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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?

#71

Post by zerr »

chirau wrote: post #9
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…

Is it better to charge per project or per hour?

Per day, week (better), month (even better) - and it should NOT be assumed that you work "full-time" (i.e. 8h per day). With this setup - you untie your work from exact hours spent, and retain the flexibility of adding more days/weeks/months to the bill if there is more work than expected.

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

#72

Post by raverbashing »

japhyr wrote: post #66
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…

I live in a small remote town, and I'm very unlikely to find an accountant familiar with tech work here. Any advice on finding a good accountant remotely?

I'd say try the biggest city close to you.

You might not want an out of state accountant unless they're familiar with the peculiarities of your state (or even city)

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

#73

Post by rmetzler »

super-serial wrote: post #20

I tried freelance and realized I hate it more than any other type of programming work. I can tolerate being an employee where I do what I'm told. After a month I get a feel for the environment so it becomes low stress and then I can keep my head down programming. Or I can tolerate selling software or having a SaaS. If I'm CEO I decide the direction of the product and then just have to handle customer support. But the…

I never had problems finding a job, but I was really bad at finding good clients.

I especially hate, when I've been brought in for my expertise and I tell them what they should do with the least risk and best outcome and they refuse, because no. I realize there might be some important technical constraint I might not know about, but most of the time they just want to respect something their boss said once, some constraint that wasn't that important at all but makes my work 10x more complicated.

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

#74

Post by rightbyte »

zerr wrote: post #70
FpUser wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once charged $20,000 for 3 days worth of work. Happened like this: one very huge phone company wanted some very specific self contained component written in Java. They shopped around and did not find anyone willing to do it. My friend was working there and told them that he knows that genius consultant (yours truly). So they called me up and during negotiations I told them that I will do it for $20,000. I was prepa…

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

They are probably swamped with processes, fires and Scrum meetings so the developers have no agent to just concentrate and do something.

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

#77

Post by neurostimulant »

mehrdadn wrote: post #53

Related question (especially to those saying you should've charged more): how do you start consulting in software engineering? Like where do you advertise and expose your talent to potential clients who would pay at a rate that you think is worth it?

In my case, I start by telling my friends and people I was working with that I'm now available for consulting gigs. Eventually, one person (who know my works) recommended me to their friends. I did some projects for them, and they like my works so they recommend me to their friends, and so on.

My wife also like to talk about what I do to her clients (she was a consultant working on a big consulting company, different field), leading to more projects.

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

#79

Post by PopeDotNinja »

zerr wrote: post #70
FpUser wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once charged $20,000 for 3 days worth of work. Happened like this: one very huge phone company wanted some very specific self contained component written in Java. They shopped around and did not find anyone willing to do it. My friend was working there and told them that he knows that genius consultant (yours truly). So they called me up and during negotiations I told them that I will do it for $20,000. I was prepa…

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 know a lot about Erlang & Elixir, but almost none of my daily work now would lead me to learn what I know. Some things are probably 3 days of work if you know it, and 3 months of work if you don't.

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

#80

Post by londons_explore »

raverbashing wrote: post #68
dwelch2344 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make it part of your policy and very clearly disclose it up front while explaining the why. If they push back, concede by letting them pay for the non-refundable tickets up front then

Exactly this. Either bill them in advance or have them purchase your ticket in advance . Any major travel expense shouldn't be on your dime unless you're very acquainted with the customer.

Do you actually forward receipts to the client and have them pay to the cent?

I always find it easier to just have a fixed line item for "travel to client events", and usually I end up coming out ahead by a substantial margin by not booking fancy hotels.

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