31–40 of 85 posts
oh hell yes! This is the biggest one in my book Oh, there is one more tiny matter: taxes. Make sure to take a 1/3 of each invoice you are paid and put it into savings for taxes. Seriously, you don’t want to make this mistake.
I'm in Europe, so I save 50%.
I can relate so much. This is so true. Three years ago I was in a position where the only way to get into the business was freelancing. I quit my job at a place that I'm so embarrassed to have worked for I won't mention it (it was fast good) and started freelancing. I did it for two years and still take on side work now after getting a full time position as a developer at a tech company. I was lucky to make that tran…
I think there's a distinction to be made between a web site and web application developer. One builds posters on the internet and the other builds software that just happens to use HTTP. I've found the latter to be considerably more lucrative and engaging. The work I've done ranges from language teaching software to automated trading bots for second hand books. The market for this sort of work is so screamingly hot r…
You're right that there's a huge market now but I would qualify that statement and add that the future is in specialized web applications for people with domain knowledge and an actual business plan. I might have been doing something wrong not to find those people or maybe I was unlucky.
I'd like to think I have decent people skills, but when it came to sales, networking, negotiating,... it wa a rough ride to the point that I'm back to look for a day job after 3 years, despite loving the flexibility freelance gave me.
If you're looking for more free time, expect to earn less. In order to earn full time income you'll need to sacrifice your time. I'm fine with this. I earn enough to support the family, but not enough to buy a fancy new car or even to live in a nice neighborhood. I'm happy living lean and don't want a life of luxury. I find a more humble existence much more fulfilling. It really comes down to what sort of lifestyle you're after.
Anyone charging less than $100/hr is probably underselling themselves. The only time you should charge less than that is on very long term contracts with hundreds or thousands of hours, and then, only hesitantly. People make assumptions based on what you charge - frankly, I've found that people tended to blow me off when I charged much less than this, and actually listen when they know they're paying a decent amount…
If you're looking to augment staff as a contractor, whoever hires you is going to want to compare your hourly rate with what they're paying their team — so it's going to be tricky to break through that ceiling.
But if you're working with clients who have problems to solve, and you're hired to solve one or more of their problems, what you charged should be tied to the financial upside that business will experience when all those problems go away. (e.g. pricing for them, not you and your former salary.)
I gave a talk last night on value-based pricing for my local Ruby meetup, and covered some of this: https://speakerdeck.com/brennandunn/value-based-pricing-for-...
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I think there's a distinction to be made between a web site and web application developer. One builds posters on the internet and the other builds software that just happens to use HTTP. I've found the latter to be considerably more lucrative and engaging. The work I've done ranges from language teaching software to automated trading bots for second hand books. The market for this sort of work is so screamingly hot r…
That could also have to do with location. I'm in Chicago so I have to admit you're right and that market is hot. I think the trouble there is breaking into it. Toward the end of my run as a full time freelancer I tried to get into web applications. The trouble was that I still got a lot of people with an idea for the next Facebook but could barely use MS Word and thought a web developer was the same job as the guy wh…
One problem I have that's similar to what you're talking about is people either have a huge budget and an endless supply of soul-crushing and pointless work for me to do, or they just can't afford me at my rates.
More recently I'm finding a sort of sweet spot in bootstrapped companies that have some revenue and can afford to bring me in for one or two weeks per month. Those are my ideal clients, as I'm not very good at dealing with government/BigCo.
I love talking about this stuff, so if you want to talk shop more at some point feel free to ping me via email (in profile).
Anyone have advice on how to handle health insurance for a family? I've always been worried that once you stray from the protections offered in a group plan, the insurance will just dump you if you have any major issues. And then once you're dumped it's a "pre-existing condition" and now no one will cover it but a group plan - forcing you to join a company again.
At least here in Virginia (I'm no insurance expert), a group is 2 or more people. My wife is officially a shareholder of my company, and so she and I have a group policy. We pay a little under $1000/mo to insure the two of us and our two girls.
Anyone charging less than $100/hr is probably underselling themselves. The only time you should charge less than that is on very long term contracts with hundreds or thousands of hours, and then, only hesitantly. People make assumptions based on what you charge - frankly, I've found that people tended to blow me off when I charged much less than this, and actually listen when they know they're paying a decent amount…
When we link freelancing rates with salaries, we can easily get led astray by: "OMG $200 an hour — that's like $400k a year full-time! That's insane!" If you're looking to augment staff as a contractor, whoever hires you is going to want to compare your hourly rate with what they're paying their team — so it's going to be tricky to break through that ceiling. But if you're working with clients who have problems to so…
It's only after you stop selling time and start to understand what it is that drive your customers to call you that you'll ever break free from the hourly rate comparisons.
I recall the absolute dread and horror after my contract - at a global logisitcs firm - moved from Basel to Paris and finally Prague. The legal department in Prague sent me a new contract and it wasn't the two page paper that I got accustomed to from the previous contracts. It was 50 pages of undiluted legal gibberish all inconveniently packed into a Word document. After feeling miserable for 3 days I actually went t…
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Related question...all other things considered, do Europeans (well, anywhere with strong universal healthcare) find it easier to do freelance/contract work because of the healthcare guarantees?
As a Canuck I can whole-heartedly: yes. I pay for supplemental health care (~300/mth for a family of 3) on top of universal, but we've been considering ditching it.