Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of hourly rates can you expect to find on Top Tal?
Definitely a lot higher than on Upwork, on average.
That's not a high bar though.
Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
41–50 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#42> Edit: I've savings already as I plan to buy a new home (I'm in Argentina, we buy it cash, no mortgage). I need three more months of salary to accomplish the home budget.
This is a significant last-minute edit. There's a lot of good advice throughout this thread, but I would suggest waiting until you've completed the home purchase and settled in before considering the jumping to freelance. It's only a few more months and you'll have a much better understanding of any issues and unexpected expenses of the new home.
Beyond that, you need to make sure that you can do the process of networking, selling your services, cultivating a pipeline of clients, and collecting from clients who don't pay on time. Doing the work is only half of the battle when you're a freelancer. If you don't excel at the business side, you might not enjoy it after you run out of immediate contacts with work for you to do.
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#43I would advise you to find a partner who is also a data engineer/scientist and team up, it would be much easier also to share the workload, ideally even someone with network will bring in some new clients.
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#4415 year+ consultant through my own company with recurring clients and more work than I can handle (and no interest in delegating or growing) Never needed to network. Don't have to market myself. Never had or needed a full time position and never been short of work. Get to know good recruiters who have streams of contract work with goal based outcomes. Learn how the contracts are managed by middle men and understand w…
Why work with recruiters at all? They’ll charge 30-50% over your rate. They provide zero value besides the initial contact. Their overhead impacts your negotiation leverage for a higher rate.
Recruiters typically charge approximately 10% in the markets I am familiar with.
They also act as a free sales force and have supplier agreements with end clients. These are very hard to secure directly for one man bands.
I would argue that it's not really consulting or running your own business if you are working through a recruiter. It's more akin to short term employment. That may be fine for your aims however.
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#45I 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…
how different are WMS and ERP?
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#46> Edit: I've savings already as I plan to buy a new home (I'm in Argentina, we buy it cash, no mortgage). I need three more months of salary to accomplish the home budget. This is a significant last-minute edit. There's a lot of good advice throughout this thread, but I would suggest waiting until you've completed the home purchase and settled in before considering the jumping to freelance. It's only a few more month…
This is true. I can't speak to the process of buying a home in Argentina but buying a house and moving is a significant change, and leaving your job to go self-employed is another significant change.
Finish the home project before you commit to the self-employment project. Your full-time job is a safety net you won't have when you first go contract.
No harm in putting feelers out meanwhile though, networking and making yourself known in relevant circles. Worst case is that you end up with more full-time job prospects and not freelance ones.
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#47I'm in a similar boat (worse actually, since I'm on a visa) so I can't give specific advice, but @patio11 [1] greatly encouraged me to consider freelance/consulting as a career path.
I am going through the grind of prepping for the tech interview all over again, and it just occurred to me that I might be approaching this from the wrong angle. If instead of spending all these hours every day solving leetcode problems or trying to "grok" the system design interview, I spent them networking and building a portfolio, it might result in a much better ROI.
But alas, my visa status doesn't allow me to do anything either way. Maybe one day.
[1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/17/ramit-sethi-and-patrick...
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#48Freelance is a very different thing than actual consulting by the way
What I mean is working for a consulting firm is substantially different than what you do as a freelancer.
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#49[dead]
Who sets the rates on Toptal? I was going to use lemon.io but they cap out at $100usd an hour. Not worth my time.
You (the consultant) sets the rate you get paid. Toptal adds a secret margin on top of that which is what the client pays.
I haven't done Toptal in a while, but my rate was always higher than that. I got pushback from from Toptal's internal recruiters whenever I asked to increase my rate and a few of their clients did turn me down due to the rate. But I never backed down and it never took more than a few weeks between starting applying to jobs on Toptal to signing a contract.
I wouldn't want to depend on Toptal for my income. But it's great as a way to fill in between other engagements if you're firm with your rate and the kind of work you want.
Re: Ask HN: When to make the jump to freelance/consultant?
#50Freelance is a very different thing than actual consulting by the way What I mean is working for a consulting firm is substantially different than what you do as a freelancer.
That depends, it's like saying a software engineer is different from a programmer. Can be true, or it can just be a different term for the same type of thing.