6 ms·

The Beginner’s Guide to Freelance

67 points by DinahDavis 10y ago

SyneRyder 10y ago
The section on setting your price is bad advice. There's no consideration for covering your business costs, your living costs, taxes, credit card processing costs, or even what the minimum wage rate is ($15/hr would actually be below the Australian minimum wage, for example). There's lots of Freelance Rate Calculators out there that can give you better direction, here's a few selected semi-randomly: https://motivapp.com/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator https://motivapp.com/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/hourly-rate-calculator http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/hourly-rate-calculator https://hourlyrate.beewits.com/ https://hourlyrate.beewits.com/ There is one redeeming feature in the pricing suggestion (for beginners), and that is it might stop analysis paralysis. It's better to actually get out there & undersell yourself the first time, than to stress so much that you never even get your first client.
- taprun 10y ago
  The problem with those calculators is that they are based upon your desires, not on your customers. If I needed $40K per year to maintain my lifestyle and I invented a cure for cancer, would I only charge $40k? Similarly, if I needed $100 per hour to maintain my style of living, should I demand $100 to someone who wants to hire me as a doorman? He'd never pay that much.
  - SyneRyder 10y ago
    You're right that value based pricing [ie what it's worth to the customer] is a better approach. Both the Freshbooks book Breaking The Time Barrier [1] and Brennan Dunn's website [2] are good resources on those. But they might be too advanced for someone just starting out. You do need to determine what your own base costs are though, at least to ensure you're not going backwards. The calculators I linked to above at least help with starting to think about those costs. [1] https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ [2] https://doubleyourfreelancing.com https://doubleyourfreelancing.com
mrswag 10y ago
The first part is actually the more daunting one. How do I find work in the first place? I'm only a student with virtually no connection in the industry.
- thibaut_barrere 10y ago
  I've been freelancing since 2005 - my main tactic to build a steady stream of consulting/freelancing leads is what I call "planting little seeds" - I describe that here https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you-rather-than-you-chasing-them https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you.... Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions! (email in HN profile).
- sbuttgereit 10y ago
  The article seemed to lean to designers, but I conducted a lot of interviews that I didn't get through referrals from colleagues for development. I can't speak for the world at large, but when I had roles that could be filled by low/no professional experience developers types as employees or freelance, there were a couple of things that would stand out: 1) Do something. Make something. A developer can benefit from a portfolio of projects where a prospective hiring manager can see what you are capable of doing. Don't worry about it being perfect, but do try to show that you care about your craft and have good reasons for what you did when asked. This I imagine is required, but tougher for designer types as there are usually more of them trying to get in the door. If you can conceive of or participate in a project that people would be interested in on it's own merits, all the better. 2) Don't incorporate elements from third parties (such as copying and pasting code from Stack Overflow, for example) without having the legal right to do so and without clearly designating the incorporated elements as being what they are. From a developer perspective, I saw more copy and paste code being represented to me as original code in code samples than I would have thought; often times without any original work whatsoever... and yes I checked to see if I could find the code published somewhere. In those cases, proposals/resumes, etc. all were round-filed due to the honesty issues raised. If a project/sample included appropriate/properly documented third party bits along with original work... no problem. 3) Depending on what you do, try to get some specialized domain knowledge in a marketable subject and write about or demonstrate that knowledge in some way. I specialize in boring old ERP type systems, for example. Because I know the accounting rules, the logistics, and operations of inventory centric companies, I have extra knowledge that I can sell compared to someone that has technical skill alone. The whole point is to show that you are self-motivated, are capable, and have good judgment. True, it's really hard to beat experience and track-record, but you can compete on price until you have reference-able clients under your belt. Also, beat on every door that looks like it might be a potential customer: outside of having contacts on the inside, good salesmanship is the only way to let people know you're there and can make the difference compared to your peers that aren't selling themselves as aggressively. (for the record, I do nothing but freelance work these days).
wiz21 10y ago
He forgets to mention intellectual properties issues. Working with a friend here is super dangerous if you don't define who owns what before starting. For those who are like I was sometimes ago, things can go super wrong : someone claiming copyright on some code you wrote (yes, he can do that even though he didn't write a single line of code; just because "he got the idea") can actually block you from using it for your own; that is your code is not yours anymore because you are afraid of your friend claiming (and winning) copyrights on it...
- jonnathanson 10y ago
  "He forgets to mention intellectual properties issues." Minor nitpick, but the author is a she. But this is a good point. Generally speaking, whenever you're freelancing, you should be aware that "work for hire" is the standard agreement. This means that the work you create will become the intellectual property of the commissioning client unless you and the client agree otherwise. The burden is typically on you, as the contractor, to raise this issue and attempt to stake a claim -- be it maintaining ownership of the finished product, or be it making exemptions for any aspects of the product (for instance, any use of your existing IP as part of the new project). IANAL, but I have freelanced pretty extensively over the years. I'm not sure what would happen if you entered into a freelancing project without addressing IP status in a contract or statement of work -- whether the IP would therefore be assigned to the client by default. But I don't leave that to chance. It goes in writing. That said, I don't often fight for IP retention on freelancing assignments. Many of the people I have freelanced for would not have hired me if they couldn't own what I created. That's just the nature of the work I do. Your mileage may vary.
  - wiz21 10y ago
    Sorry for the "she", my mistake. As for th eIP, my case is a bit strange, I have an app that I GPL'ed, now I want to sell a service where I actually add functionality to the app. The client gets the functionality, I get to put the functionality in the app (ie I open source it). I also work in Belgium. Here, the author is the one who writes the code (in case of freelancing; it's the opposite if you're employee). Unfortunately, even if the law is fine, my client doesn't want to hear it ...
rday 10y ago
> I. How do you calculate a price for what you do? Work in the industry you want to freelance in first. This way you find out how much clients value your work. Then you know what to charge. > II. How do you write a proposal? Work in the industry you want to freelance in first. Learn how the proposal writers do their job and what clients expect to see. Improve on it. > III. How do you draft a contract? With a lawyer who has experience in the industry you want to freelance in. I supported a family freelancing for a long time, about 6 years. It's terrible. If you are unsure of how to do something, you have to wonder what value you are really adding. Learn it first. Then execute it as a freelancer.
mark_l_watson 10y ago
Signing contracts after you have carefully read them is another issue. In the last five years, two people have sent me long contracts, and buried near the end, was a statement that I would indemnify the company and investors if they were ever sued for patent violation for whatever I was working on. Do people actually sign stuff like this?
- chrisbennet 10y ago
  I got a contract from a client that would have held me responsible for "estimated loss of profits" !!! I wrote back quoting the offending paragraph: "Nice try but yeah, no."
pramit 10y ago
[1] The Success Manual Guide to Freelancing Basics https://www.thesuccessmanual.in/category/freelancing-skills https://www.thesuccessmanual.in/category/freelancing-skills [2] Career advice for coders and engineers http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/career-advice-for-coders-engineers-and-designers http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/career-advice-for-cod...

