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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?

#141

Post by edcrfv »

I graduated out of school in 2010 May.

I have been trying doing a lot of freelance gigs that range around $500 - $2000 (5 such gigs)

Plus a lot of small stuff ranging from $50 - $100 (2 each every fortnight)

I pick up work from ODesk, and some other sites like ScriptLance and also know some clients via private contacts.

I'm looking to move into per hour billing from fixed price. Anybody made that exact transition yet? And how do you talk to your existing clients when you want to make the switch?

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

#142

Post by dytrivedi »

I was very much into freelancing until I joined my full time job since last 3 months.

I started out with $10/hour (in India) and was up to $50/hour which made me some decent money. I usually charged hourly as estimates are fragile (even after a lot of experience). It used to come to around $30000/year (considering some 600 hours of work yearly). Adjusting lifestyle, that is equivalent or more, compared to $100K in the US.

Work areas - Front End Dev., JS, iOS Apps.

Me - http://about.me/dytrivedi http://advancewith.us/stuff/Resume.pdf

PS: Clients pay for quality work/code. Don't hesitate to raise rates if you think you're worth. Can be determined by demand.

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

#143

Post by scoot »

chops wrote: post #80
sc00ter wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the basic thesis of Earn1K - the "I will teach you to be rich" course. I won't link here, as it's commercial, but the blog is worth a look even if you're not a paying customer.

I won't link here, as it's commercial What's wrong with linking a commercial product or course? This is a discussion about making money on a website with a strong slant towards making money by starting and running businesses.

http://www.google.co.uk/#q=i+will+teach+you+too+be+rich

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

#144

Post by danenania »

mdolon wrote: post #51
helpmehelpyou wrote: post #33

Where/how do you find these freelance gigs?

I'd say 85%+ of the better paying gigs I've gotten have been through existing connections and people I've known. For instance, a college friend started a new business and needed a site - he contacted and ended up hiring me. His partner then referred me to his friend, who also hired me for a project. Word of mouth can be pivotal in building a business so my first suggestion would be to explore your own social circle.…

Same story here. Partner and I did a fairly complex micro-lending platform for a non-profit as our first major gig. Some of the work was pro-bono, some $35/hour range. We did well, gave them what they needed, and now we're booked with clients for the next six months from referrals and others who wanted to work with us based on that site. We've moved comfortably into the $60-80 range with pretty clear indications that we can keep pushing it higher.

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

#146

Post by jules »

_delirium wrote: post #114
dotBen wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is capitalism 101. Funny thing is, my parents (who are both near-retirement service providers in their own professions) won't adopt such a model in either direction (raising their rates or decreasing their rates based on workload). They also just recently chastised my brother (who is in his mid-20s) for doing an arbitrage play where he could get a plentiful supply of iPad 2's on discount and sell them above mark…

Most of my generally very pro-market older relatives are actually kind of squeamish about that sort of thing, oddly enough. They're probably more libertarian on government and regulation than most younger people I know, but much stronger on a "fair price for fair work" sort of ethic, where they look down on arbitrage-type plays, and on charging too high markup above cost + moderate profit. To them, running an "honest…

My parents are very much left wing but have no problem with arbitrage (unless you rely on people's lack of knowledge or on their stupidity to pull it off) or charging market prices.

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

#147

Post by jamii »

thirdusername wrote: post #137

More often than not: $0. :D I mean they are supposed to pay me in the $200-1600 range, but actually getting clients to fork up money for a completed job is difficult, to the point where I'm ready to give up and get a regular job. I don't generally do jobs for less than $200 though. It takes times to do research, switch environmental and your head around, but clients sometimes think I'm a typist and should only be pai…

You really need a better class of client. A couple of things that I have learned: 1) you are more likely to get paid by big companies because the person writing the cheque isn't spending their own money, 2) you are more likely to get paid by people you meet face-to-face because its easier to be an asshole over the internet, 3) bizarrely you are more likely to get paid if you charge more because it weeds out all the penny pinchers. The last one is really important. Just by charging more you put yourself in a different market, one which is generally more professional.

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

#148

Post by nolite »

Loic wrote: post #101
mohsen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that brings up a question for me. when you say $15K/2weeks, is that for a task that can be accomplished by a single person (2x40h), or do you have to break the job up amongst other people?

Just me, it is usually complex stuff where only one person or two in tandem can do the work. I would be pleased to be able to offload some of the work to other people, but it is hard to find people having the right skills — the niche effect, few skilled people.

I'm pretty niche.. can I write you?

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

#149

Post by ashconnor »

naner wrote: post #110
patio11 wrote: post #25

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.

Like $40 million for a simple paywall.

That doesn't work.

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

#150

Post by mattdeboard »

dools wrote: post #106

This poll seems to be doin it rong. I couldn't put a single figure on it and say "I won't get out of bed for less than this" because so long as my hourly rate is satisfactory, I'll do 30 minutes work and bill someone for it. I work out my hourly rate like this: There are about 219 work days in a year after leave and entitlements. As a freelancer I'll probably stay billable 3/5 of those and on average I can hope for 6…

So long as your timesheeting, invoicing and accounting systems aren't drastically inefficient (ie. you can raise, issue and track an invoice in under 5 minutes)...

What systems do you recommend? Excel spreadsheet for tracking + invoice template is really inefficient for me.

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