Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

thecut.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 254 posts

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#51

Post by justaguyhere »

demircancelebi wrote: post #20

After freelancing for a few years, I decided that it was not making me happier, since: - It is not possible to create significant wealth by freelancing - I work on things I do not care. I want to think/spend time on important things - Chasing down payments is stressful - Finding new clients requires some effort Therefore, I decided that it would be much healthier for me to get a job that pays well and not work as a f…

This makes sense, if you got a job that you care about and like. If not, you're working 100% of your time on something you don't like.

At least with freelancing, there might be a chance that you might enjoy an odd project here and there ...

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#52

Post by jstewartmobile »

stdbrouw wrote: post #30
jstewartmobile wrote: post #23

" People who attach dollar signs to their time — or “value time like money” — tend to be overwhelmingly less happy than those who don’t, because their nonworking hours suddenly seem less important. “Free” time gets tainted with guilt because there’s a cost associated with it. " Of course this comes from a psychology department, where people get accredited to start their own state-licensed soma dispensaries. Is the pu…

You're reading way more into that quote than what it actually says. "Happiness" in this context is not in-the-moment satisfaction of primal urges, it's about how you feel about your life in general, which includes what you describe as pride in your work.

Have you read the paper they linked to? How did it define "happiness"? How did it measure "happiness"? From the paper, "happiness" can be read very broadly.

I chose to read it the way that the average person I know would read it, and then I chose to reject that.

edit: And pride of workmanship is not the same thing as happiness. There have been a couple jobs where I've been rather unhappy about helping particular people out, while still being proud of how I did it.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#53

Post by photoguy112 »

alzoid wrote: post #48
photoguy112 wrote: post #28

I went from hourly, to per project, to weekly billings. When I charged hourly I ended up working A LOT more than 9-5. Per project work was good but I ended up losing a lot of prospects in the quote. Since many of my projects ran into the 20-40k range, my closing rate was 1/10 (already pre-screened, what I deemed as high quality prospects). This made me feel like crap. Instead of per project, I decided to increase the…

Had did you transition from the hourly work to weekly? Why do you think your clients are more accepting of 10K for 3 weeks vs a 20K quote? When it comes to products do you have any thoughts on competing with big players? I have a few now, I am hoping being local will get me in the door and make the client more comfortable with me than a website offering it as SaaS. My advice for consultants / freelancers. Setting you…

Transitioned simply by trying something different, until per project quotes succeeded. It was hard so I gave up and decided to try something else, seemed to have worked.

My projects usually last a month or two, sometimes longer. Smaller businesses with smaller teams seem a lot more accepting of weekly invoices. It becomes a line item for them, just an expense among many (this is my guess).

In terms of products, I am not qualified enough, but if I had to guess, it's best not to compete with the mega SaaS. Position differently and find a unique niche that won't necessarily make you super rich.

As for naming, that's an interesting point. I don't know if it's true as I've seen consultants go by their name and make a lot of money. Some people simply build a brand out of their name and become well known for the work they do. Sadly, I don't have a brandable name so I went with a business name. I think there is some truth to your point when it comes to being seen as a company to do business with than "hiring a consultant".

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#54

Post by stevage »

josefresco wrote: post #41

"I went outside to get coffee and ran into three different neighbors who wanted to chit-chat. I wanted to scream, ‘For every word that comes out of your mouth, I’m losing money!" This is a statement from someone who either hasn't been freelancing that long, or who hasn't realized that "brain down time" is just as important as raw coding hours. I've worked "for myself" for almost 20 years and for the first 5 I too pan…

50%? Even less in my case. 3 hours a day is plenty to get paid as much as I was before on a salary.

Honestly I find the time-related issue as a freelancer is having too much of it, and putting it to good use rather than just lounging around.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#55

Post by shhehebehdh »

dsr_ wrote: post #37
UweSchmidt wrote: post #17

On the other hand, equating time (especially work time) with money helps with making sense of what money is actually worth. These days every product category is full of well presented temptations in any price range. The correct way to evaluate a 1000$ phone, a mechanical keyboard with custom keycaps, fantastic coffee machines and barbecues and car parts and designer handbags is to put them in relation to "how many ho…

A thousand dollar phone is a thousand dollars; we invented money in order to have a universal metric of value when comparing things like "working in the fields", "bucket of nails" and "cuckoo clock". These days, most people, most of the time, can't decide to work 20 hours more in order to afford a new thingy. If you're on salary, that's it. If you're an hourly worker with your hours assigned by management, that's it.…

You can’t directly increase your income by working one more hour if you are salaried . But you can certainly affect your growth trajectory by working harder/longer/smarter. You trade the marginal hour in a way that has a lagging, probabilistic increase on your salary.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#56

Post by lexda15 »

I have the feeling as the author while I charged hourly rates. I see a tendency that more freelancers start getting money from a fixed price for a project. It helps to charge more and less work. Also, it is easier to get relaxed. You know when you should finish a project.

I shared here one research about the hourly rate of freelance developers [1]. They calculated that right now, it's about $68 of the US JavaScript freelancer. But I assume that American freelancers charge more. Perhaps, some freelancers charge fixed prices. That's why the rate is lower.

Thinking about time equals money really disturbs your life. You have to live for enjoying but not for getting money every minute.

As a lifehack, early I included my vacation/sick/holiday days to calculate my hourly rate. It helps me to have planned vacations and some days to sick without any thoughts about doing a job.

[1] https://periodix.net/blog/which-developers-earn-more-corpora...

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#57

Post by stevage »

photoguy112 wrote: post #28

I went from hourly, to per project, to weekly billings. When I charged hourly I ended up working A LOT more than 9-5. Per project work was good but I ended up losing a lot of prospects in the quote. Since many of my projects ran into the 20-40k range, my closing rate was 1/10 (already pre-screened, what I deemed as high quality prospects). This made me feel like crap. Instead of per project, I decided to increase the…

What's the difference between "the highly paid freelancer" and "the consultant" for you?

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#58

Post by musha68k »

I sucessfully have been doing this for more than seven years: the trick is decent but fair pricing per time unit; also you have to budget and calculate a buffer realistically. Yes, you also need downtime and if you are stressing about that you are most likely billing too low or are simply too anxious/greedy (all things that can be fixed).

Enjoy the freedom, at last that's what you have optimized for.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#60

Post by stevage »

demircancelebi wrote: post #20

After freelancing for a few years, I decided that it was not making me happier, since: - It is not possible to create significant wealth by freelancing - I work on things I do not care. I want to think/spend time on important things - Chasing down payments is stressful - Finding new clients requires some effort Therefore, I decided that it would be much healthier for me to get a job that pays well and not work as a f…

That's interesting. My experience has been the opposite on all four points.

- My total pay in the first year was about 30% higher than when salaried, and will probably be 50% higher this year.

- Most of my projects are way more interesting than when salaried.

- I've never had to chase down any payments. I've instead been chased down to invoice a couple of times!

- I have never put any effort into finding clients.

Post reply on HN