
How To Become a Successful Freelance Web Developer (and Not Kill Your Career) - Killswitch
http://www.jamiebegin.com/how-to-become-a-successful-freelance-web-developer-and-not-kill-your-career/
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mzarate06
I've been a consultant for close to 5 years and have written similar articles
in the past. I agree with just about everything in the post.

What I find most often is that aspiring freelancers/consultants don't realize
1 important fact: Freelancing/consulting is harder than a 9-5 salary job, in
every way. If it's one theme that rings constant among freelancers or
consultants that I've lent an ear to, it's the "I thought it would be easier"
sentiment.

And that supplements the point made in the article. So many developers think
their craft is enough to succeed as a freelancer or consultant; the truth is
quite the opposite. A business' success depends on marketing and selling their
services, and that's what most (if not every) developer underestimates when
they start a freelance or consulting business.

To help combat that, I also advocate the gradual approach. Take a full time
job in the industry for a few years first, then build up your
freelance/consulting business on the side until it becomes sustainable.

~~~
timjahn
"So many developers think their craft is enough to succeed as a freelancer or
consultant; the truth is quite the opposite."

Couldn't agree more. When you become a freelance developer, you are no longer
ONLY a developer. You're customer service, sales, accounting, business
development, and so much more. Coding is now a portion of what you do, not ALL
you do.

I actually recently started matchist (<http://matchist.com/talent>) to take
care of the "constantly finding clients" aspect that I remember from my days
as a freelancer. We find you quality work that will pay you on time, every
time (because we also facilitate the payment process).

~~~
manveru
To save you the trip to the site, unfortunately it's only for US devs.

------
localhost3000
hhmmm i've had a very different experience. i've never held a full-time
working-for-the-man software development job but i've been freelancing for a
bit over a year to bootstrap my own products. the money and flexibility is
great. i got initial gigs because i'd been building my own product so i had
something cool out in the world to point to. i think this is the single best
way to get clients. have something that you - not you and a giant team of
people, you - conceived of and built. when people see it (provided it looks
good and works) they'll want to hire you. now i get gigs because i have happy
clients and i'm a sociable person so they recommend me. people _like_ working
with me. so, build something you're proud of to show off and be a pleasure to
work with. i've never gotten a gig through linkedin although recruiters
contact me regularly. i _have_ gotten gigs through hacker news, however, and
they tend to be really good clients.

*edit: ALSO -- make friends with other freelancers and share your network! i've sent dozens of leads to people i know around Boston. this buys you social capital. people will reciprocate.

~~~
Hawkee
I've been running a website of my own for over 15 years and every job and
client I've ever had stemmed from that site. This site got me my first job in
college all the way until my latest client. I can't stress how important it is
to build something on your own and keep at it. I've also never gotten a job
through LinkedIn, but I have gotten local clients from Craigslist. I've also
had a lot of success getting clients being established on forums and going to
business conferences.

~~~
pc86
Would that site be of any interest to HN or is it a niche site?

~~~
Hawkee
I believe so, but I've still got some things I'd like to do before I formally
Show HN. You can find it on my profile if you are curious.

------
Avalaxy
"your skills will erode as you crank out an endless stream of cheap WordPress
sites".

That is so right on the spot. That's exactly how I feel right now and I'm
pretty sick of it. I decided to just stop freelancing (I'm still a student so
I never really had a full-time job). Most cheap clients only want simple
websites that take zero skill to make.

~~~
karolisd
So what's the sweet spot for projects as a single freelancer? Simple Wordpress
sites are easy but unfulfilling. But most interesting projects are beyond the
scope of a single developer.

~~~
jaggederest
> But most interesting projects are beyond the scope of a single developer.

Why? I don't find this to be the case.

~~~
karolisd
That's what I've seen from my experience. But I might have a limited
perspective. Could you provide some examples of interesting freelance projects
for a single developer?

~~~
rahoulb
I have a long term client where initially I took over maintenance of a Rails-
written brochure site as their existing freelancer was moving on. From there
the relationship developed and I now have built a suite of inter-related apps
(and manage their own private network) for them (on a retainer so I have
guaranteed income). The work isn't cutting edge but its much more interesting
than churning out sites according to someone else's design.