67 points by DinahDavis 10y ago

The section on setting your price is bad advice. There's no consideration for covering your business costs, your living costs, taxes, credit card processing costs, or even what the minimum wage rate is ($15/hr would actually be below the Australian minimum wage, for example). There's lots of Freelance Rate Calculators out there that can give you better direction, here's a few selected semi-randomly: https://motivapp.com/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator https://motivapp.com/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/hourly-rate-calculator http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/hourly-rate-calculator https://hourlyrate.beewits.com/ https://hourlyrate.beewits.com/ There is one redeeming feature in the pricing suggestion (for beginners), and that is it might stop analysis paralysis. It's better to actually get out there & undersell yourself the first time, than to stress so much that you never even get your first client.

taprun 10y ago
The problem with those calculators is that they are based upon your desires, not on your customers. If I needed $40K per year to maintain my lifestyle and I invented a cure for cancer, would I only charge $40k? Similarly, if I needed $100 per hour to maintain my style of living, should I demand $100 to someone who wants to hire me as a doorman? He'd never pay that much.
- SyneRyder 10y ago
  You're right that value based pricing [ie what it's worth to the customer] is a better approach. Both the Freshbooks book Breaking The Time Barrier [1] and Brennan Dunn's website [2] are good resources on those. But they might be too advanced for someone just starting out. You do need to determine what your own base costs are though, at least to ensure you're not going backwards. The calculators I linked to above at least help with starting to think about those costs. [1] https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ [2] https://doubleyourfreelancing.com https://doubleyourfreelancing.com

mrswag 10y ago

The first part is actually the more daunting one. How do I find work in the first place? I'm only a student with virtually no connection in the industry.

