Freelancing: A 6-Month Retrospective • Hacker News Board

Re: Freelancing: A 6-Month Retrospective

#121

Post by mrooney7828 » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 7:56 PM UTC

theoj wrote: post #87

>> So as an example, a $100K salary, which corresponds to roughly $50 per hour working 40 hours a week, requires a freelancing rate of $56-58/hour to pay for healthcare and time off. Cringe -- this is bad advice for setting your consulting rate. In the US, the full cost of an $100K employee is not $100K. It's $100K salary + paid vacation time + employment taxes paid by employer + healthcare + office space & pro-rated…

I feel like I addressed that pretty clearly, as that number takes into account healthcare and paid vacation and sick time. You do pay a self-employment tax, but I think that's made up for by the numerous deductions including home office that can be made. I work from home so it doesn't cost me any more for office space / cleaning / utilities, in fact, as mentioned, I get to deduct a percentage of all those things! I also no longer commute or have to order / eat lunch out, so that's a significant monthly savings as well.

Also, since my stated goals were to work less and take more vacation, the flexibility advantages you mention for an employer are precisely the flexibility advantages for ME that I was looking for! I love the ability to, every 4-8 weeks when a contract is done, decide how long to take off before the next one if I'd like to, or decide which project to pursue next.

I don't want to be sitting bored in an office getting paid because they bought my time "in bulk", like I've done before. If you find that an enjoyable way to spend your finite amount of time alive, that's honestly great as you'll likely face less obstacles, but it wasn't for me.

Re: Freelancing: A 6-Month Retrospective

#122

Post by tluyben2 » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

flyinRyan wrote: post #116

tluyben2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was coming here to say this; there are meet-ups, business breakfasts (VERY early but very nice to find clients), etc. A friend of mine from an underdeveloped part of the EU thought he could make no money there; he went to a few business breakfasts there after finding out they actually were held there. Few months later he has ONLY work from his region and more than enough to say he cannot take new work till beginnin…

Wow, how do you find out about these things? I'm in western Europe and have been planning to go freelance but getting started seems pretty intimidating so far.

Where are you from? I probably can find them in your neighborhood.

Edit: check my profile here; you can mail me if you want.

Re: Freelancing: A 6-Month Retrospective

#123

Post by davedx » Tue, Jul 10, 2012, 2:34 PM UTC

davidcann wrote: post #120

davedx wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tough part for me is, how to find leads? I have a lot of contacts from previous jobs but nobody I know who could give me any kind of freelance work. How do you bootstrap this?

I don't know your specialty, but in design or programming, you only really need a good example of your work to get started. Try the monthly freelancer posts on HN. Worst case, here's a list of RSS feeds I used to follow (some can filter by freelance/anywhere): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2465077

I'm a programmer. Those feeds look useful, thanks! :)

Re: Freelancing: A 6-Month Retrospective

#124

Post by SatvikBeri » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 7:08 PM UTC

edanm wrote: post #98

patio11 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That strikes me like "Dating advice: Explain to the average woman that accompanying you to the average restaurant followed by an average movie would make for an average evening."

Yes, but to explain why we're worth X% more than the average developer/freelancer, I need to know how much they make in the first place!

In my experience this is a bad way to approach things. Far better to frame the conversation in terms of how much value the customer will derive.

My personal example: through a combination of political cleverness and tech-savvy, I saved a company several million dollars. That anchor makes me seem much more valuable than if I start by comparing myself to an average programmer, and describe how my services are better (in fact, my technological skills are substantially WORSE than the average programmer's, which would make it an even harder sell).