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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?

#301

Post by kgdiem »

philip1209 wrote: post #76
kgdiem wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! I’m working on the same thing at https://stackstudio.dev right now. Your blog post was really eloquent, it’s always inspiring when someone else shares your idea. Best of luck.

Thanks! I'm trying to do more essay writing there [1]. Most indie makers seem to have some content strategy where they share their story. I avoid social media and don't desire to become a Youtuber, so I'm focusing on writing as a content channel. I'm focusing essays on my creative process, inspiration, and specific experiences as an operator - the stuff I want to read. I'm avoiding prospective predictions about the f…

I live in Hoboken :D sending you an email for dimessquare!

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

#302

Post by Tade0 »

I'm formally self-employed but it's actually a means of keeping talent from emigrating by granting tax benefits to people like me.

I do side gigs when the opportunity arises, but more often than not I don't have the time for anything but my main thing.

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

#303

Post by zesfy »

For the last 4 years, I've been working on app that help solo founder like me to manage their project but intuitive to use on mobile. Finally get the app ready for private beta soon, so lately my time have been focused getting the word out about the app.

App Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSiHWdoekCE

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

#304

Post by mkaszkowiak »

V-2 wrote: post #261
mkaszkowiak wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it's problematic, however: > welfare/health care system is bad, taxes are not used well There's a widespread lack of trust in the Polish government, which decreased even further during the 2015-2023 period. If the money is being funelled to the ruling politicians' families and friends, why willingly pay high taxes? I believe this is an underlying core issue, which would probably take a new generation to…

I'm not sure if there had been any unprecented drop in the trust level between 2015 and 2023 (meaning under the Law and Justice government). While it is true that it's relatively low in Poland in general... Eg. according to this survey [1], the percentage of respondents expressing trust in the government decreased from 38% in 2016 down to 32% in 2022 (while clearly exceeding 40% about half way through). Which is pret…

Thanks for the links! I'll read them :)

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

#305

Post by neilv »

hypertexthero wrote: post #247

Self-employed on and off as a graphic and web design consultant since 2005 or so, with some time in offices, making websites with static generators, PHP/WordPress, and Python/Django, and print work with pencil, ink, paper, and graphics apps. Tips: 1. Live simply and reduce expenses. Avoid debt if you can. Rice and beans recipe: https://hypertexthero.com/eat-play-read/ 2. Try to be nice to other nice people and stay i…

The first tip about being self-employed is funny and telling:

> 1. Live simply and reduce expenses. Avoid debt if you can. Rice and beans recipe:

Some people can make really good money self-employed, but for the rest of us (including myself), salaried employment would've been much easier.

Also, a period of lower income will keep paying negative dividends afterwards, because it's expensive to be poor. There might also be long-term impact of stress, if the lower income and uncertainty of being self-employed had more net bad stress than the corporate job would've. (Though corporate BS as an employee can be the worst stress, worse than not knowing whether you can keep your self-employed business afloat.)

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

#306

Post by Tade0 »

mcv wrote: post #150
V-2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't see why a company couldn't have one long-term customer. It's not unusual eg. in the building sector (where large construction projects, not unlike software projects, can take years to complete). Another common example is MDs - quite a lot of private doctor's offices are contracted by the National Health Fund, basically providing their services for the public healthcare that way. Clearly having multiple custom…

This is definitely a source of friction with the tax service. A couple of years ago, the Dutch tax service was trying to tackle the problem of fake self-employed people who were really just employees without the same rights, pensions, etc. The Dutch postal service PostNL was notorious for firing firing all their mail deliverers and hiring them back as self-employed people who still had to wear their uniform and work…

In Poland the government is in on it when it comes to specialists of any kind, as this is how they prevent people from emigrating to the west or "emigrating" (tax-wise only) to the Czech Republic, which offers a similar deal.

For a while it was possible to have a flat 5% income tax rate, but I guess someone pointed out that it's too generous, so the best option now is a flat 12% and 3% healthcare contributions.

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

#307

Post by takkatakka »

Self-employed running https://bankstatement2csv.com Like the url implies, it's a pdf bank statement to csv converter. What Rob Walling from microconf would call a 'step 1 business'.

I quit my job in December to work on it full time. It doesn't pay the bills yet (current MRR $590/month), but it is slowly growing! Little bit of a race to see if I can pay my bills with it before I run out of runway.

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

#308

Post by jborden13 »

mfrisbie wrote: post #127

I've been self-employed for nearly two years. I work on a Chrome extension [1] that is used by a significant fraction of the US legal cannabis industry for compliance. 2/3 of my time is spent on consulting projects, which pay better, and the rest is spent maintaining the platform. At the moment, the platform is self-sustaining and the revenue from it is growing fast. I work some of the largest companies in the indust…

I'm in the process of standing up a Chrome & Firefox extension. Can I ask what your route to traction was? Many thanks...

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

#309

Post by smiths1999 »

unmole wrote: post #116
WXLCKNO wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12% is not conservative

It is in India.

I apologize if this is a stupid question but why wouldn't everyone be investing in India with these returns being standard? In the US we would assume a conservative rate of 7%

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

#310

Post by shanecleveland »

defulmere wrote: post #230

Currently self-employed with a web hosting company started with some former colleagues when the company we used to work for was bought out and shut down. We were fortunate to be included in a list of alternate providers that the old company gave to their customers and had an early influx of a couple thousand customers. As a result we've got a ton of customers who we've been working with for 16+ years. I handle the cu…

Happy customer here!
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