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4 Things I Learned the Hard Way While Freelancing

50 points by gedrap 12y ago

noir_lord 12y ago
I love the pomodoro technique mostly because it reminds me to remove external distractions, so much so that I built my own tool for it. http://i.imgur.com/BxeyJF8.png http://i.imgur.com/BxeyJF8.png (as lots of them don't let you alter periods of time, sound notifications etc) with a simple task list (I was improving my JS skills so I wrote the clock timer as a jquery plugin and the interface with knockout.js, a useful little exercise). Itch scratching but I use it every day :)
- gedrap 12y ago
  Personally I use this Android app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phlam.android.clockworktomato https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phlam.andr... Planning to built a Pomodoro clock using Arduino... Some day :) I know there is a bunch of them available but hey nothing is more fun than using a device built by yourself.
  - noir_lord 12y ago
    I've used that and it's really well written, issues I had though where I work with headphones in (even at home) so I often didn't hear the tablet/phone where I can chuck mine on a virtualdesktop off screen and just listen for the notification noise (it also does desktop notifications on chrome). An arduino one with a nice dot lcd and some kind of logging would be a kickass little project though, I might steal that as an idea :D
jseliger 12y ago
This isn't a list of N things (http://paulgraham.com/nthings.html http://paulgraham.com/nthings.html), but I wrote about another essential, underestimated aspect of consulting: understanding when you've been hired and what potential clients will do to take advantage of perceived weakness: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/how-i-learned-about-assertiveness-and-reality-from-being-a-consultant http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/how-i-learned-about... .
- rrradical 12y ago
  Why in the world did you include that business_woman.jpg image?
- gedrap 12y ago
  Good points! I noticed similar trend, mainly with non-paying (or paying super-late clients). At the very beginning, I tried to be very understanding and find excuses for them (shit happens, you know). But I got screwed over for being so naive and decided to be stricter next time something similar happens (I was thinking about 2 weeks and no money - no work from then). But I got better at recognising potential trouble-clients and luckily, haven't had to do that :)
icambron 12y ago
> P.S. Everyone is telling you to charge the double you are charging now. Yes, do it. Just do it. You have no idea how underpaid you are (and will cry once you realise). This is really, really good advice. Seriously, you are not charging enough. If you aren't being told "no, that's too much" by a hefty fraction of your potential clients, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table. Up your price until you're being told no by most people. You want people to think twice about whether they can afford you.
- rrradical 12y ago
  To me this would make sense if I had a large network of potential clients, but since I'm just starting out, I find it hard to be that picky. I'm planning on raising my price as I build up a body of work. Is that a sound plan?
  - gedrap 12y ago
    Yes and no, I think. Depends on your starting point. I did that to double my rate in ~8 months (every time I am looking for a new client, I tell my rate 20-30% larger then the last time). But if you are starting at $20/h or so, you might want to start at higher rate from Day 1. Because it might be easy to find clients, but often they will be a bit problematic, you work probably won't be valued greatly, etc. As paradoxal as it might seem, the best and easiest to work with clients are the ones who you are charging the most. Related amazing podcast http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/21/ramit-sethi-and-patrick-mckenzie-on-why-your-customers-would-be-happier-if-you-charged-more/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/21/ramit-sethi-and-patrick-...
  - dlevine 12y ago
    The problem I've found is that it's hard to bill more than 20-30 hours in a week. A lot of time is spent doing things that aren't billable (meeting with potential clients, going to networking events, etc...), and of the time sitting at my desk "doing work," not all of it is going to be billable (I only charge for the time I actually spend doing work). And the other problem is that there is lag time between two projects, so even when I have a project end, it's almost impossible to time it so that there isn't downtime in between. As a result, I probably end up billing for maybe 20 hours a week (on average). So if I'm billing out at a rate that's twice what I would make per hour at a full-time job (40 hours a week), I end up quite a bit behind. (I have to pay for self-employment taxes, any expenses such as office space etc..., plus any benefits that I give myself). In the end, I'm learning that it's a lot harder to make the economics work out than you would expect. When I had a startup, I looked at the guy who was billing us $140 an hour, and thought he was making bank. In hindsight, I've realized that he was probably doing just fine, but he probably did it because he enjoyed the work and the lifestyle, and not because it was going to make him rich.
kunstmord 12y ago
I worked as a free-lance programmer 'on retainer' for a big project (I'd do work for them once a month or so). It's never too early to discuss what will happen when you want to quit. I didn't do that, and after being more and more bored with the work, less and less excited about the pay and the whole project, I still spent more time working for them than would have been deemed reasonable, because there was no way to cleanly break off this work relationship according to a predefined set of rules. It worked out OK in the end, but knowing that you can stop your free-lance work anytime you want (assuming you don't owe anything and the client doesn't owe you anything) and pursue other projects makes it a lot less stressful in some cases.

