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Yes it's been said many times and they make it sound so easy, yet its not! >> "You are now a consultant" <- this kills me. there are so many steps and effort

Yes it's been said many times and they make it sound so easy, yet its not! >> "You are now a consultant" <- this kills me. there are so many steps and effort before rising your rates, and becoming a consultant This is so similar to the "how to draw an owl" meme

woogiewonka 8y ago
What steps? You are your own boss, you can set your own rates to whatever you like. I think the challenge for most freelancers is fighting their own mind. Somehow, they feel they have to justify their rates and that someone is going to judge them. If you deliver significant value to a business you are helping, does that not justify it? I think a lot of it has to do with self-confidence and ability to think like a business, not a freelancer. If you constantly put yourself in an "employee" inferior position then you will think like that and behave accordingly. Set yourself free of that mindset and you will be on par with the people you talk to.
geezerjay 8y ago
Acknowledging that you're a one-man business and thus you're the sole responsible for how your business is conducted is not remotely similar to the "how to draw an owl" meme. You only accept what you're willing to accept, and if a client decides to play you for a fool then the only person responsible for keeping a business arrangement that is clearly bad for you and works against your personal interests is yourself.
ddebernardy 8y ago
Actually, no. Step 1 is to increase your rates and start labeling yourself as a consultant. Step 2 is to start charging by the day, with an hour or two in each one reserved for your administrative work (email, prospecting, accounting, etc). The rest will follow. And if a lead enquires about why you're so much more expensive than that option they found on some cheapo website, you can spell out the consultant's version of the iron triangle: cheap, competent, available; pick two.
- frlnc_throwaway 8y ago
  Step 1 is to build a specialised skillset. Step 2 is to network with people a few years ahead of you in your specialism, who can help you figure out how to do more "high-level" work in whatever you do and maybe bring you on as a junior person for some of their projects Step 3 is to demonstrate credibility (portfolio of projects using your specialism, professional online presence, know how to sell yourself to clients, etc) Step 4 is to increase your rates and start labeling yourself as a consultant
frlnc_throwaway 8y ago
I heard that advice from HN when I started freelance out of university at age 23. I ended up embarassing myself a couple of times, by either: - asking for a high day rate when I lacked experience (e.g., for freelance Rails work, when I kinda knew Rails but lacked experience with most of the tooling, testing frameworks, etc) - trying to sell "consulting" work when I had only a vague idea how consulting worked. So, yeah, while "charge more!!!" might be a useful message for underconfident programmers who don't know their own value, it's too simplistic and it omits many essential steps. My takeway: if you plan to freelance long-term, you should treat it as a business, and plan to build a specialism. Once you've built a specialised skillset, and demonstrated credibility, then you should start systematically looking for higher-paying clients, and be confident in asking for what you are worth. But you have to know you are worth it, first. Once you've done that for a while, then you can start thinking about business-level problems and doing something higher level (which requires nailing a whole bunch of soft skills, too). Another factor to consider is that if you're in a major city, there are probably other programmers doing freelance/contract work in your skillset, which you can use to gauge what a sensible rate would be, and what knowledge you need to gain. Oh and - there's also the factor that as a newbie freelancer you often find the really crappy low-end clients that have a fixed budget and high expectations (e.g., small local businesses. I have nothing against small local businesses, but they're not good clients for freelance coding work). I went through a lot of stress working on such projects. Working for more high-paying, professional clients (digital agencies, banks that hire a lot of contractors, etc) is ironically a lot less stressful.
- frlnc_throwaway 8y ago
  And finally - I never ended up doing freelance work for that long. It was only something I ended up doing in-between other stuff. I realised that it was not a career path I wanted to pursue -- if you are a very ambitious person, doing client work can become a grind after a few years. However, if you want to run a nice small business, starting off as a freelancer and growing into a small consultancy or digital agency can be a very good path to take. You will not become a billionaire, but plenty of people become millionaires that way.

woogiewonka 8y ago

What steps? You are your own boss, you can set your own rates to whatever you like. I think the challenge for most freelancers is fighting their own mind. Somehow, they feel they have to justify their rates and that someone is going to judge them. If you deliver significant value to a business you are helping, does that not justify it? I think a lot of it has to do with self-confidence and ability to think like a business, not a freelancer. If you constantly put yourself in an "employee" inferior position then you will think like that and behave accordingly. Set yourself free of that mindset and you will be on par with the people you talk to.

geezerjay 8y ago

Acknowledging that you're a one-man business and thus you're the sole responsible for how your business is conducted is not remotely similar to the "how to draw an owl" meme. You only accept what you're willing to accept, and if a client decides to play you for a fool then the only person responsible for keeping a business arrangement that is clearly bad for you and works against your personal interests is yourself.

ddebernardy 8y ago

Actually, no. Step 1 is to increase your rates and start labeling yourself as a consultant. Step 2 is to start charging by the day, with an hour or two in each one reserved for your administrative work (email, prospecting, accounting, etc). The rest will follow. And if a lead enquires about why you're so much more expensive than that option they found on some cheapo website, you can spell out the consultant's version of the iron triangle: cheap, competent, available; pick two.

frlnc_throwaway 8y ago
Step 1 is to build a specialised skillset. Step 2 is to network with people a few years ahead of you in your specialism, who can help you figure out how to do more "high-level" work in whatever you do and maybe bring you on as a junior person for some of their projects Step 3 is to demonstrate credibility (portfolio of projects using your specialism, professional online presence, know how to sell yourself to clients, etc) Step 4 is to increase your rates and start labeling yourself as a consultant

frlnc_throwaway 8y ago

I heard that advice from HN when I started freelance out of university at age 23. I ended up embarassing myself a couple of times, by either: - asking for a high day rate when I lacked experience (e.g., for freelance Rails work, when I kinda knew Rails but lacked experience with most of the tooling, testing frameworks, etc) - trying to sell "consulting" work when I had only a vague idea how consulting worked. So, yeah, while "charge more!!!" might be a useful message for underconfident programmers who don't know their own value, it's too simplistic and it omits many essential steps. My takeway: if you plan to freelance long-term, you should treat it as a business, and plan to build a specialism. Once you've built a specialised skillset, and demonstrated credibility, then you should start systematically looking for higher-paying clients, and be confident in asking for what you are worth. But you have to know you are worth it, first. Once you've done that for a while, then you can start thinking about business-level problems and doing something higher level (which requires nailing a whole bunch of soft skills, too). Another factor to consider is that if you're in a major city, there are probably other programmers doing freelance/contract work in your skillset, which you can use to gauge what a sensible rate would be, and what knowledge you need to gain. Oh and - there's also the factor that as a newbie freelancer you often find the really crappy low-end clients that have a fixed budget and high expectations (e.g., small local businesses. I have nothing against small local businesses, but they're not good clients for freelance coding work). I went through a lot of stress working on such projects. Working for more high-paying, professional clients (digital agencies, banks that hire a lot of contractors, etc) is ironically a lot less stressful.

frlnc_throwaway 8y ago
And finally - I never ended up doing freelance work for that long. It was only something I ended up doing in-between other stuff. I realised that it was not a career path I wanted to pursue -- if you are a very ambitious person, doing client work can become a grind after a few years. However, if you want to run a nice small business, starting off as a freelancer and growing into a small consultancy or digital agency can be a very good path to take. You will not become a billionaire, but plenty of people become millionaires that way.