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Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

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Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#21

Post by dkersten »

Loic wrote: post #18

Working in the chemical engineering area. Hard science + all the cool technologies you can read on HN => Fun + money. Usually a contract starts at $15k (2 weeks) and goes up to 2 months of work on average. I always advice people to go the hard science way if they like computer science, because there is a really big big lack of people being good at both. I should write about it.

If you ever get a chance, please do, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I've thought about going into a hard science industry but never did anything about it because 1) I'm not really qualified in the science side, my skills/experience/qualifications are in computer science and 2) I don't really know how to get started.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#22

Post by billpaetzke »

Loic wrote: post #18

Working in the chemical engineering area. Hard science + all the cool technologies you can read on HN => Fun + money. Usually a contract starts at $15k (2 weeks) and goes up to 2 months of work on average. I always advice people to go the hard science way if they like computer science, because there is a really big big lack of people being good at both. I should write about it.

I should write about it.

Please do.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#24

Post by kaisdavis »

fsipie wrote: post #15

Two simple iPhone apps at £500 and £900. One freebie one which brings in £15/month. Need to charge more!

This is the advice I offer to all of my freelancing friends and repeat to myself every morning: "Whatever I'm charging, I should double it."

There's a limit on that school of thought, but if have the option of 2 freelancing contacts at X, or 1 at 2x, I prefer to focus on one client at a higher price point.

I figured out my starting freelance rate by taking my per-hour salary from my day job and doubling it. Then, whenever I had too many clients at that price level (generally 2+ back-to-back) I increased my rate by 50% to 100%.

This has worked great for me through multiple iterations. As my portfolio, contacts, and experience grows, so does my rate. I'm left earning a good amount for my freelance work, and have the luxury of turning down work that isn't paying enough or is too much of a hassle to coordinate.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#25

Post by patio11 »

One lesson I learned this year as a newbie consultant: there is a heck of a lot of dynamic range in that top bucket. It's like software: even if everyone you know pays $5 or $10 or $30 for software, don't necessarily let that set your expectations, because software can get arbitrarily expensive.

Re: Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

#26

Post by mdolon »

I found that I had been undercharging for the past few years when quoting projects. While my hourly rate had been fine (around $75 for design, $100 for programming), my estimation of how many hours a project would take was always way off. I guess the assumption I made was "no one would pay a lot of money for a website," and so I typically got tedious lower-end clients that were much more work than they were worth.

The last few projects I've gotten average to about $7k each and are about 1-2 months in duration. The highest I've gotten is $10k for a 2 month design and development gig, working very casually over that time (enough time to work on other projects freely). I'm now learning that people are willing to pay for high quality work and consistent/reliable communication.

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