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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?

#91

Post by rwmj »

I thought "I'm a great programmer so I'll be a great programmer-consultant". In fact they are two separate sets of skills, and if you don't have the soft skills around consultancy like networking for clients, dealing with payments, and smoothing things over when they occasionally go wrong, you'll need to acquire those skills.

Also get a good accountant. There are lots of terrible accountants. Literally I had one who forgot to file my tax return - you had one job! - and I ended up paying a huge fine for his incompetence then trying to sue him to get it back.

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

#92

Post by sevencolors »

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…

> - Stop trying to go above-and-beyond all the time. Do what you were brought in to do, and do it exceptionally well. If other opportunities come up, suggest them as follow-on projects instead of just doing extra stuff for free.

This so much. I used to waste hours doing small things (for free) that the client may never even notice. Just because it bothered me personally. Stick to the contracted list of things .

This isn't to say do a half-assed job, but deliver what was promised

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

#93

Post by ngcazz »

chrsstrm wrote: post #31
chirau wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it better to charge per project or per hour?

Per project is dangerous. Consulting clients will change their minds frequently and you'll want to give them the latitude to do so, which means you simply can't estimate the time needed to complete a project without adding X00% on top to compensate. No one wants to have the "this is out of scope, I'm happy to do it but we need to talk about an amendment..." conversation. Per hour is not adequate for this type of work…

> Saying yes too fast means you need to charge more.

In this instance what’s the tactic to increase the price you’re quoting the client? Are they not going to think it’s weird you’ve changed your mind about the price?

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

#94

Post by antaviana »

londons_explore wrote: post #80
raverbashing wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Be careful. If you do that with a public administration client, you might end up charged for embezzlement.

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

#95

Post by jitendrac »

Not full time freelancer, but I made many and still make some those includes

-Not charging enough.

-Spending less time to find client

-Not specifying Time required to complete task

-I have micro-experience of many platform and business specific task, but despite knowing its is rare to find such developer I always forget to charge enough.

-Taking fixed price for project with ambiguous scope like firing on own leg.

-Not to know when to refuse to do something

and many more.

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

#96

Post by psv1 »

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…

Nice. These are also great tips for people in permanent roles.

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

#97

Post by threwawasy1228 »

epc wrote: post #40

Didn't charge enough. Didn't market. Didn't network. Didn't constantly hustle for clients. Didn't outsource scut work. Didn't down tools when clients were slow to pay. Didn't develop/maintain a backlog of client work. Didn't reject fixed price contracts. Didn't renegotiate when projects changed beyond contracted scope. Didn't filter free consults against probability they'd turn into a contract. Didn't have my heart i…

What did your hustling for clients consist of? Like I get the pounding the network pavement, everyone recommends that, but beyond that I never really get what it is that people do. Like do you just cold call people or do you entirely go through your network? What specific situations do you place yourself in where you can hustle up work?

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

#98

Post by daxfohl »

Got too attached to my project.

Your project isn't yours, it's your client's. I turned down better paying work because I had become so invested in the code. I was afraid to ask for a raise for the same reason. Finally my client stopped needing more features and that was that.

Your code is just a means to an end. Don't get attached to it or to a client. You are running a business. Keep good relationships, but be ready and able to cut ties.

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

#100

Post by o-__-o »

londons_explore wrote: post #80
raverbashing wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Depends what the contract says. I've had a client tell me to use expensify and call it a day. I've had to manage travel as part of a fixed price bid. I've just had to bill for travel as a line item on a T&M.

The bottom line is on your end, you should be capturing receipts, you should be logging costs per project, and you should be providing all this data to an accountant for a nice quarterly rollup.

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