Starting from zero is too much for all of that. However, just the fact that you know what you need to start with isn't starting from zero. You don't need to k

Starting from zero is too much for all of that. However, just the fact that you know what you need to start with isn't starting from zero. You don't need to know everything. I have been a freelance back-end developer for something like four years and I always get the CSS / HTML / designs handed to me. Sure, I need to do some light HTML / CSS work when I need to tweak something or just to know what I'm looking at, but that's pretty easy to pick up. The same goes for the other side of the coin. If you are a good at design / CSS / HTML then you could be the guy handing that stuff off to the back-end developers. Part of being a freelancer is the technical side, the rest is the business side. A sleazy salesman can sell anything. If you are good at BS'ing people then you could sell jobs for higher rates than you mentioned on day one and outsource that work. So, going from zero to freelancer is very doable in three months. Going from noob to proficient developer in three months isn't so easy and depends on you. If you work full days at it every day and focus on the back-end then I imagine you could be proficient in Rails in that time.