~~~
rahoulb
To Jesse who emailed me; we had an outage with the EmberAds support system, so
I lost your details - please mail me at ycombinator at madeofstone.net please.

------
aidos
Background: contractor on and off for years. Just moved from permanent to
freelance; a totally different world from contracting.

There are a couple of things that have really worked out well for me this time
around.

I left an agency - and I took some of their clients with me (don't worry, it's
all above board). They have clients that are too small / too complex for them,
but perfect for me. It's a great arrangement - the clients already know me,
nothing much changes from their point of view. Best of all, they're already
used to paying agency rates.

I'd suggest that if you're working at an agency you ask around to see if you
could do the same. It really can work out in everyone's favour (particularly
yours).

Secondly, I read a lot of patio11's advice [0] so I wasn't scared of asking
for much higher rates than I ever had before.

[0] <http://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/>

------
rglover
I stopped right after this:

 _But prematurely deciding to freelance for any length of time can severely
damage your career and mental health. You’ll feel pressured to take any work
you can find just to keep the bills paid and your skills will erode as you
crank out an endless stream of cheap WordPress sites._

This is a gross generalization. When I started doing freelance a bit over a
year ago, I had $500 in the bank, one client, and was quitting an internship
at a low bar design studio. If any word applies to my story, it's premature (I
decided to quit 24 hours before I resigned). In professional terms, I was an
idiot.

But, that didn't mean I was left in a lurch of WordPress sites and sorrow.
Rather, it led to immense motivation to develop my skills and build up my
network. How did I do it? I was realistic about my skills, my pricing, and the
jobs I would get. Then, I busted my ass to turn around excellent work. Time
after time, I delivered, either resulting in repeat business or referrals.
What's better, my skills have significantly developed.

Don't be discouraged by this. Acknowledge where you're at, where you want to
be, and work to build a bridge between those two points. It take a very long
time and a lot of hard work. If you're serious: don't give up and keep getting
better.

~~~
mzarate06
Note he said _> can< severely damage your career and mental health_, not _>
will< severely damage your career and mental health_.

The former implies a possibility. That what he describes didn't happen in your
case, while worth applauding, doesn't make the possibility any less true,
especially for those that actually experience what the OP describes.

~~~
brain5ide
That's exactly the part that bothers me the most. It's just like fortune
tellers saying what can happen. If it's a statement, then it's unfalcifiable
and hence is useless. If it's something else(a lesson?) then it should have a
better context. I'm just a bit strict on people making statements.

------
amirhirsch
"Pricing yourself beyond the reach of irrational clients is a good first line-
of-defense against taking jobs you’ll regret." - great advice. It's important
to quickly filter irrational clients.

It's good to set a minimum contract size and tell people that up front. Also,
discuss projects in terms of days, weeks or months of work, and not in hours.
This way you can respond to inquiries for rates: "We charge $1500 per day,
with a $7500 minimum contract size."

Then you can charge per project after a discussion on how many days or weeks
it will take.

------
thegoodlab
I started freelancing a little over 2 years ago and have more than doubled how
much I was making at my previous agency job. A few tips would be:

\- Save up 3 - 6 months "salary" before you jump-ship. While you are doing
that, build your portfolio and start lining up work. If after 3 - 6 months you
can't find work, you can always go back to working for someone else again.

\- Hire an accountant. For the amount of stress they reduce, they are worth
every penny.

\- Establish good relationships with a few agencies close by, where you could
possibly do contract work. You may not be able to charge them as much, but
having them as a fall back when you are slow is nice.

\- On a related note: Don't consider contract work through other agencies bad.
From my experience, one agency gets work from another agency, who gets work
from another agency, etc.. There is good money to be made being the production
guy.

------
mistercow
No. No no no no. There is absolutely no reason that you need to find full time
non-freelance employment in order to network and build a freelance client
base. That's complete nonsense.

I am so sick of seeing people do something, become successful, and then start
telling other people that their way is the _only right way_.