thibaut_barrere 10y ago
I've been freelancing since 2005 - my main tactic to build a steady stream of consulting/freelancing leads is what I call "planting little seeds" - I describe that here https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you-rather-than-you-chasing-them https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you.... Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions! (email in HN profile).
sbuttgereit 10y ago
The article seemed to lean to designers, but I conducted a lot of interviews that I didn't get through referrals from colleagues for development. I can't speak for the world at large, but when I had roles that could be filled by low/no professional experience developers types as employees or freelance, there were a couple of things that would stand out: 1) Do something. Make something. A developer can benefit from a portfolio of projects where a prospective hiring manager can see what you are capable of doing. Don't worry about it being perfect, but do try to show that you care about your craft and have good reasons for what you did when asked. This I imagine is required, but tougher for designer types as there are usually more of them trying to get in the door. If you can conceive of or participate in a project that people would be interested in on it's own merits, all the better. 2) Don't incorporate elements from third parties (such as copying and pasting code from Stack Overflow, for example) without having the legal right to do so and without clearly designating the incorporated elements as being what they are. From a developer perspective, I saw more copy and paste code being represented to me as original code in code samples than I would have thought; often times without any original work whatsoever... and yes I checked to see if I could find the code published somewhere. In those cases, proposals/resumes, etc. all were round-filed due to the honesty issues raised. If a project/sample included appropriate/properly documented third party bits along with original work... no problem. 3) Depending on what you do, try to get some specialized domain knowledge in a marketable subject and write about or demonstrate that knowledge in some way. I specialize in boring old ERP type systems, for example. Because I know the accounting rules, the logistics, and operations of inventory centric companies, I have extra knowledge that I can sell compared to someone that has technical skill alone. The whole point is to show that you are self-motivated, are capable, and have good judgment. True, it's really hard to beat experience and track-record, but you can compete on price until you have reference-able clients under your belt. Also, beat on every door that looks like it might be a potential customer: outside of having contacts on the inside, good salesmanship is the only way to let people know you're there and can make the difference compared to your peers that aren't selling themselves as aggressively. (for the record, I do nothing but freelance work these days).

wiz21 10y ago

He forgets to mention intellectual properties issues. Working with a friend here is super dangerous if you don't define who owns what before starting. For those who are like I was sometimes ago, things can go super wrong : someone claiming copyright on some code you wrote (yes, he can do that even though he didn't write a single line of code; just because "he got the idea") can actually block you from using it for your own; that is your code is not yours anymore because you are afraid of your friend claiming (and winning) copyrights on it...

jonnathanson 10y ago
"He forgets to mention intellectual properties issues." Minor nitpick, but the author is a she. But this is a good point. Generally speaking, whenever you're freelancing, you should be aware that "work for hire" is the standard agreement. This means that the work you create will become the intellectual property of the commissioning client unless you and the client agree otherwise. The burden is typically on you, as the contractor, to raise this issue and attempt to stake a claim -- be it maintaining ownership of the finished product, or be it making exemptions for any aspects of the product (for instance, any use of your existing IP as part of the new project). IANAL, but I have freelanced pretty extensively over the years. I'm not sure what would happen if you entered into a freelancing project without addressing IP status in a contract or statement of work -- whether the IP would therefore be assigned to the client by default. But I don't leave that to chance. It goes in writing. That said, I don't often fight for IP retention on freelancing assignments. Many of the people I have freelanced for would not have hired me if they couldn't own what I created. That's just the nature of the work I do. Your mileage may vary.
- wiz21 10y ago
  Sorry for the "she", my mistake. As for th eIP, my case is a bit strange, I have an app that I GPL'ed, now I want to sell a service where I actually add functionality to the app. The client gets the functionality, I get to put the functionality in the app (ie I open source it). I also work in Belgium. Here, the author is the one who writes the code (in case of freelancing; it's the opposite if you're employee). Unfortunately, even if the law is fine, my client doesn't want to hear it ...

rday 10y ago

> I. How do you calculate a price for what you do? Work in the industry you want to freelance in first. This way you find out how much clients value your work. Then you know what to charge. > II. How do you write a proposal? Work in the industry you want to freelance in first. Learn how the proposal writers do their job and what clients expect to see. Improve on it. > III. How do you draft a contract? With a lawyer who has experience in the industry you want to freelance in. I supported a family freelancing for a long time, about 6 years. It's terrible. If you are unsure of how to do something, you have to wonder what value you are really adding. Learn it first. Then execute it as a freelancer.

mark_l_watson 10y ago

Signing contracts after you have carefully read them is another issue. In the last five years, two people have sent me long contracts, and buried near the end, was a statement that I would indemnify the company and investors if they were ever sued for patent violation for whatever I was working on. Do people actually sign stuff like this?

chrisbennet 10y ago
I got a contract from a client that would have held me responsible for "estimated loss of profits" !!! I wrote back quoting the offending paragraph: "Nice try but yeah, no."

pramit 10y ago

[1] The Success Manual Guide to Freelancing Basics https://www.thesuccessmanual.in/category/freelancing-skills https://www.thesuccessmanual.in/category/freelancing-skills [2] Career advice for coders and engineers http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/career-advice-for-coders-engineers-and-designers http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/career-advice-for-cod...