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Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#21

Post by asfarley »

I've had some success on elance. The trick is to be extremely selective about who you will talk to. Also, refuse to compete on price. The good clients will see the difference; if they're comparing you against a large firm, you will be competitive on price even if you're making a reasonable hourly rate.

Lately I'm starting to think that both of these points apply to freelancing/contracting whether it's online or through some other channel.

Also, build a decent portfolio of your work.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#22

Post by dannyr »

jmilloy wrote: post #16
dannyr wrote: post #12

I did contracting for over 2 years. All my contracts were through a referral from my network. I never had to do cold-emails. I live in the Bay Area though where there are a lot of companies looking for somebody to build their Android app. What's great with the network though is that I never had to negotiate rates since there's already some trust established. Those who found me through LinkedIn though seem to negotiat…

So the question becomes, "How do you find a good network/agency?", which is what I'm thinking about currently. Maybe it's not very hard?

Years of work. I networked my ass off for years. Hackathons, developer meetups, etc.

I probably would have had trouble finding projects if I decided to do contracting when I moved to the Bay Area right away.

For my first few projects, my rate was really low. It was meant to help friends out and get to work on high-profile projects. Some of the companies I have worked for ended up doing YC or raising seed/VC money.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#23

Post by jqm »

jqm wrote: post #7

Don't contract as a contractor to businesses that are programming themselves. Build things for businesses that will be the end user. Most of these types of businesses have less of a notion of how to go about getting tools that will help their business in the first place and it can be a hard sell unless they have an immediate need. Sometimes you have to really learn about the specifics of how the business functions an…

Just to expand a bit... here are a few things I have built over the past several years (part time now... I have a full time job)...

-A load builder, temporary placement scheme creator, and shipping router for a large cattle feedlot in the Midwest (my brother got me this job, while I was working on it a building maintenance man came by, asked about it, told his wife who did data entry for a crop harvesting company and I got the gig below)...

-A ticket management and payment system for a crop harvesting company. The original application was in Access, and was slow and clumsy and full of bugs leading to bad payments at times. I re-wrote it using SQL, python and web interface, and host it for the company. Now they can use the application when they are out doing remote harvests (they harvest grains etc. in 4 or 5 states). The owner was pleased and recommended me to a milk producing co-op (below).

-Milk production and payment calculation for a 15 dairy co-op. Working on this right now weekends and evenings (I have a full time job). This is a complicated application that takes a number of factors (amount of Butterfat, government fuel prices, amount of bacteria etc.) and calculates payment due to individual dairies. The original app is in Lotus Approach and it's been a struggle getting everything out and finding how it all fits together (the person who made the original application passed away). In fact, I should be working on it right now instead of playing on HN. But Lotus Approach is no fun. At all.

Not sexy.. but good side work that fills a real need. There are lots of companies that could use an update, or have very specific needs they can't fill with off the shelf software. And they generally don't have a clue about how to fill that need.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#26

Post by gargarplex »

weaksauce wrote: post #11
gargarplex wrote: post #4

What kind of software do you build? How much do you charge? Are you willing to work on legacy code bases? As a hiring manager, I currently have an availability to hire a freelancer. I just need someone responsible, mature and professional who's willing to roll up their sleeves and go from "receiving requirements" to shipping and thoroughly testing.

What are the details of your project? What language/frameworks are used? how legacy is legacy? Does the code base have any tests already? Remote work acceptable? Length of contract? Scope of work?

Adult content site. PHP5.2 and JavaScript. Un-shelving code from 2012. There are a few test classes. Remote work is acceptable. Work is ongoing. Work involves building features, bug fixing and interaction with vendor APIs. Work requires familiarity with Apache.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#27

Post by itake »

keithwarren wrote: post #17

I have been on my own for 15 years. I bill around 150/hr give or take 20% depending on the situation. Most of the work is Microsoft stack web related but mobile apps and api building has been steadily increasing for a several years now to the point that probably 20% of my 2014 revenue was in that space. 50-60% of my revenue is sub-contracting. I have a few firms that often take on projects that they are not suited fo…

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "right kind of events"?

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#28

Post by JamesBarney »

keithwarren wrote: post #17

I have been on my own for 15 years. I bill around 150/hr give or take 20% depending on the situation. Most of the work is Microsoft stack web related but mobile apps and api building has been steadily increasing for a several years now to the point that probably 20% of my 2014 revenue was in that space. 50-60% of my revenue is sub-contracting. I have a few firms that often take on projects that they are not suited fo…

What would you classify as the right kinds of events, and what as networking events?

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#29

Post by breck »

keithwarren wrote: post #17

I have been on my own for 15 years. I bill around 150/hr give or take 20% depending on the situation. Most of the work is Microsoft stack web related but mobile apps and api building has been steadily increasing for a several years now to the point that probably 20% of my 2014 revenue was in that space. 50-60% of my revenue is sub-contracting. I have a few firms that often take on projects that they are not suited fo…

+1 for subcontracting for a larger consulting agency. Almost always, the stressful parts of a project revolve around the client relationship and overhead(time which is generally unbilled), and not around the actual work. If you go it alone you own all that. If you subcontract on a signed project you can skip this. On top of that you'll be part of a larger group all striving to get the job done for the client. This is great for two reasons. First, someone else will handle parts of the project you aren't skilled in. Second, if unforeseen circumstances arise that require you to leave the project, you won't leave the client high and dry.

If you can be a regular subcontractor for a larger agency, that IMO is generally the ideal situation.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find freelance/contract gigs?

#30

Post by dmarques1 »

There are a few services now that scour dozens of sites around the web for freelance dev jobs, haven't tried one yet but have considered: https://freelanceinbox.com

http://letsworkshop.com/

http://freelancefunnel.com/

https://freelancedevleads.com/

http://www.flexjobs.com/

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