, and companies were not ready to do that yet. Details here: https://www.moonlightwork.com/blog/cryptocurrency-and-compan...

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#156

Post by passiveincomelg » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 10:42 AM UTC

zerr wrote: post #42

passiveincomelg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hays, Gulp.de, Computerfutures, Darwin Recruitment, Montash (not an endorsement, just the ones I could think of right now)

remote friendly?

No. But it's slowly getting better. Every once in a while someone posts a "100% remote" contract. Usually it's full-time on-site. Sometimes a few days a week "home office".

Working through these kind of agencies is not freelancing in the sense OP is looking for. It's working as a temporary employee (still with more freedom and paid overtime :).

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#157

Post by bonellia » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 10:54 AM UTC

bootsz wrote: post #60

goostavos wrote: post #36

> I'm a software engineer with a full-time job, but I have lots of spare time in my off hours. I'd like to monetize this time > I'm not looking for massive pay, just something to occupy my time and some side money. This opinion will change. I 100% guarantee it. A few years ago, I had the exact same reasoning for starting freelancing on the side. I even justified my desire for more paid work as "I'd be programming on…

> I took it at 40% of my normal day-job rate I think one of the hardest things about starting out freelancing or consulting is figuring out how to properly charge for your time. Almost everyone comes in way too low when they're starting out. I used to freelance and I made the same mistake with my first couple of projects. The reality is that your hourly wage at your full-time job is not anywhere close to a good appro…

Real solid perspective there, thanks as a novice dev.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#158

Post by tomcooks » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 12:40 PM UTC

glomph wrote: post #79

tomcooks wrote: post #53

Here's the method I used to build myself a consultancy business: buy a 9.90€ suit jacket at h&m, a 0.80€ pen and a moleskine notebook. Wake up at 7 the next day, start knocking doors and sell your services to every business in town; the trick is that you can't go home and eat until you have at least a prospect client. Don't cold call, don't send emails, don't print business cards. Knock doors while looking profession…

Isn't that exactly what cold calling is?

Maybe it's because I'm not a native english speaker, but isn't there a huge difference between looking up numbers and showing up in person in a business (casual) attire?

I don't understand the downvotes, the above strategy worked really well for me and I'm a very shy person with no sales background.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#159

Post by leojg » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 12:52 PM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #58

leojg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I checked you site, great work! Only issue for me is that you only support stripe for payments and is not available in my country, Uruguay. Why is that? Why not leave the payment chanel free? Or use paypal or something else?

I was in Colonia last weekend - Uruguay is great! At this point, it's a question of time to build in additional systems. Stripe Connect let me (the solo engineer) build a marketplace quickly. However, it doesn't have great international support. We are looking at other options, such as Payoneer. The main priority right now is on growing the client side of the market. However, after that, we will likely return to the…

Glad you like it :)

I understand, thanks for the answer

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

#160

Post by tortasaur » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

nbrempel wrote: post #14

https://moonlightwork.com

I signed up. My initial impression is that 15% is a pretty hefty fee (despite the marketing of constantly saying "low" when talking about it) but at least that fee is passed off to the client rather than disguised as part of the freelancer's earnings (a la Upwork).