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Problem is, as a student I am trying to go freelance and start getting clients by doing small projects. And I read articles like this one and I have so many que

Problem is, as a student I am trying to go freelance and start getting clients by doing small projects. And I read articles like this one and I have so many questions. I cannot pay for a lawyer or an accountant yet most of the people recommend it, am I not going to be able to go solo if I don't have those kind of securities?

pasta 8y ago
For small projects you might not need a lawyer or accountant. But when you feel the balance is right you should hire people who can help you with your problems. At the moment you might do small projects but when project get bigger and your rate higher you will see that an accountant will become affordable. And when you do multi million projects you will be able to afford a lawyer. But one thing that is very important even when you are still 'small': register everything! What money goes in and what goes out. What the contracts are and all your email conversations with clients. This will help you and future accounts and lawyers.
uasm 8y ago
> "Problem is, as a student I am trying to go freelance and start getting clients by doing small projects." Is this more-or-less your first job straight out of school?
- jdmg718 8y ago
  Nope, had a couple of jobs at uni as an iOS dev. Problem is I don't know how to sell myself as a developer or look for jobs.
  - uasm 8y ago
    > "had a couple of jobs at uni as an iOS dev" That's a great start, but what kind of jobs are we talking about here? I'm asking because you might want to invest into building more experience before breaking off on your own. I'm talking about possibly larger projects, cooperating with other teams, driving products forward, working with PMs/customer requirements and so on. One way to get there is to work at a larger organization. People place value on experience.
    - jdmg718 8y ago
      I've been developing using Swift for three years and built several apps for myself and published them. Those jobs were coding purely in Swift developing apps from scratch and using frameworks I've never used and learning about them (like AVFoundation), I think that's a great start and some basic experience.
      - alain94040 8y ago
        The tried and true approach to starting on your own is to land your first customer by being the cheapest, use that as a reference, and charge serious money once you have a track record that you can point to. The alternative is to get a normal full-time job for a few years, build credibility, then go on your own using the contacts you made at your employer.
        uasm 8y ago
        > "The tried and true approach to starting on your own is to land your first customer by being the cheapest" That's definitely worth trying. But please remember, that is exactly what in an insurmountable amount of people is currently doing over at UpWork/Fiverr/Freelancer.com. You need some kind of advantage over them - if you want to nail your jobs and get paid a salary that can sustain you.
mickael-kerjean 8y ago
> I cannot pay for a lawyer or an accountant yet most of the people recommend it Things are simple. The rule is: "If you can't pay for it, you probably don't need it". I am also one of those solo consultant, personally I got mine when I found out the price I was paying my accountant was multiple time less than the loss of not having one. To give some numbers, if you give to your government more than $5k, it will be worth your while with all the tax cut you can claim.
dboreham 8y ago
You might want to consider charging more and retaining some income to cover professional fees. That said those fees don't need to be huge. We typically pay our lawyer and accountant less than $1000/yr, and we have more business and more complexity than you'd have starting out. Note that these folks aren't doing actual accounting and contract negotiation for you, just providing advice on how to set things up, on fine details, final agreement review, taxes, stuff like that which you can't get from Wikipedia and SO.

pasta 8y ago

For small projects you might not need a lawyer or accountant. But when you feel the balance is right you should hire people who can help you with your problems. At the moment you might do small projects but when project get bigger and your rate higher you will see that an accountant will become affordable. And when you do multi million projects you will be able to afford a lawyer. But one thing that is very important even when you are still 'small': register everything! What money goes in and what goes out. What the contracts are and all your email conversations with clients. This will help you and future accounts and lawyers.

uasm 8y ago

> "Problem is, as a student I am trying to go freelance and start getting clients by doing small projects." Is this more-or-less your first job straight out of school?

jdmg718 8y ago
Nope, had a couple of jobs at uni as an iOS dev. Problem is I don't know how to sell myself as a developer or look for jobs.
- uasm 8y ago
  > "had a couple of jobs at uni as an iOS dev" That's a great start, but what kind of jobs are we talking about here? I'm asking because you might want to invest into building more experience before breaking off on your own. I'm talking about possibly larger projects, cooperating with other teams, driving products forward, working with PMs/customer requirements and so on. One way to get there is to work at a larger organization. People place value on experience.
  - jdmg718 8y ago
    I've been developing using Swift for three years and built several apps for myself and published them. Those jobs were coding purely in Swift developing apps from scratch and using frameworks I've never used and learning about them (like AVFoundation), I think that's a great start and some basic experience.
    - alain94040 8y ago
      The tried and true approach to starting on your own is to land your first customer by being the cheapest, use that as a reference, and charge serious money once you have a track record that you can point to. The alternative is to get a normal full-time job for a few years, build credibility, then go on your own using the contacts you made at your employer.
      - uasm 8y ago
        > "The tried and true approach to starting on your own is to land your first customer by being the cheapest" That's definitely worth trying. But please remember, that is exactly what in an insurmountable amount of people is currently doing over at UpWork/Fiverr/Freelancer.com. You need some kind of advantage over them - if you want to nail your jobs and get paid a salary that can sustain you.

mickael-kerjean 8y ago

> I cannot pay for a lawyer or an accountant yet most of the people recommend it Things are simple. The rule is: "If you can't pay for it, you probably don't need it". I am also one of those solo consultant, personally I got mine when I found out the price I was paying my accountant was multiple time less than the loss of not having one. To give some numbers, if you give to your government more than $5k, it will be worth your while with all the tax cut you can claim.

dboreham 8y ago

You might want to consider charging more and retaining some income to cover professional fees. That said those fees don't need to be huge. We typically pay our lawyer and accountant less than $1000/yr, and we have more business and more complexity than you'd have starting out. Note that these folks aren't doing actual accounting and contract negotiation for you, just providing advice on how to set things up, on fine details, final agreement review, taxes, stuff like that which you can't get from Wikipedia and SO.