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Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#251

Post by benjaminwootton »

philip1209 wrote: post #2

I've been self-employed for the last ~18 months. In the past I started two VC-backed startups, then was a PM at some later-stage companies before returning to entrepreneurship. This time around, I'm building a solo "digital product studio" [1] instead of a startup. So, I'm staying one person, haven't raised money, and have multiple revenue-generating products. Product revenue doesn't cover my costs yet, so I do occas…

Isn’t it difficult for one person to market multiple products or websites? It’s hard enough getting traction for one product, let alone a portfolio?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#252

Post by JamesBarney »

racl101 wrote: post #211

Was self employed and worked as contractor programmer for the longest time until a couple of years ago. Thought I would work less. Boy was I wrong. Chasing clients, doing taxes, invoicing people and praying they'll pay on time. Got sick of the not very dependable cash flow which was feast and famine cycles. Went to get a corporate job and even though the work is not as exciting and the codebase is legacy, at least I…

Yeah did the same, and I'm also enjoying the corporate life.

Learned a ton of lessons, the first of which is starting a consulting shop for general development is fools errand. You can kind of make if worth it if you're decent at sales and offshore everything.

If I do it again I'll slice our niche down thinner than prosciutto, something like CRM integrations for real estate agents, and have contracts that allowed us to own the IP.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#253

Post by jacquesm »

mcv wrote: post #207
jacquesm wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have multiple customers over time; 3 years ago, I worked on a different project, for a different client, than I do now. But with the kind of projects I work on, it's hard to do several of these projects at once, and they're too long to do several in a year. So please be very careful and if you can find a side gig that doesn't interfere with your main one so you have at least some protection. It could be a low hou…

> so you have at least some protection. Protection from what exactly? > Without multiple clients you are super fragile, don't have a strong negotiation position and in case of any kind of headwind you're immediately on the ropes. Not at all. I can walk away and I have my financial reserves. My negotiation position is stronger than when I'm an employee. > If you insist on doing long running contracts try getting two t…

Ok, never mind me then. Best of luck with the career!

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#254

Post by mauvehaus »

I am a self-employed furniture maker. I'm that guy who somewhat infamously no longer builds software[0]. About a year ago I moved my operations from a makerspace to my own shop. That's come with its ups and downs.

On the one hand, I know which idiot last used a tool: me.

On the other, I would no longer see other humans besides my wife most weeks. To keep sane I also work one day a week at a bike shop fixing bikes. It's something I'd done on a volunteer basis many years back.

The unexpected nice thing about this is that it gives me projects that are an hour or two in size in addition to the many-week sized projects that I do as part of my business. It's sort of like getting to fix a small bug in the midst of adding a big feature; it lets me pop out of the big project for a bit and see something else through from start to finish and see some tangible progress before diving back into a long-running project that moves forward in fits and starts.

Beyond getting to tackle some bite-sized projects, I'd say the thing that sustains me is getting to work with clients. It's tons of fun when people come to me with a vision that we can iterate on and bring into reality. And then the flip side is also rewarding: getting to scratch an itch and turn a design I've been turning over in my mind into reality.

Edited to add: If you've got an idea for a furniture or woodworking project, my contact info and website are in my profile.

https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149...

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#255

Post by JamesBarney »

ultra-jeremyx wrote: post #250

Interesting thread. Anyone here in the U.S. and supporting a family? The main hurdle for me starting my own business is cost of healthcare. I haven't looked too deeply into options, but I assume I'd be taking on a huge cost to support a spouse and children.

If you don't have any current expensive active costs the marketplace is fine. It's not great if you have a spouse or kids who suffers from a chronic condition that is hard to get covered for, but it's mostly fine for most health catastrophes.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#256

Post by teuobk »

wordpad25 wrote: post #244
teuobk wrote: post #239

Yup, self-employed embedded firmware and hardware engineer. I mostly consult on things like wearable sensors (especially class 2 and class 3 medical devices) and industrial control systems. I also have a bit of an odd niche in phosphorescence-measurement instruments for research and practical applications. The closer to the metal, the better! The tighter the power requirements, the better! The more connected, the bet…

Is compensation competitive compared to working for Intel or something? Do you make 150 hourly?

In terms of total compensation, I probably pay myself about what I would make at one of the big tech companies. (Side note: before changing to consulting, I did spend several years working as an engineer in a "real" job at a large medical device company.) The real appeal to me is twofold: first, I have strong control over my time; and second, I get to see and work on a very wide range of interesting projects and challenges. You can certainly get all of this in a traditional job as well, but my personal opinion is that it's easier to find it as a consultant.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#257

Post by philip1209 »

benjaminwootton wrote: post #251
philip1209 wrote: post #2

I've been self-employed for the last ~18 months. In the past I started two VC-backed startups, then was a PM at some later-stage companies before returning to entrepreneurship. This time around, I'm building a solo "digital product studio" [1] instead of a startup. So, I'm staying one person, haven't raised money, and have multiple revenue-generating products. Product revenue doesn't cover my costs yet, so I do occas…

Isn’t it difficult for one person to market multiple products or websites? It’s hard enough getting traction for one product, let alone a portfolio?

After I sold my last company, I felt like my identity was overly tied to one product. So, I decided to build a company separate from the products, so that over time the products can change but I have a through line company brand.

When I started this comapny, I didn't have a product - but I had the holding company (Contraption Company). My first product was Postcard, but now I spend most of my time building Booklet. As the shift in products has happened, my professional email address has been the same, the terms of service have been shared between services, and I have a unified blog + announcements email list. This also means I can launch lightweight experiments such as "FRCTNL", and even if it's not commercially successful - I benefit from compounding returns in the brand and mailing list.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#258

Post by pmontra »

Self employed since 2006. Currently working for a couple of customers. Three of them would be too much, no meaningful weekly deliveries for at least one of them. Current stacks: Django with server side rendering and Rails with a Vue.js frontend. Side projects on my home servers in whatever fits short time slots and small footprints: Lua with OpenResty, Python with customized http.server POST and GET methods, Ruby and bash scripts. Possibly other things that don't come to my mind now.

The greatest thing it to be able to adjust the daily and weekly schedule around what I want or have to do and when, and no commuting.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#259

Post by smallerfish »

I run a fractional CTO business. I started it in 2013, went full time as CTO with my 4th client and stayed through exit a couple of years back, and then took on multiple clients again starting around 12 months ago.

The flexibility and being my own boss is great. I have enough bandwidth to work on long term bets, while keeping income flowing. The type of clients who hire fractional CTOs can be challenging - they're typically bootstrapping, and often have unrealistic expectations. Finding new clients hasn't been particularly hard, at least so far; word of mouth in my network has been about 70% of engagements, with online postings the remainder.

Not for everybody. I own my house and don't have kids, so I have a high risk tolerance. But, if you have a safety net and the confidence in your skills, it's a great lifestyle.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#260

Post by lifestyleguru »

mkaszkowiak wrote: post #240
lifestyleguru wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to breach rules which are a standard in developed countries, means exactly that you are uncompetitive with your skills. Funny that social and salary dumping where exactly the populist argument that the British voters picked up most eagerly in referendum on Brexit. That's post-Communist mentality to feel satisfaction from "screwing someone over", it's devastating the social trust, on macro scale it doesn't…

I still don't see how developing high quality software is related to one's personal viewpoint on taxes.

That's very smart.
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