------
urlwolf
This post is the missing part that Brennan Dunn and patio11 ignore. How do you
bootstrap from zero clients? How do you build a reputation?

~~~
wildmXranat
Ding ding ding! Without being facetious, this is the most core-aspect of any
success. What is actually required is a training wheels level program or book
outlining how and where to get the clients. Yes, some of us may have gotten
lucky, or had a break that flew into our lap - this is not the rule. And in
fact, anything else other than the rule is noise. Getting paying clients
should be a key goal of any business. Selling your personal anecdotal
experience does not help unless it is distilled into a repeatable formula.

I would like to point out that I've been at this game for a short while with
mixed results. What has worked in my favor, well in favor of getting closer to
winning a bid or getting paid: clean business presence, professional copy,
actually rephrasing all requirements back to the client and how I'm going to
solve his problem, not lowering my prices at all - I keep my bids in the upper
25% of what I perceive the ceiling to be, be attentive to every minutiae that
seems core-like to the project, communicate without long delay regardless of
level of inquiry - no question is too trivial.

Above is a result of unintentional lack of effective execution and then
actually committing to being a better manager rather than an engineer. I
didn't understand that while I was confident in my abilities to get the job
done, I still didn't get that job because I didn't prove it to the client and
sold myself.

Avenues that I used on and off: cheap advertisement on radio, local newspaper,
business directory, offered to sponsor two contests, scavenged elance, offered
promo work for free just like what the other fellow is doing on HN.
Regardless, it is hard and not steady. I can tell that specialization and
asking for a monthly retainer to offer pre-allocated hours to specific clients
is probably the key to crossing that income stability threshold.

~~~
Alan01252
I'm very very cautious with retainers. The stable income is nice to have, but
at the same time you have to make sure the contract terms doesn't debilitate
you from working with other clients / finding new clients.

Guaranteeing an amount of days per month sounds great, but juggling
commitments around these retainers and other customers is ( in my experience )
incredibly difficult, not to mention stressful.

------
billysbilling
I highly doubt you'd ask this question without being a successful freelance
web developer. So instead of talking to you about skills, I can offer some
business finance advice in general: CONTROL YOUR FINANCES!

I've learned a lot from the Easy Numbers blog
(<http://billysbillings.com/blog>) by Billy's Billing. They share financial
advice for entrepreneurs – including freelancers. A great way to save money
from having to hire an accountant because you'll know what to do for yourself.
Best of luck!

~~~
aidos
I couldn't recommend hiring an accountant enough. They remove a fair amount of
stress from what you do and they will save you money. You may have to pay them
£80 a month, but that will pay for itself.

I don't normally plug services but there's a guy I've been using in the UK
who's great [0]. He gives you a xero account to make things nice and easy.

[0] <http://www.capricaonline.co.uk/>

~~~
pacomerh
I'd like to ask, when in your freelance career do you consider appropriate
hiring an accountant, at what $ point. Currently the only time I feel the need
to do it is by the end of the year to do taxes. I'm surely missing something,
some advice on this would be grateful, thx.

------
IsaacL
Great post - I just started freelancing last year and I got some good tips out
of it.

I'm interested that you mention LinkedIn to network, as the startup I'm
working on is aimed precisely at helping freelancers find clients through
their social networks. (Since we realised that most clients hate using eLance
and prefer to ask amongst their professional contacts for referrals).

Would be great to chat more if you're interested (email is isaac@i.saac.me).

~~~
OptimusSubprime
Granted, it could just be my lack of LinkedIn savviness, but it's never been a
source of actual business for me (I'm the author of this blog post). The only
people who actually seem to use LinkedIn are recruiters who sloppily blast off
emails on keyword matches.

But I continue to use it because it allows me to keep track of what my
contacts are doing, which gives me an excuse to reconnect with them: "Hey Bob,
how are you liking that new job?" It also is another source of credibility
when people Google my name if they're contemplating hiring me.

~~~
IsaacL
I've gotten one or two leads through Linkedin, though from contacts who knew
me fairly well (well enough to vouch for my skills), and who had my email
address as well. So the fact they used LinkedIn to make the connection was
just for convenience.

That said, what I like about Linkedin is it widens your "social surface area"
- my referrals have come from unexpected places (a university professor, a
classmate, a guy I met at a hackathon, etc), and Linkedin is a good service
for maintaining those type of contacts.

