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Freelancing, half a year in.

alanhollis.com

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Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#31

Post by vignesh_vs_in »

n0mad01 wrote: post #25
vignesh_vs_in wrote: post #21

I have always wanted to do freelancing but refrained from it. Below are my skills, Official: I got 5 years of experience in various fields, 1 year as manual tester for a Mainframe/JSP based application. 2 years as an automation test engineer, which is a fancy way of writing scripts to do automatic tests. 2 years as a tools developer for an automation framework, work involves writing java/Oracle based tools to do a sp…

you have to know that by yourself. you'll never know for sure if you don't try it.

Am bit cautious on taking the leap, as there seems to be lot of ambiguity over the earning potential of a freelancer.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#32

Post by benjaminwootton »

vignesh_vs_in wrote: post #21

I have always wanted to do freelancing but refrained from it. Below are my skills, Official: I got 5 years of experience in various fields, 1 year as manual tester for a Mainframe/JSP based application. 2 years as an automation test engineer, which is a fancy way of writing scripts to do automatic tests. 2 years as a tools developer for an automation framework, work involves writing java/Oracle based tools to do a sp…

Customers will rarely go looking for a shopping of skills such as JSP, automation testing, Java, Oracle etc.

Instead, they'll say 'I want a website to do X' or 'I want an application to do Y'.

A lot of the time, they didn't even care what you use or how you do it.

Your set of published apps in the relatively hot mobile space puts you in a good situation in this regard.

The first step would be to build a portfolio of your work.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#33

Post by [deleted] »

narag wrote: post #28

What are "digital agencies" and how to find one? (Sorry if the question seems stupid, I haven't heard the term before and it seems a little too general to return meaningful results in Google) Edit: Thank you benjaminwootton!

[deleted]

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#34

Post by mgkimsal »

vignesh_vs_in wrote: post #21

I have always wanted to do freelancing but refrained from it. Below are my skills, Official: I got 5 years of experience in various fields, 1 year as manual tester for a Mainframe/JSP based application. 2 years as an automation test engineer, which is a fancy way of writing scripts to do automatic tests. 2 years as a tools developer for an automation framework, work involves writing java/Oracle based tools to do a sp…

"My big question is, will I be a fool to try freelancing at this stage and with my experience?"

No, at least not based on the tech experience - you've done a hell of a lot more than some people I've sub-contracted work out to.

The bigger issue will be your attitude and approach. Treat 'freelancing' as professionally as any other engagement and you'll be fine.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#35

Post by Alan01252 »

coob wrote: post #26

Congrats Alan, can I just say I like the look of http://whensgoodforyou.co.uk - I've had that on my pile of 'implement someday' but you've actually done it. Fantastic.

Thanks very much coob. It still needs a little more work doing to it before I'm happy with it.

At the moment I've got my friends alpha testing it, and have got some good feedback. Hopefully I'll be confident enough to post a SHOW HN soon.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#36

Post by espinchi »

vignesh_vs_in wrote: post #21

I have always wanted to do freelancing but refrained from it. Below are my skills, Official: I got 5 years of experience in various fields, 1 year as manual tester for a Mainframe/JSP based application. 2 years as an automation test engineer, which is a fancy way of writing scripts to do automatic tests. 2 years as a tools developer for an automation framework, work involves writing java/Oracle based tools to do a sp…

No, you won't be a fool if you try.

You have an application with more than a million downloads in the Android market. And your Juicy Fun game looks very nice. I'd say you have a fairly solid portfolio.

Do you write all these applications all by yourself?

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#37

Post by smoyer »

Alan01252 wrote: post #4
showsover wrote: post #2

As someone looking to try freelancing in a couple of years (only been programming for about 2 years) it is reassuring to see that you can make a decent amount of money with almost no network. How do you find freelancing vs ordinary job? Do you have savings for harder times?

I do now! :) I didn't when I started, in fact I owed a considerably chunk of money to my girlfriend and so priority number one was paying her back. In terms of the lifestyle, I love it. I honest don't feel like I've "worked" in the conventional sense since I've been back. There are a lot of things you have to deal with which are unexpected. Finishing a project and realising you might not see the people you've worked…

It's great to get into the habit of saving some of your income ... not just to hedge against slow times but to build an emergency fund and nest-egg. The popular mantra of "pay yourself first" really works (and let's you run the rest of your life by the balance of your check-book).

"If I need a break from the parents"

Make sure your rate is high enough to provide you with independence too.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#38

Post by mseebach »

RobAley wrote: post #29
mseebach wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare is public, yes (although a private insurance is a popular benefit) but the tax that pays for it (up to 13% I think) is deducted separately. Ie. for your employer to give you a salary of £10000, he has to pay £11300. If you're self employed, you have to pay this, so it can bite you when comparing salary and contracting rates.

Thats not correct. PAYE (Pay As You Earn) tax for employed people and the equivalent Income Tax for self-employed, along with similar rates of National Insurance for both, go into the general tax pot which pays for healthcare and other government programs. Employers advertise pay rates from which the tax is deducted, so in that way they are the same as contracting rates (the tax is deducted from both). Employers also…

Yes, it goes in the general tax pot, but it's still called national insurance. Although you don't have to worry about coverage, you very much still have to pay.

> Employers advertise pay rates from which the tax is deducted, so in that way they are the same as contracting rates (the tax is deducted from both).

Yes, this is correct for income tax and the employees portion.

> Employers also pay a small National Insurance contribution on top, which doesn't come out of your wages.

The problem is that it's not a small contribution on top, it's 12.8% above a low threshold. For a £35k salary, it's just under £3,800 - see http://www.listentotaxman.com/. And as a contractor, you have to pay that for yourself.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#39

Post by mseebach »

Alan01252 wrote: post #8
Jabbles wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For comparison, top† graduate software engineers (in London) will be on ~£35k/year. †Not like "won IOI" top, but I imagine Google/Microsoft/FB etc. has a graduate starting salary around that.

From my experience that's also the very very best graduates. I don't know of anyone who's gone in at that figure. I was earning just less than £35k two years after graduating with a 2.1 ( not sure what the equivalent is in American university terms ). And at that point was earning considerably more than anyone else I knew who graduated at the same time.

I was earning north of 60k after ~three years experience with no degree (and mediocre grades in the courses I'd taken). London, non-bank-finance. I had literally nothing spectacular on my CV. Feel free to get in touch if you need pointers.

Re: Freelancing, half a year in.

#40

Post by mseebach »

NickPollard wrote: post #27
mseebach wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare is public, yes (although a private insurance is a popular benefit) but the tax that pays for it (up to 13% I think) is deducted separately. Ie. for your employer to give you a salary of £10000, he has to pay £11300. If you're self employed, you have to pay this, so it can bite you when comparing salary and contracting rates.

National Insurance contributions are slightly more complicated than that, but the upshot is you generally won't be paying more personally as a freelancer than as an employer. When you're employed, both you and your employer pay NI rates. If you're self-employed, you pay £2.65 a week plus 9% on profits over about £8k, which should work out fairly similarly to the rates you pay (out of your gross salary) when employed.…

That's not the point. The point is that you have to charge more than your salary number to break even as a contractor.
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