Ask HN: How do you find freelance work?

Thank you for the reply.

I have had repeat customers through the service I work for. It's a completely different ecosystem and doesn't translate to external clients. I like working for the service and I don't plan to leave it, but I want to also develop outside clientele.

Assume that trying to get clients outside that platform is a recent effort that I haven't pursued too hard, in part because I don't know how.

Screw friend-work. No offense to friends - but if you need to build a business, and you need to build a new lifestyle for yourself, the last thing you need to do is charity work for someone else's profit. I've personally spurned friend-work, and it happened right around the time I was being dragged into 'friendly' conference calls at 11 am Saturday mornings and I was too 'friendly' to bill for that.

I think you did it wrong and became jaded. If you're suffering weekends and nights and sacrificing your life, it should be:

a) temporary - temp project, crunch time

or

b) an investment - this client/person will really appreciate it, and be a great networking point / reference / future source of work

and

c) it should be worth your time money-wise. The whole point of freelancing is 'time is money.' At the end of it, you should have nice savings, and during it, the sound of gold coins clinging together rings in your mind's ear.

More on point C. When you're an FTE, you're owned (at least in the U.S. [and the UK!]) by the employer. Weekends, nights, releases, problems, those things will impact you outside the 9 to 5 in any serious job. No overtime pay. There's some stuff about mission and dedication and other platitudes, and in some industries bonuses, but other than that - no overtime paid out for your suffering. If you complain, that makes you a naughty person, etc. and so forth, so you have to suppress complaining about such things.

However, as a freelancer time is money, and you sell that time, you exchange your labor time for cash in the bank. And you tax deduct some of the conveniences, like transportation/taxis and (depending on 2018 tax changes and interpretation) meals too. You might also tax deduct that standing desk you wanted, a new laptop, etc. - things that make you work better.

If you 'lost' nights and weekends then I'm afraid something went wrong. What if your rate was double? What if it didn't take up 40% of your normal job?

I disagree about opportunity cost, which is of course subjective. For me, opportunity cost was slaving away in corporate cubicle farms and getting dragged into meetings (30-50% of my time) rather than jumping around companies and learning cool new tech.

As a general rule, I never do business with friends and family. If a friend asks for technical help, and I am able, I'd do it for free without commitment, but no way I'm sacrificing relationships for a job.

It's an excellent question.

I'm learning that now.

Basically it boils down to either

1. Using job boards / LinkedIn and going through recruiters, many of whom have a contract department.

Here's the problem. Many recruiters misrepresent to YOU what the client requirement is. I found myself in situations where the client was interested but all along they wanted a temp-to-hire / contract-to-hire (do NOT do this on principle even if you are gunning for full time work!), while I seek pure contracts / long-term contracts.

Here's the bigger problem. Recruiters / agencies take a huge cut. We're talking 40-60% or more. So if you want 120 bucks an hour, the client would see a bill for 180 an hour.

Let's take a step back and think about that. If the client is ready to pay close to 180 or a bit below, that means that you can charge a much higher rate than 120. You can charge, say, 140, and still the client is happy with the cost.

But it's very difficult because this requires relationships with senior people in companies. This brings me to number 2.

2. Networking. I don't think here we're talking about going to a Meetup or a tech conference and flashing business cards. Maybe that'll work (please tell me it worked for someone and I'll do it). What it REALLY means is all those managers of your past, those people you really got along with in those jobs you had in the past (and you DID have a bunch of jobs in the past, right, hopefully not just one!), those people are potential sources of contract. Some hiring managers can convince their managers they need a contractor -- I did it as a hiring manager once, and one of my ex-bosses did it to re-hire me.

I think LinkedIn is the Facebook of the business world for that. While in Facebook you have to suffer people's baby pics and food pictures so that friends and family don't forget your exist, in LinkedIn you suffer platitudes about hard work and Leadership and Important Thoughts -- so that your ex co-workers and employers don't forget you exist.

I tried using HN and people I knew personally for tiny, one-off, small projects and it was a total nightmare. Inconsistent, cheap, and a lot of overhead. There's so much talking and meeting and phone calls and such for which I never billed, for work that never materialized or (might still/will) materialize.

Networking is key and I'd love to hear some tips here!

Isn't that exactly what cold calling is?