50 points by gedrap 12y ago

I love the pomodoro technique mostly because it reminds me to remove external distractions, so much so that I built my own tool for it. http://i.imgur.com/BxeyJF8.png http://i.imgur.com/BxeyJF8.png (as lots of them don't let you alter periods of time, sound notifications etc) with a simple task list (I was improving my JS skills so I wrote the clock timer as a jquery plugin and the interface with knockout.js, a useful little exercise). Itch scratching but I use it every day :)

gedrap 12y ago
Personally I use this Android app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phlam.android.clockworktomato https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phlam.andr... Planning to built a Pomodoro clock using Arduino... Some day :) I know there is a bunch of them available but hey nothing is more fun than using a device built by yourself.
- noir_lord 12y ago
  I've used that and it's really well written, issues I had though where I work with headphones in (even at home) so I often didn't hear the tablet/phone where I can chuck mine on a virtualdesktop off screen and just listen for the notification noise (it also does desktop notifications on chrome). An arduino one with a nice dot lcd and some kind of logging would be a kickass little project though, I might steal that as an idea :D

jseliger 12y ago

This isn't a list of N things (http://paulgraham.com/nthings.html http://paulgraham.com/nthings.html), but I wrote about another essential, underestimated aspect of consulting: understanding when you've been hired and what potential clients will do to take advantage of perceived weakness: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/how-i-learned-about-assertiveness-and-reality-from-being-a-consultant http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/how-i-learned-about... .

rrradical 12y ago
Why in the world did you include that business_woman.jpg image?
gedrap 12y ago
Good points! I noticed similar trend, mainly with non-paying (or paying super-late clients). At the very beginning, I tried to be very understanding and find excuses for them (shit happens, you know). But I got screwed over for being so naive and decided to be stricter next time something similar happens (I was thinking about 2 weeks and no money - no work from then). But I got better at recognising potential trouble-clients and luckily, haven't had to do that :)

icambron 12y ago

> P.S. Everyone is telling you to charge the double you are charging now. Yes, do it. Just do it. You have no idea how underpaid you are (and will cry once you realise). This is really, really good advice. Seriously, you are not charging enough. If you aren't being told "no, that's too much" by a hefty fraction of your potential clients, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table. Up your price until you're being told no by most people. You want people to think twice about whether they can afford you.

rrradical 12y ago
To me this would make sense if I had a large network of potential clients, but since I'm just starting out, I find it hard to be that picky. I'm planning on raising my price as I build up a body of work. Is that a sound plan?
- gedrap 12y ago
  Yes and no, I think. Depends on your starting point. I did that to double my rate in ~8 months (every time I am looking for a new client, I tell my rate 20-30% larger then the last time). But if you are starting at $20/h or so, you might want to start at higher rate from Day 1. Because it might be easy to find clients, but often they will be a bit problematic, you work probably won't be valued greatly, etc. As paradoxal as it might seem, the best and easiest to work with clients are the ones who you are charging the most. Related amazing podcast http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/21/ramit-sethi-and-patrick-mckenzie-on-why-your-customers-would-be-happier-if-you-charged-more/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/21/ramit-sethi-and-patrick-...
- dlevine 12y ago
  The problem I've found is that it's hard to bill more than 20-30 hours in a week. A lot of time is spent doing things that aren't billable (meeting with potential clients, going to networking events, etc...), and of the time sitting at my desk "doing work," not all of it is going to be billable (I only charge for the time I actually spend doing work). And the other problem is that there is lag time between two projects, so even when I have a project end, it's almost impossible to time it so that there isn't downtime in between. As a result, I probably end up billing for maybe 20 hours a week (on average). So if I'm billing out at a rate that's twice what I would make per hour at a full-time job (40 hours a week), I end up quite a bit behind. (I have to pay for self-employment taxes, any expenses such as office space etc..., plus any benefits that I give myself). In the end, I'm learning that it's a lot harder to make the economics work out than you would expect. When I had a startup, I looked at the guy who was billing us $140 an hour, and thought he was making bank. In hindsight, I've realized that he was probably doing just fine, but he probably did it because he enjoyed the work and the lifestyle, and not because it was going to make him rich.

kunstmord 12y ago

I worked as a free-lance programmer 'on retainer' for a big project (I'd do work for them once a month or so). It's never too early to discuss what will happen when you want to quit. I didn't do that, and after being more and more bored with the work, less and less excited about the pay and the whole project, I still spent more time working for them than would have been deemed reasonable, because there was no way to cleanly break off this work relationship according to a predefined set of rules. It worked out OK in the end, but knowing that you can stop your free-lance work anytime you want (assuming you don't owe anything and the client doesn't owe you anything) and pursue other projects makes it a lot less stressful in some cases.