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My first month freelancing

alanhollis.com

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Re: My first month freelancing

#21

Post by nohup »

Great to hear about your progress.

I have been freelancing for the past 4 years and have done so for 6 years in my programming life of 11 years. All said and done, I find doing a honest job in estimation, no over billing and writing code to the best of your ability is the key to success.

Documenting your own knowledge helps a lot. Knowing what is the latest and greatest, even if you have never tried it helps in keeping your client informed about their choices.

Not living in your comfort zone is the best thing you can do to yourself. What I mean is, don't give your clients what you know, give them what is good for them even if that means you have to learn a new tool/trick/language.

Maintain a healthy pipeline, it helps in keeping the stress down.

On a day to day basis freelancing is more stressful then a regular job, but on an average over a month or quarter you will find it to be more relaxing and it lets have more time for yourself.

Best of luck.

Re: My first month freelancing

#22

Post by Alan01252 »

ilija139 wrote: post #20

So you actually only worked for 7 days? (£1,785.25 / 250 ~ 7) Also you say you entered a programming competition, can you share which and why you chose that one?

A bit more than than that, unfortunately I haven't got exactly £250 from every client so far. And finding work, is work ;). I have had to negotiate as it's early days, and work for a reduced rate is better than no work. I haven't yet taken the first offer any company has offered me though, hence my advice in the post to negotiate.

I entered a competition ran by a company supporting http://siliconmilkroundabout.com/, purely because the competition appealed to me, I had some free time, and I thought it would be a good way of promoting myself before the event. Unfortunately the competition wasn't as successful as I hoped it would be (very few entries). I came second overall, it's another example of work on my github profile, and I got to play with Python for the fist time, so it was a positive experience.

Re: My first month freelancing

#24

Post by sant0sk1 »

tptacek wrote: post #7

People want to pay you hourly/per project, convince them it’s better for both you and them to pay you daily. I’ll explain why in a future post. I've burned many thousands of words here arguing the same point and will hopefully be able to spare you all a retread, so let me just say that I think a lot of good habits and useful dynamics emerge organically from this one decision. If you make no other careful strategic de…

I've brought up daily billing to a few potential clients and am always met with resistance to the idea.

I've instead tried structuring my fees to promote long-term engagements.

So I have an hourly rate (highest), day rate (little lower), week rate (little lower), and month rate (lowest). This is working out okay so far, but it sure requires a lot of explaining up front and I'm probably losing out on potential income for longer engagements.

The key is to have your lowest rate still be something that you're willing to work at, or the whole system falls apart.

Has anybody else tried a similar rate strategy? How'd it go for you?

Re: My first month freelancing

#25

Post by marcamillion »

I will ask a question here that I wrote on the original link, because I think it may be useful for others here.

I recently started freelancing (the last 12 - 18months) also, and one thing I did - to generate new business - was wrote a script that sends me a bunch of leads. Right now, it's primarily from Craigslist, but I will add other sources.

I showed it to a friend and fellow web dev and he loved it. So that made me start wondering if others would find a service like that useful.

Would you pay, say $9/mo, to get a handful of curated Craigslist leads (5 - 10) sent to your inbox every weekday?

Thanks.

P.S. The reason I would sell access to these leads is because I can't manage everything. There are some leads that want someone local, there are some that want say an iPhone or FB App developer - none of which I do.

Re: My first month freelancing

#26

Post by marcamillion »

tptacek wrote: post #7

People want to pay you hourly/per project, convince them it’s better for both you and them to pay you daily. I’ll explain why in a future post. I've burned many thousands of words here arguing the same point and will hopefully be able to spare you all a retread, so let me just say that I think a lot of good habits and useful dynamics emerge organically from this one decision. If you make no other careful strategic de…

Do you mean 'quoting' daily, or 'billing' daily?

There is a major difference. The main one being that if 'bill daily' you are putting a burden on your client to have to think about paying you every single day. At some point, it becomes annoying.

Thoughts?

