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I have been self employed for 20 years. I used to put my work first, and in 2012 I did a serious burnout and nearly died (common virus can make a LOT of damage

by kuon 7y ago

I have been self employed for 20 years. I used to put my work first, and in 2012 I did a serious burnout and nearly died (common virus can make a LOT of damage when you are exhausted). So I changed my view of life. Now I consider myself on vacation all the time, and work comes second. I work less and get roughly the same amount of money because I plan projects better and select only the ones that pays well. But my kids are first. For example, it's 11AM here and I am still playing with my daughter and her Xmas duplo set she got. But after dinner I'll work for 4h and be very productive because I am well rested and know exactly what I will do. The main thing is planning to not be overwhelmed. It takes time and also you should not fear saying no or "it will take six month" to a customer. They are also happier because I am more consistent and regular in my advancements. Be well, and take care of yourself.

michaelgrafl 7y ago
I still have trouble with giving time estimates that seem realistic to me when I feel the customer will think it should be done in a shorter amount of time. I hate this, because I turn out to take longer and have to push the dealine back on short notice, which makes me feel awful. Especially when I knew from the beginning that my estimate was very tight.
- toyg 7y ago
  I have a similar problem. I’ve found some of it can be fixed by overquoting and then leaving money on the table. You quote twice what you think you’ll need, then make them pay what it actually took. If they push back on the quote, shave a fourth of it max. If they still don’t budge, walk away - if a customer is bent on short-changing you, there will be worse issues down the line. After a couple of iterations of “I quoted 2x but it took 1.5x so here’s an invoice just for that” they should have no problem trusting your quotes as “worst case” scenarios and letting you free to manage deadlines as it suits you. In the event of it actually taking 2x, just make sure you overdeliver in some way - be it in the documentation for the delay, at worst. The thing is, it’s ok to haggle and say No to a customer. A lot of them expect your first quote will take advantage of them. There will be no hard feelings after the negotiation, it’s just business. Obviously then you have to manage yourself. That’s a bit harder, and very much down to individual preferences and inclinations. Daily meditation in the morning helped me in that area, but everyone is different.
- kuon 7y ago
  Yeah, I had the same problem, but you can explain why it takes so long to the customer. Another tactic I use often is to cut of features, or simplify them in ways that are subtle to the customer but change a lot in term of development time. For example, let's say you need to display search results of some sort, instead of displaying all the results with pagination, you can just display the 50 highest results. The customer might not notice, and you just cut yourself some development time. Of course this is just an example, but you get the idea.

by kuon 7y ago

michaelgrafl 7y ago

I still have trouble with giving time estimates that seem realistic to me when I feel the customer will think it should be done in a shorter amount of time. I hate this, because I turn out to take longer and have to push the dealine back on short notice, which makes me feel awful. Especially when I knew from the beginning that my estimate was very tight.

toyg 7y ago
I have a similar problem. I’ve found some of it can be fixed by overquoting and then leaving money on the table. You quote twice what you think you’ll need, then make them pay what it actually took. If they push back on the quote, shave a fourth of it max. If they still don’t budge, walk away - if a customer is bent on short-changing you, there will be worse issues down the line. After a couple of iterations of “I quoted 2x but it took 1.5x so here’s an invoice just for that” they should have no problem trusting your quotes as “worst case” scenarios and letting you free to manage deadlines as it suits you. In the event of it actually taking 2x, just make sure you overdeliver in some way - be it in the documentation for the delay, at worst. The thing is, it’s ok to haggle and say No to a customer. A lot of them expect your first quote will take advantage of them. There will be no hard feelings after the negotiation, it’s just business. Obviously then you have to manage yourself. That’s a bit harder, and very much down to individual preferences and inclinations. Daily meditation in the morning helped me in that area, but everyone is different.
kuon 7y ago
Yeah, I had the same problem, but you can explain why it takes so long to the customer. Another tactic I use often is to cut of features, or simplify them in ways that are subtle to the customer but change a lot in term of development time. For example, let's say you need to display search results of some sort, instead of displaying all the results with pagination, you can just display the 50 highest results. The customer might not notice, and you just cut yourself some development time. Of course this is just an example, but you get the idea.