4 ms·

I have been slammed with work for the last 6 mo, picked up two other guys and am still slammed. I literally code 12-16 hours a day and have a side project that

by kls 16y ago

I have been slammed with work for the last 6 mo, picked up two other guys and am still slammed. I literally code 12-16 hours a day and have a side project that has just been languishing on the back burner for months. It is definitely not a case of want to but I have too, I pulled a 116hr week one week of literally non-stop code. I freelance and not pulling those hours means that I loose the contracts that I have. It is a treadmill but one thing I have learned and the piece of advice I can give you is that once it becomes habit, it is actually easy to put in these kind of hours regularly if it is what you want to do. I now find that while I work long hours when I do work, I also tend to schedule longer amounts of time off to travel and recharge, it works for me, but I would like to have enough head room to get back to doing my own stuff as well.

netmau5 16y ago
You just outlined the exact reason that getting into freelancing worries me. You start out as one guy and will have to face some long hours no matter how well you plan. I know when push comes to shove, I can do it, but anyone capable of doing 80+ hours/wk for 3 or more weeks and stay productive is superhuman to me.
- gridspy 16y ago
  The trick is learning to say no. Once you have too much work you can pick your clients. Then you can do the most interesting work at the best rate for the most reliable clients.
  - kls 16y ago
    Right I call it the "no or grow" decision, I chose the latter, I just found out that the grow decision is a difficult one to make, we are working through it but it take time.
    - gridspy 16y ago
      You only want to grow your business based on sustained clients with a lot of work. Do it very slowly and carefully, one of the most common ways for a business to fail is to get too big, too fast. Are you totally certain that you will have a lot of work 3 months from now? 12?
      - kls 16y ago
        That is the point of contention and why I said it is a difficult spot. We are taking a very pragmatic approach to growth but that means that for the time being, that we have to pull a lot of hours for a time to ensure that we are at a point to sustain another hire, when the numbers reflect a sustained volume then we can justify the hire. It also means that because we are growth oriented that we have to take the projects to grow. After we move through this critical point the reserve starts to stack up so that another employee is not such a risky venture. The issue is not only is it bad to burn a client, but it is also just as bad to burn a good developer with on again off again employment. So we want to ensure that once we pick one up that we keep them for the long haul. We have a great reputation as a development house from both clients and employees and we intend to keep it that way. We have to stack up the reserve to do so. The hope is to build the development house on contracts and then pivot into a product company once we have amassed a solid team. That will be the next difficult transition for us and we are already laying plans for the time when revenues and growth can sustain that transition of business models.
        gridspy 16y ago
        Sounds like you have a solid idea of where you are going. Well done. Doing the overtime to justify the new hire sounds like a good, low risk approach. Congrats on putting in the hard yards now to enjoy the growth soon. :) Don't do it too long - you WILL burn out.
davewasthere 16y ago
A couple of years ago I made the mistake of committing to too many projects. (I'd just started free-lancing and put a few feelers out and they all came in at the same time! Typical!) Think I was pulling 16 hours a day consistently for two or three months. Managed to meet all deadlines, but in hindsight I think I made a couple of poor design decisions - and I didn't question some of the things clients asked for (just cracked on and did them without offering much input). Now I make a conscious effort to say no (which I don't like to do, but must) when I don't think I have the spare capacity. Only problem with freelancing is how difficult it is to find time for your side-projects. Am also trying to sort out enough head room to be able to focus on my own stuff. Good luck with it!
- kls 16y ago
  Yeah, I have been doing this for a while, but something is going on as of late, they just don't stop coming, I double my rate and they still take it, double that the next time and they still take it. So I am on this treadmill where I can't say no and bringing people on, means having to stop to train. I am at that critical point where it is very hard to grow correctly but can't continue to handle it with the 3 people we have now, the other two where guys I worked with extensively so they where real easy to onboard, the next won't be so easy. Our time is so constrained that we don't even have time to build a company web site (pretty sure we are going to just sub that one out, but we still have to come up with the marketing messages). Not complaining though it is a good problem to have.

by kls 16y ago

netmau5 16y ago

You just outlined the exact reason that getting into freelancing worries me. You start out as one guy and will have to face some long hours no matter how well you plan. I know when push comes to shove, I can do it, but anyone capable of doing 80+ hours/wk for 3 or more weeks and stay productive is superhuman to me.

gridspy 16y ago
The trick is learning to say no. Once you have too much work you can pick your clients. Then you can do the most interesting work at the best rate for the most reliable clients.
- kls 16y ago
  Right I call it the "no or grow" decision, I chose the latter, I just found out that the grow decision is a difficult one to make, we are working through it but it take time.
  - gridspy 16y ago
    You only want to grow your business based on sustained clients with a lot of work. Do it very slowly and carefully, one of the most common ways for a business to fail is to get too big, too fast. Are you totally certain that you will have a lot of work 3 months from now? 12?
    - kls 16y ago
      That is the point of contention and why I said it is a difficult spot. We are taking a very pragmatic approach to growth but that means that for the time being, that we have to pull a lot of hours for a time to ensure that we are at a point to sustain another hire, when the numbers reflect a sustained volume then we can justify the hire. It also means that because we are growth oriented that we have to take the projects to grow. After we move through this critical point the reserve starts to stack up so that another employee is not such a risky venture. The issue is not only is it bad to burn a client, but it is also just as bad to burn a good developer with on again off again employment. So we want to ensure that once we pick one up that we keep them for the long haul. We have a great reputation as a development house from both clients and employees and we intend to keep it that way. We have to stack up the reserve to do so. The hope is to build the development house on contracts and then pivot into a product company once we have amassed a solid team. That will be the next difficult transition for us and we are already laying plans for the time when revenues and growth can sustain that transition of business models.
      - gridspy 16y ago
        Sounds like you have a solid idea of where you are going. Well done. Doing the overtime to justify the new hire sounds like a good, low risk approach. Congrats on putting in the hard yards now to enjoy the growth soon. :) Don't do it too long - you WILL burn out.

davewasthere 16y ago

A couple of years ago I made the mistake of committing to too many projects. (I'd just started free-lancing and put a few feelers out and they all came in at the same time! Typical!) Think I was pulling 16 hours a day consistently for two or three months. Managed to meet all deadlines, but in hindsight I think I made a couple of poor design decisions - and I didn't question some of the things clients asked for (just cracked on and did them without offering much input). Now I make a conscious effort to say no (which I don't like to do, but must) when I don't think I have the spare capacity. Only problem with freelancing is how difficult it is to find time for your side-projects. Am also trying to sort out enough head room to be able to focus on my own stuff. Good luck with it!

kls 16y ago
Yeah, I have been doing this for a while, but something is going on as of late, they just don't stop coming, I double my rate and they still take it, double that the next time and they still take it. So I am on this treadmill where I can't say no and bringing people on, means having to stop to train. I am at that critical point where it is very hard to grow correctly but can't continue to handle it with the 3 people we have now, the other two where guys I worked with extensively so they where real easy to onboard, the next won't be so easy. Our time is so constrained that we don't even have time to build a company web site (pretty sure we are going to just sub that one out, but we still have to come up with the marketing messages). Not complaining though it is a good problem to have.