Hey. I've been freelancing for about 5 years more or less. (Disclaimer: I did recently accept a job as an employee, but not for any reason that should discourag

Hey. I've been freelancing for about 5 years more or less. (Disclaimer: I did recently accept a job as an employee, but not for any reason that should discourage you. I think freelancing is awesome and expect to do it again at some point in my life.) Copyright - Maybe a lawyer can speak to this issue, but my understanding is that you own the copyright to any work you produce until you indicate otherwise. In the context of freelancing, that means that you should have a clause in your contracts that gives your client the copyright to the work once you're paid in full. No explicit transfer needs to be made and nothing needs to be filed (unlike trademarks and patents). Value of time - You should value your time according to the value you can produce and what you will be happy with. This is tricky, and others have written a lot about this (and have said it better than I could) so search Google for "hn increase freelance rates" and you'll get enough material to keep you busy for a while. Just one warning to add: Don't undervalue yourself! It'll kill your motivation and put you in a vicious cycle of unproductivity. Chances are the lessons you learn here will be learned the hard way (speaking from experience). Contract - Rather than thinking of this as a legally binding document, you should think of it as an outline of the process you're about to enter into with your client. Use it beforehand to make sure you're on the same page about your relationship, rather than afterwards to try to protect your ass. How/how much/when will you be paid? What are you expect to deliver, and when? How are you going to handle disagreements or unforeseen problems with your client? How much availability should the client expect of you, and vice versa (just as important!). The answer to all of these questions should minimize the risks to both parties and set you up for success. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8976924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8976924 is on the front page as I write this and should get you started). I could write about this for days, but I'll stop there for now :). If you have any other questions though I'd be glad to answer as well as I can.