4 ms·

Ask HN: Is part time freelancing possible

10 points by xupybd 6y ago

A good friend of mine is looking for ways to boost his income as his third child is on the way. He is a youth worker full time, that's his passion but it doesn't pay well. He can write software but hasn't professionally. My gut feeling is that it's going to be hard to make money without experience and connections but I'd love to be wrong. Has anyone had experience doing this sort of thing?

muzani 6y ago
I've done it for a long time. The demand is so high that they'll keep raising the prices even as you turn them down. Once you get clients, you'll keep getting them. It sounds like the hard part is just meeting enough people to consider yourself qualified. A third of the work in freelancing is marketing, another third is research and/or selling off prototypes at a loss. For example, it's costly to figure out how to make an app with Google+ sign in, but it's easy to do the second time. It could be possible to start cheap, by letting experienced developers outsource that kind of work to you for something like $10/hour. You can also look for Fiverr style stuff like assembling a Wordpress site or writing tests.
- chrisandchris 6y ago
  If you start at $10/hour it won‘t hurt a company at all if you rise prices, for like, 100%... But who will charge that much and still make a living? Part-time freelancer might work, but you need to know your customer and your customer needs to know what you provide him. Otherwise you might to loose customers over „I‘m sorry I‘m only availble Fridays“.
  - muzani 6y ago
    I think it's a fair price for someone who has no reputation, poor availability and little confidence. They can always increase their prices later with experience. Lots of people are also happy to outsource to someone who works slowly and cheaply, as long as the work isn't core. For example, we had a lot of side features that nobody in the company had time to do, or things like converting a hybrid app to native, where a lot of the work was porting screenshots into XML. Cheap, hourly makes sense sometimes, because a newbie might take 2 hours to do one layout while an experienced pro might take 5 minutes. This lets them experiment at their own pace and eliminates risk for a company. It also pays better than say, doing Uber. Ironically charging too high can be detrimental for someone new as they tend to get paralyzed with trying to do too much in a compact amount of time. It might take someone an hour just to get into the flow if they're new at it.
brudgers 6y ago
It's possible, but not easy unless work falls in your lap. If it doesn't fall in your lap, you have to find it and finding it is hard. The difficulty is probably proportional to how rich the people you know are. Rich people are more likely to have a rationale for hiring a software developer and more likely to have the wherewithal to pay for the work. In other words, the kids your friend works with probably don't need software development and don't have much money. Or to put it a third way, you're not hiring your friend which is not a criticism of you just an example of how far up the food chain freelance software clients have to be.
giantg2 6y ago
What I don't understand is why people pop out more kids if they have to pick up another job to pay for them. You already have 2. Isn't the point of having kids to spend time raising them? Now there has to be a third and you have to pick up a second job so you hardly spend time with them.
- giantg2 6y ago
  Whoever downvoted this, I would love to hear why.
- xupybd 6y ago
  In this case he will be dropping his hours in his other job. He will do this either way. His current job is for a charity and pays below minimum wage.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    That would make sense. I didn't see that in the post.
davidajackson 6y ago
>> My gut feeling is that it's going to be hard to make money without experience and connections but I'd love to be wrong Yes. You can do this by: Building lots of products and launching them and reaching out to people who are looking for contractors online and sharing similar/relevant products you're launched. It sounds like you're describing the classic problem for getting started in a new career (no work experience & jobs like experience). The numbers likely won't be pretty for trying to get clients. For example, I know someone who is a self taught designer, and very good too, and had to apply to 100+ jobs in this market to get 5 interviews, and then had an offer from 1 and decided to end the process and take the job. Those numbers can be discouraging but it only takes 1 yes to get that first real work experience, and from there it only gets easier.
codingdave 6y ago
If he isn't trying to get "startup rich", and really just wants some extra income, just knock on the door of every mom & pop shop on your local main street and offer help with their web site. You'll find a few takers, and that starts your portfolio and network. You won't make great money on such things, but you'll start to get some folks who need simple projects - a script to copy data from email into an accounting system, for example. So he can start to write software professionally, and add that to his portfolio. It will take time. The first few projects won't pay much. But that is how you start - with small projects. Then you ask the people who couldn't afford much more than a website with a couple scripts if they know anyone who needs help. And you work your way up to bigger companies. With bigger problems. And bigger budgets. Eventually, you'll see a pain point that multiple companies have asked for. Write software to fix the pain point. And expand that software into a business. This is exactly how successful "lifestyle" software companies are built. Do small things until you find the bigger things.
stakkur 6y ago
The answer always depends on clients. Can you find and keep them? Are they adequate? Does the work amount to 'part time'? And many 'full time' freelancers (I've been one) find themselves repeatedly being 'part time' when there's a slow month. Freelancing is hard, and is a combination of luck, timing, and seriously hard work. There is no formula. Ever.

