why not start a side project but doing freelance / consulting? Contract work can take up a lot of time and energy.
Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
41–50 of 77 posts
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#42The requirements to start as a freelancer, in any kind of economic climate: * You have an accountant * You are not afraid to draw up a contract * Have a skill that has higher demand than supply and will remain so for a foreseeable time * Have worked on paid side projects a few times * One existing customer is interested in hiring you for 3 months (worth of money) or more Ensure you set aside 50% of which 2/3rds for t…
I was working full time on a side project a week and a half ago, when a former boss approached with a client he couldn’t service who urgently needed a developer with my skill set. I negotiated a higher rate and now am working full time for them.
I don’t have any accountant, no contract. They will either pay me or it’s back to my side project.
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
A previous employer cut everyone's salary by 20% during the dot-com bust and I've heard the 20% figure thrown around quite a bit over the past month--with or without a reduction in hours. It seems to be a figure that a lot of companies settle on as a significant cost savings in the aggregate while not being such a big cut that (most) people can no longer afford to pay their bills or otherwise feel forced to just walk…
The 20% number comes from the expected revenue hit companies are looking at. Honestly, they're doing it because they can get away with it right now. What do you want to bet that many of these 20% salary reductions will be permanent? In my view, these companies can fuck right off. They're not paying their workers more when they have a great quarter, so why should they pay people less when things aren't going well? I s…
The reduction in pay comes with a reduction in workload. Which means that for most companies adopting the 20% paycut, they are also transitioning into a 4-day work week. Its hardly a related to some corporate greed trying to squeeze their workers, but a sign of desperate measures for desperate times.
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#44Contract work has been under attack by IR35, fortunately this has been postponed by a year. These are uncertain times. A lot of contractors have moved back to permie and competition is high. You can try to obtain a 6 or 12 month contract if you have a decent stack of emergency cash (e.g. £25k) lying around. I wouldn't overanalyze it. Try to see your options out there. If you can get 3 contract offers in 1 month, then…
Just my anecdata - I've been trying to start freelancing after an aborted roud-the-world trip. I've moonlighted in the past and have a decent, if generic resume (FAANG, popular tech stacks). I've been looking for about a month now and have had two good proposals fall through, with three others being considered. The two that fell through were squarely due to COVID - businesses being ruled non-essential mid negotiation.
So far it feels tough, but doable. If I go another month without a good project, I may consider going back to W2.
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#45From my experience in the last 2 months, companies are scaling back their IT projects now. Got several contracts that were supposed to start later this year and they were canceled. So there will be more competition for less bread. But you can try.
Counter to that, a lot of companies are scaling up their web/mobile presence and offerings because they can't let their customers into the building. I'm a contract programmer and business is arguably booming.
What market segments are you seeing this in?
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#46The requirements to start as a freelancer, in any kind of economic climate: * You have an accountant * You are not afraid to draw up a contract * Have a skill that has higher demand than supply and will remain so for a foreseeable time * Have worked on paid side projects a few times * One existing customer is interested in hiring you for 3 months (worth of money) or more Ensure you set aside 50% of which 2/3rds for t…
Huh. I know a lot of people who did almost none of this and freelanced their way into successful businesses. Why is having an accountant necessary? Where I live, even simple books from the office supply store and basic tax software will tell you what you need to know as a beginner. Personally I operated my business just fine for 15 years without an accountant. Drawing up a contract, similar, but here I would certainl…
>Drawing up a contract, similar, but here I would certainly mention that you can also consult a professional if needed, like a business consultant or attorney. You can also write a letter contract and communicate well enough that contracts don't matter that much in the end, which is the case for a lot of freelancers, guessing the majority.
Having had to take legal action against multiple clients, I assure you that it really does matter in the end.
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#47Just anecdotally, I've been hearing from friends that work from Upwork hasn't been affected from COVID. I think platforms like Upwork/Fiverr might even be more enticing for employers during recessions. Of course the pay there is not very competitive, but just giving you 1 data point.
personally on upwork i have noticed a decrease in "good" job postings and an increase in proposals. anecdotal. but i think it's a mistake to assume that any business has not been fundamentally affected by covid in some way.
I'm sure it's also going to become a buyer's market, so the prices will drop. Does Upwork have a "UK only" option? I know they have a "US only" option, where you can bypass alot of the worst projects and the race to the bottom.
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#48It depends on your clients. Don't put all your eggs in one basket which I did. My two current clients in Germany are heavily invested in the automotive industry. They have everything on stop for the manufacturing and their software department is not working their full 100% capacity. On the other side, I hear lots of good news from people who are bringing physical services to the web. The digital revolution is just st…
> bringing physical services to the web What does that mean?
I presume companies who would never have considered online are being forced to rethink their position. For example, I take Pilates and my instructor quickly rethought how to do the exercises in order to continue remote sessions. Now that she's done that work, her clients in the future will not be limited to the local area.
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#49I say (from experience) during hard times is the best time to start. You will not be lured into massive fixed costs and start with the absolute minimum and required, which you can scale up when your business start flying. As long as you start tight, you will stand a good change.
What fixed costs would a freelancer have?
- an accountant
- web hosting
- email service
- company phone
Re: Ask HN: In the current crisis is starting freelancing doable?
#50If you have to ask this, then just don’t