4 ms·
Ask HN: Freelancers/Contractors: Do you work 8hrs/day?
There’s been many discussions lately about how most devs don’t have the stamina for more than ~4hrs of focused dev time a day, which I find to be mostly accurate.
The question then becomes for freelancers, when you’re in the middle of a longish contract, how do you actually maximize your billable time? Eg do you find client work that much more palatable that you actually do manage to work 8hrs a day on it? Are your rates high enough that you can do about 4hrs/day and still come out ahead? (Probably took a long time to get to that point?) Something else?
- Gluber 5y agoI am in an unqiue position that clients seek me out based on my experience to solve problems, that their inhouse staff can't solve. (software engineering, architecture or specific technologies ) They are often happy and making a bargain letting me do those things at rates of 350 € / hour compared to having to hire / find specific people having that kind of experience and paying them long term . My contracts are usually 6-12 months only. On the other hand i often negotiate a flat fee for a specific task... For example my last one was solving a very specific computer vision problem for a client after their inhouse project team(s) of 5 people were not able to solve it over the course of 6 months. It took me about 8 hours in total to solve it, and maybe 40 hours to integrate it with their product/document it. However i billed them close to 100.000 € for that task, ( pre agreed by them upon successful completion ) and worked bascially a week only. But compared to 5 people * 6 months * salaries of 100k = 250.000 it was a bargain for them ( not counting overhead costs and the likely hood of further time not solving it )
- granshaw 5y agoHey Gluber, funny enough we might require your computer-vision expertise for an upcoming product – do you have a website or linkedin where we can find out more and/or engage you further? Thanks!
- Gluber 5y agoSure, but I would rather not post my info publicly... If you have a throwaway email or other way of me sending you my information i would be glad to.
- gus_massa 5y agoPatio11 recommends to charge weekly instead of hourly (and raise your price): https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1 https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin... HN discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4805091 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4805091 (1034 points | Nov 19, 2012| 263 comments) and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410 (780 points | Dec 23, 2017 | 481 comments)
- granshaw 5y agoThanks, but easier said than done in practice, as clients just don’t go for it. Heard from a long time contractor that the most he can swing is daily rates for some clients Plus it puts a lot more risk on yourself, your estimation skills, and potential unknowns and events
- ranugupta26 5y agoI think most of them do. Freelancers at Gigzoe (https://gigzoe.com https://gigzoe.com) on avg work work about 8-9 hrs daily as per our survey.