10 points by xupybd 6y ago

muzani 6y ago

I've done it for a long time. The demand is so high that they'll keep raising the prices even as you turn them down. Once you get clients, you'll keep getting them. It sounds like the hard part is just meeting enough people to consider yourself qualified. A third of the work in freelancing is marketing, another third is research and/or selling off prototypes at a loss. For example, it's costly to figure out how to make an app with Google+ sign in, but it's easy to do the second time. It could be possible to start cheap, by letting experienced developers outsource that kind of work to you for something like $10/hour. You can also look for Fiverr style stuff like assembling a Wordpress site or writing tests.

chrisandchris 6y ago
If you start at $10/hour it won‘t hurt a company at all if you rise prices, for like, 100%... But who will charge that much and still make a living? Part-time freelancer might work, but you need to know your customer and your customer needs to know what you provide him. Otherwise you might to loose customers over „I‘m sorry I‘m only availble Fridays“.
- muzani 6y ago
  I think it's a fair price for someone who has no reputation, poor availability and little confidence. They can always increase their prices later with experience. Lots of people are also happy to outsource to someone who works slowly and cheaply, as long as the work isn't core. For example, we had a lot of side features that nobody in the company had time to do, or things like converting a hybrid app to native, where a lot of the work was porting screenshots into XML. Cheap, hourly makes sense sometimes, because a newbie might take 2 hours to do one layout while an experienced pro might take 5 minutes. This lets them experiment at their own pace and eliminates risk for a company. It also pays better than say, doing Uber. Ironically charging too high can be detrimental for someone new as they tend to get paralyzed with trying to do too much in a compact amount of time. It might take someone an hour just to get into the flow if they're new at it.

brudgers 6y ago

It's possible, but not easy unless work falls in your lap. If it doesn't fall in your lap, you have to find it and finding it is hard. The difficulty is probably proportional to how rich the people you know are. Rich people are more likely to have a rationale for hiring a software developer and more likely to have the wherewithal to pay for the work. In other words, the kids your friend works with probably don't need software development and don't have much money. Or to put it a third way, you're not hiring your friend which is not a criticism of you just an example of how far up the food chain freelance software clients have to be.

giantg2 6y ago

What I don't understand is why people pop out more kids if they have to pick up another job to pay for them. You already have 2. Isn't the point of having kids to spend time raising them? Now there has to be a third and you have to pick up a second job so you hardly spend time with them.

giantg2 6y ago
Whoever downvoted this, I would love to hear why.
xupybd 6y ago
In this case he will be dropping his hours in his other job. He will do this either way. His current job is for a charity and pays below minimum wage.
- giantg2 6y ago
  That would make sense. I didn't see that in the post.

davidajackson 6y ago

>> My gut feeling is that it's going to be hard to make money without experience and connections but I'd love to be wrong Yes. You can do this by: Building lots of products and launching them and reaching out to people who are looking for contractors online and sharing similar/relevant products you're launched. It sounds like you're describing the classic problem for getting started in a new career (no work experience & jobs like experience). The numbers likely won't be pretty for trying to get clients. For example, I know someone who is a self taught designer, and very good too, and had to apply to 100+ jobs in this market to get 5 interviews, and then had an offer from 1 and decided to end the process and take the job. Those numbers can be discouraging but it only takes 1 yes to get that first real work experience, and from there it only gets easier.

codingdave 6y ago

If he isn't trying to get "startup rich", and really just wants some extra income, just knock on the door of every mom & pop shop on your local main street and offer help with their web site. You'll find a few takers, and that starts your portfolio and network. You won't make great money on such things, but you'll start to get some folks who need simple projects - a script to copy data from email into an accounting system, for example. So he can start to write software professionally, and add that to his portfolio. It will take time. The first few projects won't pay much. But that is how you start - with small projects. Then you ask the people who couldn't afford much more than a website with a couple scripts if they know anyone who needs help. And you work your way up to bigger companies. With bigger problems. And bigger budgets. Eventually, you'll see a pain point that multiple companies have asked for. Write software to fix the pain point. And expand that software into a business. This is exactly how successful "lifestyle" software companies are built. Do small things until you find the bigger things.

stakkur 6y ago

The answer always depends on clients. Can you find and keep them? Are they adequate? Does the work amount to 'part time'? And many 'full time' freelancers (I've been one) find themselves repeatedly being 'part time' when there's a slow month. Freelancing is hard, and is a combination of luck, timing, and seriously hard work. There is no formula. Ever.