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I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

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Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#191

Post by [deleted] »

pxue wrote: post #165
manquer wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VC funded startups are not the only way to break free from the dreadful corporate games. Do people really think this ? VC funded startups are as corporate as it gets, probably worse, just a different kind of corporate. The second you take funding you have a new boss[1]and have all sorts of constraints which become more and more rigid with more rounds . There are only few well understood models of scaling and govern…

Yes people do think like this - I was one of them

[deleted]

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#192

Post by msh »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #180
re-thc wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their job is to sell themselves and as many headcount and hours as they can squeeze into a contract Which is the complete inverse of what a client needs. It is what it is, but somehow it feels wrong. The agency should be providing value and to make the customer happy. It should charge what's appropriate without all this headcount business.

Fixed price then?

Fixed price only works when the client is able to present a fixed job upfront, with all needed information.

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#193

Post by zo1 »

csomar wrote: post #174
delfinom wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I tried upwork but it generally always seems to be entities in significantly cheaper countries underbidding everything. How did you get started to snap up your first jobs on it?

I've tried it on the buyer side and anything less than $50/hour can't speak proper English. It's definitively cheaper but not significantly; and if you add the struggle of going through all the profiles, then the price will match reality.

Just wait till chatGPT hides this telling input signal. I mourn for humanity.

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#194

Post by sph »

mettamage wrote: post #133

> Realizing that I don’t have to work 8 hours every day was pretty groundbreaking. I still get work done, and have lots of personal time. I do occasionally take on an ambitious project and work overtime for a few weeks, but then I try to balance it with more rest so I don’t burn out. Wait, how do you get to not working 8 hours per day?

By not getting paid by the hour, and being an actual freelance. I'm a software engineering consultant, and I work mornings 6 days a week.

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#196

Post by ensocode »

boredemployee wrote: post #142
dmje wrote: post #105

12 years into running a tiny digital consultancy with my wife. We've used an "associate" model for all that time - a posh way of saying "a network of trusted freelancers". We've deliberately chosen not to take on staff. We could have grown at many points along the way but haven't wanted to. Instead we've stayed small, focused and profitable. The benefits to growing would have been being able to take on bigger gigs, b…

Had a similar experience for 6 years. But the downside of not being big is that your business can die in big crisis , as happened to mine when covid started.

Could be. On the other hand being small can keep you flexible to react on big crisis

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#197

Post by ehnto »

greybox wrote: post #128
jokethrowaway wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know that people are lazy by nature and not because their job sucks? Of course they have zero incentive to get anything done, they get paid regardless of how well the project gets done. Maybe if they had the guts to leave a paycheck for browsing Reddit and started their own business they would have success too. When I work on my projects I have way more stamina than when I'm doing client work. I kind of ha…

As someone who takes pride in their work and who tries to always work the hours I'm paid for (and often regrettably more, but trying to cut back on that ...) It can be surprising to find out that a lot of people, really are, very lazy. If you've been lucky enough not to encounter them in your day to day, then that's really good, because when you have to work with one of them, boy does it suck. That being said, I've o…

I like to think I am pretty engaged and self-propelled, but it doesn't surprise me that most people aren't interested in working. It would be a miracle if all work required for society just so happened to line up with all the passions of the workers.

That's why we get paid after all. I really enjoy my job and I'm effective, but if I didn't need money, it's not so fun that I wouldn't drop it to do other stuff I find more rewarding.

We aren't built for this either, especially not thought work. Society compells it, which is what it is, but we are not evolved for an 8 hour day of thinking at a desk.

Some people are good at it, but we are asking far more than some people to do it, and you have to do -something- to survive, and the outcome is obvious from thay lens in my opinion.

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#198

Post by lelanthran »

tuukkah wrote: post #99
elwell wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting paid for every hour I worked (I billed by the hour) As someone who is (overly?) honest/careful; this could be a con. Also, if you're able to, bill by the day.

Billing by the day is not the best for everyone: billing by the hour can give you the flexibility to work incomplete days or switch between clients during the day.

I billed by the hour and I regretted it. The admin overhead of generating an invoice for 60m of work is not worth it.

I bill by complete days now, so I don't take on work that is less than a day.

If I work half a day for a client, the next day I will work half a day in the rest of that job.

This still gives me the flexibility to not get bored in a single day.

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#199

Post by brightlancer »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #96

I think it's a perfectly valid choice but I don't think it's quite as binary as the author puts it. I've been in agencies, in bloated product companies and they were all terrible experiences. I did some freelancing and enjoyed it, but I could make significantly more money with less effort contracting. I liked my solo contracting days albeit they quickly resembled little employments. But when I run my own company or w…

> If you're worried about people not putting their 100% because they're employed and not making more money the more value gets created, you can setup a structure with low base pay + amazing bonus on success and you can get the same incentive (and risk) you have in your solo work -

I think more jobs should be structured this way

BUT

it also needs strong checks to catch and _fire_ folks who upsell/ oversell/ overcharge against the customers' interests.

This is a risk with any quota (minimum) system but there are a relative handful of folks who will abuse a reward structure to the maximum potential, raking in tons of money for the company (and themselves) while slowly damaging the reputation of the company.

So, we need good incentives and rewards coupled with harsh penalties for dishonesty and abuse. IME, companies are often much better at the former than the latter.

Re: I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency

#200

Post by qweqwethrowww »

devjab wrote: post #29
xwdv wrote: post #10

Can someone explain what the appeal of solo freelancing is in the age of bountiful remote work? My typical day as a remote worker is not that different from the one described: a couple hours of work per day and mostly leisure the rest of the time. And I probably still make more money than a freelancer. Consistently too. Is chasing down new clients all the time and working on multiple projects really that desirable to…

Unless you’re ridiculously well paid I think you’re considerably underestimating what many independent contractors end up earning. I can only speak about my anecdotal network but everyone that I know who went the independent contractor road is making around a million or more a year. They didn’t start out like that, and I’m not sure how easy the road would be in the current economy, but the people who started out 10-1…

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