Re: My first month freelancing

#27

Post by alinajaf »

marcamillion wrote: post #25

I will ask a question here that I wrote on the original link, because I think it may be useful for others here. I recently started freelancing (the last 12 - 18months) also, and one thing I did - to generate new business - was wrote a script that sends me a bunch of leads. Right now, it's primarily from Craigslist, but I will add other sources. I showed it to a friend and fellow web dev and he loved it. So that made…

It would depend entirely on the quality of the leads, though I'd definitely sign up for a one month free trial to test it out.

Many a thing like this exist, both paid and free. Jobpile has netted me some work in the past.

Jobpile: http://www.artypapers.com/jobpile/

Re: My first month freelancing

#28

Post by tptacek »

sant0sk1 wrote: post #24
tptacek wrote: post #7

People want to pay you hourly/per project, convince them it’s better for both you and them to pay you daily. I’ll explain why in a future post. I've burned many thousands of words here arguing the same point and will hopefully be able to spare you all a retread, so let me just say that I think a lot of good habits and useful dynamics emerge organically from this one decision. If you make no other careful strategic de…

I've brought up daily billing to a few potential clients and am always met with resistance to the idea. I've instead tried structuring my fees to promote long-term engagements. So I have an hourly rate (highest), day rate (little lower), week rate (little lower), and month rate (lowest). This is working out okay so far, but it sure requires a lot of explaining up front and I'm probably losing out on potential income…

There are two common consulting arrangements in which a customer gets a discount for a commitment.

The first is a retainer. Retainer hours come at a significant discount because they might not get used, but are billed regardless.

The second is long-term forward-looking commitment. A monthly rate is at the short side of long-term commitment; a multi-month project feels like a more typical discounted commitment.

You should not discount for daily or weekly commitments. Daily and weekly rates are industry standard. When you offer a discount on a daily rate, you are effectively communicating a willingness to negotiate your underlying rate.

If there's a second strategic decision I want to urge everyone to make, it is "NEVER NEGOTIATE YOUR RATE". With a savvy customer, you will never get any concession on your rate back; once you establish a new floor, that floor is likely to remain there forever. This is the case at big companies and small ones, but be aware that this is such a common dynamic that Fortune 500 companies have people whose performance is evaluated by how effectively they hold the line on bill rates.

If you have to negotiate, negotiate over the total price of the engagement. I know your nerd brain can't separate the total for a project from what the hourly for that project works out to, but they are very much not the same thing.

I am generally of the mind that your rate structure is your rate structure. Clients want to push back on all sorts of stuff. They also want you to sign their master agreements unmolested. Learn to say "no" professionally: to quickly find ways to accomodate your customer's underlying concerns without budging on your price structure.

Re: My first month freelancing

#29

Post by tptacek »

marcamillion wrote: post #26
tptacek wrote: post #7

People want to pay you hourly/per project, convince them it’s better for both you and them to pay you daily. I’ll explain why in a future post. I've burned many thousands of words here arguing the same point and will hopefully be able to spare you all a retread, so let me just say that I think a lot of good habits and useful dynamics emerge organically from this one decision. If you make no other careful strategic de…

Do you mean 'quoting' daily, or 'billing' daily? There is a major difference. The main one being that if 'bill daily' you are putting a burden on your client to have to think about paying you every single day. At some point, it becomes annoying. Thoughts?

I just mean don't have an hourly rate.

Re: My first month freelancing

#30

Post by marcamillion »

alinajaf wrote: post #27
marcamillion wrote: post #25

I will ask a question here that I wrote on the original link, because I think it may be useful for others here. I recently started freelancing (the last 12 - 18months) also, and one thing I did - to generate new business - was wrote a script that sends me a bunch of leads. Right now, it's primarily from Craigslist, but I will add other sources. I showed it to a friend and fellow web dev and he loved it. So that made…

It would depend entirely on the quality of the leads, though I'd definitely sign up for a one month free trial to test it out. Many a thing like this exist, both paid and free. Jobpile has netted me some work in the past. Jobpile: http://www.artypapers.com/jobpile/

Agreed. Admittedly - I am working on increasing the signal to noise ratio - but I never realized how valuable it was to have a constant stream of leads coming to me daily was, until I stopped doing it.

I am also thinking of finding a way to make the entire process more efficient - but all it takes is a handful of leads a year and it has more than paid for itself.

Does jobpile email you links - or is it just a search engine that you go to?

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