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IMHO, Nothing like agile for freelancing.. every week the customer gets a solid deliverable, every week I get a real paycheck. If at any time the customer does

IMHO, Nothing like agile for freelancing.. every week the customer gets a solid deliverable, every week I get a real paycheck. If at any time the customer does not like my work or I don't like the customer, we can always part ways, what is done is all 100% his, (documentation, source code etc) Worst case scenario.. I am out a week's work. *so far, I've never been stiffed.

fierarul 14y ago
Precisely. The biggest mistake newbie freelancers do is go for fixed prices projects and then allow feature creep.
- clueless123 14y ago
  If you are charging per iteration, feature creep is great! (joke,joke) The truth is that I do a lot of guiding for the customer to protect them from bad choices. When requested to do something I think is wrong, a favorite response of mine is: What you are asking me to do is like saying: "please hit my finger with a hammer". that said, it is your finger and your hammer , so I'll do what you decide.
sentinel 14y ago
You would still have a scope, right? And I assume you would give the client a quote or approximate duration of the project, right?
- clueless123 14y ago
  What I usually do is say: Projects similar to what you are asking for, have taken me about xxx hours of work.. but our mileage may vary. If you don't like my progress the first week, you can always fire me. Or.. for xx hours I can go as far as I can, then you can judge if it is worth it. My rate is high, but I usually over deliver per hour worked, so it is a good deal for someone who has already wasted money with "cheap" developers. The key is trust and communication, I do spend a lot of time talking with customers to make sure that we understand each other (I charge for talk time, texts are mostly free)
nahname 14y ago
So one week iterations with a showcase at the end?
- clueless123 14y ago
  Yes, and lots of communication with the customer so he/she knows exactly what they will be getting. ( Deliverables are usually a web based demo they can play with (and send feedback on) or a run of unit tests. *setting up servers (git,jenkings,fitnesse,apache,mysql,etc are common deliverables too)
blaines 14y ago
So are you collecting money up front?
- clueless123 14y ago
  Nope, I am asking customers to trust me on technical decisions, so I trust them to pay me on time. The above said, I never start the next iteration till paypal says the money is there.
d_luaz 14y ago
I wish the customers at this part of the world (Malaysia) are sophisticated enough to accept the concept of "time & material". Most of them will refuse to pay if they are not satisfied with the work (in regardless of the completeness); and a partially completed work is of no value to a typical customer (especially non-IT customers).
- clueless123 14y ago
  Trust is a key issue, if we don't trust each other we are already in trouble. Trust goes both ways, so that is why I charge at the end of an iteration with no money advance at all.

fierarul 14y ago

Precisely. The biggest mistake newbie freelancers do is go for fixed prices projects and then allow feature creep.

clueless123 14y ago
If you are charging per iteration, feature creep is great! (joke,joke) The truth is that I do a lot of guiding for the customer to protect them from bad choices. When requested to do something I think is wrong, a favorite response of mine is: What you are asking me to do is like saying: "please hit my finger with a hammer". that said, it is your finger and your hammer , so I'll do what you decide.

sentinel 14y ago

You would still have a scope, right? And I assume you would give the client a quote or approximate duration of the project, right?

clueless123 14y ago
What I usually do is say: Projects similar to what you are asking for, have taken me about xxx hours of work.. but our mileage may vary. If you don't like my progress the first week, you can always fire me. Or.. for xx hours I can go as far as I can, then you can judge if it is worth it. My rate is high, but I usually over deliver per hour worked, so it is a good deal for someone who has already wasted money with "cheap" developers. The key is trust and communication, I do spend a lot of time talking with customers to make sure that we understand each other (I charge for talk time, texts are mostly free)

nahname 14y ago

So one week iterations with a showcase at the end?

clueless123 14y ago
Yes, and lots of communication with the customer so he/she knows exactly what they will be getting. ( Deliverables are usually a web based demo they can play with (and send feedback on) or a run of unit tests. *setting up servers (git,jenkings,fitnesse,apache,mysql,etc are common deliverables too)

blaines 14y ago

So are you collecting money up front?

clueless123 14y ago
Nope, I am asking customers to trust me on technical decisions, so I trust them to pay me on time. The above said, I never start the next iteration till paypal says the money is there.

d_luaz 14y ago

I wish the customers at this part of the world (Malaysia) are sophisticated enough to accept the concept of "time & material". Most of them will refuse to pay if they are not satisfied with the work (in regardless of the completeness); and a partially completed work is of no value to a typical customer (especially non-IT customers).

clueless123 14y ago
Trust is a key issue, if we don't trust each other we are already in trouble. Trust goes both ways, so that is why I charge at the end of an iteration with no money advance at all.