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My first month freelancing

alanhollis.com

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Re: My first month freelancing

#31

Post by patio11 »

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?

Quoted daily ("Work is on a time and materials basis. Rate: $2,000 per day."). Invoices will typically cover a few weeks of work, depending on the tempo of your engagements, your relationship with a customer, etc.

Re: My first month freelancing

#32

Post by Alan01252 »

garagemc2 wrote: post #23

Speaking as person that hires freelance developers it would probably be helpful if, on your blog, you mentioned what languages and frameworks you can develop in.

Hi garagemc2. Where specifically were you looking so I can improve?

http://alanhollis.com/ has an overview of my skills. http://alanhollis.com/cv/ has more details of my experience.

Re: My first month freelancing

#33

Post by marcamillion »

tptacek wrote: post #29
marcamillion wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I see. How does this compare to just doing flat-rate quotes?

I guess my aversion to even quoting daily, is the notion that you can be brought up to speed quickly enough to effect any good change (and add value) in just 1 day.

For instance, if you are supposed to be optimizing code in a legacy web app - do you set a minimum number of days that they have to commit to, for something like this? Or do you just stick to daily?

Re: My first month freelancing

#34

Post by vitomd »

I am a freelancer too, and this podcast it's really good. http://rubyfreelancers.com . For getting more clients ask your current client for referrals, if you made a good work they will be happy to help you. And use social media to maintan contact and reach other clients and freelancers (They too can send you some work )

Re: My first month freelancing

#35

Post by alinajaf »

marcamillion wrote: post #30
alinajaf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Just a search engine you go to. I was already paying a VA to trawl through most of the sites that it scrapes so using it saved me a few dollars a month.

I'm quite sure there's a paid service at a similar sort of price range to what you're describing that does email you. Don't remember the name atm.

Re: My first month freelancing

#36

Post by freshfey »

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…

Count me in, I'd love to see what you came up with.

Re: My first month freelancing

#37

Post by vitomd »

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…

This is similar http://freelancefunnel.com/

Re: My first month freelancing

#38

Post by marcamillion »

freshfey wrote: post #36
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…

Count me in, I'd love to see what you came up with.

I wish I had a URL that you go to immediately and put in your email address.

Ok, will try and get that up asap =)

Re: My first month freelancing

#39

Post by tptacek »

marcamillion wrote: post #33
tptacek wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just mean don't have an hourly rate.

I see. How does this compare to just doing flat-rate quotes? I guess my aversion to even quoting daily, is the notion that you can be brought up to speed quickly enough to effect any good change (and add value) in just 1 day. For instance, if you are supposed to be optimizing code in a legacy web app - do you set a minimum number of days that they have to commit to, for something like this? Or do you just stick to da…

I have no problem with flat rate quotes. I only have a problem with quotes broken into abillable hours.

My general M.O. with project quotes, which someone on HN once called "the first truly new, clever billing technique that I've seen" but I just call "the way Dave and Jeremy were writing proposals and statements of work when we started Matasano", is simple:

* Make a conservative, honest estimate of the total number of billable days/weeks required to complete the project.

* Quote the total amount that time works out to as if it was a project rate.

* Clearly state in the SOW that if additional time is required beyond the quoted amount, additional person/days can be staffed at a pro-rata daily rate.

The result is a project-based quote on time-and-materials terms.

Re: My first month freelancing

#40

Post by marcamillion »

vitomd wrote: post #37
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…

This is similar http://freelancefunnel.com/

Thanks for this!

I guess this is just validation that the idea makes sense.

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