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The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

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Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#91

Post by zilian »

rb808 wrote: post #90
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…

The problem though is how do you bill clients? If you're "working" and surfing HN you could possibly bill that, but walking around talking to neighbours doesn't cut it.

So many consulting companies would bill those hours anyway

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#92

Post by zilian »

mancerayder wrote: post #87
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…

Freelancing can be highly stressful and demoralizing, unless you take the steps to go into consulting or beyond. It's a ladder, just like your corporate gig, you gotta do the work to move up or suffer where you are stuck. I have one sticking point I'd love to hear what the HN crowd does to deal with it. I'm freelancing and I find gigs that are long-term via recruiters / LinkedIn. And never directly with companies. Wh…

Outsource this to a profiler/marketer to build yourself an identity Don't work under your name but create a brand even if it's just you ;)

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#93

Post by TrickyRick »

rb808 wrote: post #90
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…

The problem though is how do you bill clients? If you're "working" and surfing HN you could possibly bill that, but walking around talking to neighbours doesn't cut it.

Bill by FTE day/week/month instead. Much better for your nerves and easier to invoice.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#94

Post by puranjay »

My sanity and income both improved remarkably once I stopped trading hours for money. Now I trade results for money.

This gives me a lot of control over how I work. The client only cares about the result - X% increase in website traffic, X new leads, etc.

As long as I make that happen, it doesn't matter to the client whether I work 5 hours or 50.

I'm often done with my month's work in about 10-15 days and have enough downtime to focus on side projects.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#95

Post by chrisweekly »

rb808 wrote: post #90
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…

The problem though is how do you bill clients? If you're "working" and surfing HN you could possibly bill that, but walking around talking to neighbours doesn't cut it.

Project-based billing solves this neatly. It also ensures alignment of incentives (ie, working faster / more efficiently yields higher effective rate, vs working faster -> get paid less), and is helpful in emphasizing value.

For time and materials projects, avoid hourly if possible; that leads to micromanagement and commodification of your skills. I recommend billing by sprints or by the week. Try to limit granularity to a day rate (w/ minimum increments of 1/2 day).

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#96

Post by lm28469 »

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…

Until you break the cycle. You can live a good life on 3 hrs of work a day as a developer. Working full time in today's world is complete non sense.

But people who see everything through the lens of consumption have a long way to go I guess.

"When economic necessity is replaced by the necessity for boundless economic development, >>> the satisfaction of primary human needs is replaced by an uninterrupted fabrication of pseudo-needs <<< which are reduced to the single pseudo-need of maintaining the reign of the autonomous economy." - The society of spectacle

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#97

Post by rglover »

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…

Great response. I chuckled at the first 5 panicking as that's dead on. The reality, as counterintuitive as it seems, is that when you're not going full bore your work is better (read: qualitative not quantitative focus). In turn, you can charge more and people trust your ability to produce a result more. The rest takes care of itself.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#98

Post by balabaster »

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…

The biggest problem for me was my (ex)spouse always pushing for billable hours. Every time I decided I wanted time off there was a constant nagging reminder and guilt of not only what it would cost to go and do what I want - for example cost of flights, accommodation, entertainment and food, but also the cost of the loss of income for that time off meaning that every time I was away from my keyboard it was costing me 10 times as much. There was always a reminder to "be responsible and not lose the income" which is a toxic mindset to be in.

These days I skip off work at every possible opportunity and to hell with anyone who can't comprehend my lack of will to bill every waking hour, partners and family included. I may not get paid as much, but there's so much more to life than work. Sure, I'm not billing when I could be and sure there's plenty enough work that I could bill 24 hours a day if I had enough energy and will power to do that, but I don't care. My mental health and my other passions need playtime or I'm going to flame out and never come back to this.

If you don't have a spouse that's supportive and encouraging of your need for downtime away from work, then you're caught in a double trap.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#99

Post by andy_adams »

It cuts both ways. As the author says, if you allow yourself to worry about every minute not working, you'll be mentally drained in no time.

On the flip side: Having my time tied to an hourly (actually daily) rate has saved me countless hours chasing things that weren't worth my time. Things like waiting in line for deals on electronics, or spending 5 mins driving around to find the cheapest gas or place to eat. 5 mins @ $100/hour is $8.33, far more than I'd save by spending time on it.

Even at $10/hour, the time I used to spend trying to save a buck was pretty wasteful.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#100

Post by [deleted] »

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…

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