I'm not so good at maintaing contact with old connections (any tips? I read
Never Eat Alone but as an introvert, I find it hard to get motivated to put it
into practice). I think one thing the platform we're building should do,
though, is encourage and support freelance devs to build their professional
networks.

------
bromagosa
Nice article, I thought it'd be one of these self-help articles I personally
can't stand, but I was quite surprised to see I've actually been following
this very path.

I'm currently at Step #4, having a part-time job in the mornings and
freelancing in the afternoon, and so far I've only been under stress
occasionally for really short periods of time.

I just hope everything works out and I can reach the last step smoothly...

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reinhardt
Great article and right on time. I've already gone through step #1 (7+ years
FT dev experience in various companies/startups) and plan to break into
freelancing/consulting in 2013. I especially appreciated the last part -
specialisation - as I'd like to set up shop on one or more niche areas I have
most experience with.

On the other hand I am less keen on steps #2 and #4; the thought of
reconnecting with (the few) old contacts I haven't exchanged a word for years
and didn't have much rapport in the first place feels a bit daunting at best,
out of question at worst. Linkedin/Meetup groups sound a bit better in theory,
though based on past experience I'm not so optimistic.

------
loahou04
I had a very different experience than how you wrote it. I started as a FTE
for a small software company and was contracted out to a larger one. They made
the mistake of letting me know how much they were actually charging for me per
hour and when they started laying off engineers rather than management i
realized how mis-managed the place was. Thats when i went on my own and
searched for work on my own. Co-workers is one way of finding new gigs, but
the best has been actively searching through linkedin and other forums such as
HN!

------
steveax
I have a different idea on pricing for new developers: decide what you want to
really get paid (hourly rate) and if you need to "eat" some time learning,
then eat it. You'll get faster as you learn more and hone your process and
eventually won't need to eat any time. Much easier than raising your rates
with existing clients later.

Also, find ways to reduce the amount of time you spend on non-billable tasks
(time tracking, invoicing, etc.)

------
jonathanjaeger
Networking certainly is high up there. That's coupled with having clients who
love you and want to refer you. Plus if you're international, it helps SEO-ing
well because I've certainly found myself searching "freelance ruby on rails
developer" or "freelance ruby on rails develeper [city/country]" and found
great leads instead of combing something like ODesk or Elance.

------
shanellem
I agree with just about everything from this post, especially the emphasis on
building a network. It's something that technically-focused freelancers tend
to forget about, understandably. Still, it's one of the best resources for
finding and maintaining gigs.

"Your goal is to become known as someone who solves problems, rather than the
'web guy'."

------
white_devil
_"It's easy! Just have a huge network of people to give you gigs!"_

------
kyriakos
having a full time job and trying to launch a freelance career is not easy.
its simpler to save up money and take a few months off work and work on your
freelance projects like crazy. no matter how simple and mundane your regular
job is as a human being you cannot realistically work for so long and expect
to have a fresh state of mind to work on other projects and produce 100%
quality outcome efficiently. talking from my own experience.

~~~
thegoodlab
I agree, having a full time job and a freelance career is not easy. Having
also done this myself, I always felt somewhat guilty about moonlighting. Once
you decide you want to go freelance, my advice would be to start saving money
so you can get a 3 - 6 months "salary" saved up, and during that time start
trying to line up work and get your portfolio ready to go.

------
hnriot
This post essentially says nothing. The tl;dr is, use LinkedIn to network and
build a client base.

~~~
OptimusSubprime
LinkedIn is a pretty insignificant part of the article. I mentioned using it
as a proxy to gauge the size of your professional network, and to find local
interest groups. Overall, LinkedIn hasn't really helped my business all that
much, other than increasing my web presence for credibility searches.

I'm rather surprised that you felt that there wasn't much content. I spent
around seven hours writing and editing the post and it draws on several years
of in-the-trenches experience.

~~~
thegoodlab
He's trolling.

The article was well written. Obviously not everything someone would need to
know to start freelancing is written in this article, but it does present some
very valuable information.

Thanks for writing and sharing.

