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Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

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Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

#11

Post by nocubicles »

cableshaft wrote: post #9
nocubicles wrote: post #6

I just started this today actually. Today is the first day where I am no longer employeed by any company and will need to find my own customers, invoice them etc. My field is ERP development and consultation. I have 10+ years experience in the field and I was working for a consultation company. But on the same time I would always get messages on Linkedin from recruiters and at some point I thought I should give it a…

Sounds like you got freelance work from recruiters contacting you for full-time job opportunities. How did you ask them about that, out of curiosity?

I always told them that i'm not looking full time but only part time but that only did work once I think. Most success came from building a small persona online, participating in the discussions, networking on Discords/Twitter and then the opportunities came.

Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

#12

Post by NiagaraThistle »

cableshaft wrote: post #9
nocubicles wrote: post #6

I just started this today actually. Today is the first day where I am no longer employeed by any company and will need to find my own customers, invoice them etc. My field is ERP development and consultation. I have 10+ years experience in the field and I was working for a consultation company. But on the same time I would always get messages on Linkedin from recruiters and at some point I thought I should give it a…

Sounds like you got freelance work from recruiters contacting you for full-time job opportunities. How did you ask them about that, out of curiosity?

I've done this - with Web Development, but still got projects this way. I just responded to the recruiter or directly to the company if I had their info, and stated my background, my rate, and asked if they were interested in working with my in a contractor capacity. It's gone very well, and I have several ongoing contracts from this process.

Basically just state that you are interested in the work, but not the current agreement and see if the company is open to hiring you as a contractor. If your experience is good and viewable/provable, they probably will be. And Bonus points if you are a good communicator and timely with such and delivering deadlines - many contractors are not and companies/recruiters get burned by them and those who ARE dependable are worth their weight in gold to companies.

Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

#13

Post by chrisa »

I did the same thing several years ago (left my job once I had 2 clients). I was also worried, but it turned out just fine. It's true that it will take a bit of work to get clients, but it becomes easier and easier as you go. Your current clients may know others, etc.

I have two big pieces of advice:

1. What other comments here say about money and runway is definitely true. It can be common to go a bit without clients - and even once you find a new one it might take 30 days for the project to start, then maybe you bill after the first 30 days, then it takes them 30 days to pay - that's 3 months from the time you found them to when you get the first money coming in! So make sure you account for that.

2. Have something you can point to which says "this is what I do, and why I'm good at it". In my case it was an ebook, but it could be a white paper, or sample projects, etc - but you need something that "tells a story" to the clients that you can do the job.

And good luck! It's scary to take the jump, but also very rewarding :)

Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

#15

Post by ushercakes »

I would really advise heavily against just separating freelance/full time as black and white, one at a time.

Really, it should be a slow transition - you work full time, you take up 1-2 freelance clients on the side. As you start to get more clients on the side, and you see a clear path to replacing your income, then you can make that jump.

If you just make the jump as a clear break, it totally can work, it does all the time. But it's just a bit riskier, and it adds a lot more weight and pressure to get deals, which can lead to a situation where you charge less than you are actually worth.

Btw, in my profile, the site I run is for freelancers to basically share their hourly rates. It's essentially levels.fyi for for consultants. May or may not be helpful to you at this stage of your journey

TLDR: - Keep your job, start taking clients on the side - Once you have enough clients and you see a clear path to replacing your FT income, quit and take the leap

Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

#18

Post by dadro »

Every scenario is going to be different, I took the plunge as a software consultant and can provide some datapoints.

I was laid off from my job as a software engineer about 5 years ago. I had previously worked in software consulting and knew the operating model and had a handful of potential clients. I had some savings and my wife works full time so I decided to give it a go for 6 months to see how it would go. I partnered with a colleague who was also laid off and had same appetite for risk as I did.

  * The first year was a grind, especially doing the non-technical tasks like networking/business development/invoicing/etc. 
  * We ended up being profitable on year 1, I made less than my previous gig as a lead engineer. We grew from 2 of us to having 1 FTE and 3-4 dev contractors in year 1. 
  * Keep in touch with engineers you liked working with, hiring is WAY harder than I expected. If you decide to grow, you will need a team for larger contracts. 
  * Business development is largely a numbers game, you have to get out of your comfort zone and talk to a lot of people/companies and get on their radar. 
  * One of our first non-technical hires was business development. We did this when we hit $1mm/yr rev. 
  * Being in a niche can be helpful if you are able to explain your value prop AND to differentiate yourself.
  * Don't view other consulting firms as competition. We've formed some great relationships with other companies that align with our engineering process and refer work when we have too much and get work when they have too much.
Over the last 5 years we grew from 2 "founders" (along with some former colleagues as contractors) to about ~40 employees (80% FTE's/20% contractors) all remote, US based. In hindsight, I think my favorite size was when we were ~8 people. It was big enough to take on 1-2 large-ish contracts, but less stress in keeping pipeline full. The risk tolerance for having a 6 figure payroll every 2 weeks is not for everyone!

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Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?

#20

Post by nicolas_t »

fhd2 wrote: post #3

I personally took the plunge, with enough savings to make it several months until the first invoice is paid. Some clients pay on time, some don't, some go bankrupt or just drag it out infinitely, from what I've seen. Without that kind of savings (and being comfortable with watching them meld away for a while, taking the risk that you might not recover them), I would suggest to try to find a safe way to experiment wit…

With regards to clients not paying on time or going bankrupt, one data point, after being freenlance for 18 years, I have lost about 3% to unpaid work, conflicts with clients etc... Besides this, I've had quite a few clients who have been late (up to 3 months)

When I first started, I remember researching a lot and reading that to expect 5% loss as a rule of thumb and have enough runway to last a year without income, I think that's a good rule to keep in mind.

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