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Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

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Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#181

Post by k__ »

santodante wrote: post #168
gk1 wrote: post #32

Longer write-up here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-l... Some things I learned through mistakes: - Charge more. - Travel like a professional and bill the client. For my first business trip I used airline points, stayed at an Airbnb on my own dime, and even refused the client's offer to reimburse me. Stupid. (Full story here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/stupid/ ) - If I'm not enjoying the w…

How do I get over the mental barrier of charging more than $100 per hour? - I'm a junior developer and I mostly freelance for larger companies. - I feel like $100/hour is the industry standard and if I charge 150-300 I need to do work that requires managerial work. - 300+ comes from charging a percentage of revenue increase or creating such a narrative, which often requires additional business and strategic consultin…

I simply started billing weeks and not hours.

So nobody can check how many hours you work a day.

If you bill $2000 a week and only work 4h a day, you get your $100.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#182

Post by jandrewrogers »

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #35
im_down_w_otp wrote: post #5

Setting my rates too low. Here's what I figured out those many years ago. Clients who are cheap are also really into wasting your time and trying to micromanage the project. Clients who will pay a lot more also give you latitude to do your job (after all they're paying you to be the expert). Keep jacking up your rates with each new client until you hit a ceiling. Whatever you're charging now, without even knowing wha…

Just curious what do you consult on for 350/hr? Is this basic CRUD stuff? Wordpress template etc?

The rate is partly a function of how deep/rare your subject matter expertise is. Companies will not see $1000/hr as unreasonable if you can deliver sufficient value.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#184

Post by cosmodisk »

sjy wrote: post #11
mattferderer wrote: post #3

Hire a good tax person immediately. Maybe hire 2. A significant amount of your income earned is gained through having someone walk you through handling taxes & health insurance. I'm not suggesting cheating on taxes. There are common practices such as knowing how to best incorporate your business for your situation. How to best pay yourself (dividends vs income) & how to handle your personal & company expenses. This c…

What country are you basing this advice on? I think it’s good advice, but if your income can increase by 20-30% as a result of optimising your business structure for tax purposes, that’s a dysfunctional tax system. I’d like to believe that in some countries this advice is not necessary.

This is applicable in most civilised countries.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#185

Post by gk1 »

dominotw wrote: post #176
onreact wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those two. Charge by value you deliver. You can build a 100K car in an hour? Excellent. Don't punish yourself by charging only $100 for the hour you worked on it. Know your value - which in capitalism depends on market demand - and charge accordingly. When you are a distinguished expert you can charge more of course as well. Make a name for yourself and ensure that everybody knows upfront that you are not a "…

> You can build a 100K car in an hour? Excellent. Why wouldn't ur hourly rate be 100k then (vs $100) ?

- what if you found an even faster way and did it in 30 minutes, do you charge half that?

- what if it takes you a bit longer, 2 hours, is it fair to charge the client 2x?

The point is, the client wants a car, not an hour of car-making.

Also, the moment you provide an hourly rate you get compared to other hourly workers, whether it’s fair or not. “What?! $100k an hour? Even our lawyers cost less!”

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#187

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #123
zerr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, such projects happen and it always surprises me - why can't such shops find in-house devs (with regular salaries) for such projects?

I've had a couple of those projects come along. I remember one in particular for a UK pharmaceuticals company. I went to see them and the first thing they said was "We are so glad you are here, we have been looking for a solution for months without any success. At the moment it's costing us a million pounds a day." It turned out they couldn't produce their compliance documentation and that was delaying the release of…

   > To them it looked like a 
   > problem, to me it looked 
   > like an opportunity.
This is probably the biggest lesson here- finding a reason why to do something versus not doing it is important!

I currently work as a lube tech for a local dealership. (Saving up for the future, and they have better hours and pay than $LocalFastFood.) My coworkers dislike A) vacuuming vehicles and B) doing tire rotations- because both of them take time and effort.

I like doing both of those- they take time- which means I get paid (job security!) and also helps the customer want to come back (arguably more important than any time savings from skipping a rotate or not vacuuming underneath floor mats.)

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#188

Post by robaato »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #123
zerr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, such projects happen and it always surprises me - why can't such shops find in-house devs (with regular salaries) for such projects?

I've had a couple of those projects come along. I remember one in particular for a UK pharmaceuticals company. I went to see them and the first thing they said was "We are so glad you are here, we have been looking for a solution for months without any success. At the moment it's costing us a million pounds a day." It turned out they couldn't produce their compliance documentation and that was delaying the release of…

So what did you charge them?!

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#189

Post by neillyons »

andrewstuart wrote: post #33

What's the appeal of being an independent consultant? Why would you do this versus any other business or job? Genuinely curious what the appeal is.

I didn’t set out with freelancing as my goal, it was more that I decided to travel. I left my employer to travel for six months. On my travels I visited Japan and decided I’d love to go back there. When I came back to the UK I started studying Japanese and applying for a Japanese working holiday visa. I also needed to get some savings together. I could of went back to my employer but it seemed like a lot of effort as I was at my parents place in Northern Ireland and my employer was in England. Moving over is a hassle and I knew I would be leaving after a few months so I decided to try freelancing.

I am a Python web developer and couldn’t find any work in Northern Ireland. My clients ended up all being in London and I would work remotely. When I actually moved to Japan my client at the time was happy to continue working with me. Which was pretty cool. I have fond memories of that time. Working in a ryokan, sitting on a tatami mat coding Python. So cool.

I ended up working for a company in Japan which was cool. Before my visa ran out my old colleague contacted me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to freelance with him at the same company he was working for. I had my interview over Skype while in Japan so when I came back to the UK I was straight into work. It ended up being more convenient to freelance than to look for a job and I’ve just continued to freelance ever since.

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