

Ask HN: How do I get started freelancing? - kttmrt

I&#x27;m interested in starting a freelance web development side business in my spare time, maybe even growing it into a full time business over time.  How do I go about finding clients?  How much should I charge?  What do I need to know before I start?  What tools should I use for contracts and invoicing, etc?  What legal issues should I be aware of before starting?
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bbcbasic
I would recommend first seeing if it is worth your while. You may find that
the freelancing rates you get will be much less than your day job, once you
take into account the time and money you spend on attracting clients.

One way to do this is via a minimum viable product. E.g. print a flyer and
offer a price that is reasonable to you, and post it to 1000 businesses, see
what response you get.

IANAL, but you can probably worry about the contracts and invoicing once you
get an order. In-fact start off with small jobs, send them a quote and just
get them to pay in advance. Send an email invoice is probably good enough. Not
sure what country you are in, but usually you can do a small amount of
business without registering as long as you declare it on your tax return. But
research this.

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yen223
Where are you located? Advice will differ if you're in San Francisco vs if
you're in Beijing.

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kttmrt
I'm in Phoenix, AZ, USA

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yen223
Are you currently working as a web developer? If you are, then you already
know 70% of what needs to be done. You just need to go out and seek clients.
If not, I highly recommend you build at least one website from scratch, if
only to convince yourself that you can do it.

I don't know how vibrant the tech scene is in Pheonix - if it's big, then
focus on meatspace marketing: print out a stack of contact cards, and start
handing them out at meetups and networking sessions. Make sure people know
that you're available for a job.

If Pheonix's tech scene isn't so great, fret not. Focus on online marketing:
your Linkedin profile, portfolios, personal sites and such. Post your profile
somewhere public: HN's monthly freelancer site has been good to me.

How much to charge? I don't know, start with $2000/project for a small
project, just to dip your toes in the water. If it works out, continue to
raise your rates until you stop getting new clients.

Don't worry about contracting and invoicing - for contracts I use Word, for
invoices I use Excel. I can't comment on how freelance income is taxed in the
US - you definitely should check on that.

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rosenjon
The best initial clients are through people you already know. I would put the
word out on social media that you are working on contract and specify your
skill sets, and you are likely to find someone who knows someone who is
looking for web design work.

Personally, I used to like to quote fixed prices for my projects, based on
what I knew the approximate time it would take to complete the project. This
gives certainty to your clients about how much they will pay, and also
incentives you to deliver the project on time and without too many headaches
for the client (thus leading to unpaid time bugfixing).

If you don't have any contacts who know people in tech, then another way to go
is to start attending hackathons, or to do contract work on freelancer
websites. These two options are less desirable, as you will tend to find
customers who are much more picky and more price sensitive, but it is a way to
get started absent a network.

What you should charge is a tough question. I think it really depends on what
you are building. Mobile apps tend to fetch more than web apps. I'd shoot for
$50-100 per hour to start out, and you can perhaps bump that up the better you
get (especially if you are doing fixed price work and are conservative about
how you quote jobs).

For invoicing, I would say Microsoft Word usually suffices. Unless you have an
insane number of clients, it's pretty easy to keep track of your invoices by
emailing PDFs and cashing the associated checks. For contracts, there are a
number of options online for doing freelancing. I would download about 4-5 of
them, read them thoroughly, and pick and choose the best options. If you want,
once you have put together your ideal contract, you can hire a lawyer for an
hour to review (but probably not necessary, assuming you are doing business
through a corporation that doesn't have substantial assets).

On the contract front, one thing to note that is important. DO NOT, I repeat,
DO NOT, sign non-compete agreements. Everyone and their mom is going to want
you to sign an agreement that says you will not compete with the product you
build for them for 1-2 years (or perhaps more). I would highly recommend
against this. By the time you get done working for 5-6 clients, you are
arguably going to be non-competed out of pretty much every segment of the
software industry in one way or another. When someone asks for this (unless
they are offering you a yacht and $20 million dollars) just say no. On the
other hand, I tend to view non-disclosure agreements as being pretty harmless
(however, read these thoroughly. sometimes people sneak non-compete language
into agreements titled "nondisclosure").

As far as legal issues, the big thing is to have an LLC. You should also have
a bank account for your LLC. All transactions concerning your business go
through the business bank account. Your business bank account should not be
particularly well funded (i.e. pay yourself often from your business bank
account). All agreements are signed by you, the "Member" of the LLC, not by
you individually. Read up on "piercing the corporate veil", and don't do any
of the things that might lead to this. If you do this, generally the only
recourse someone will have will be against your company, and this allows you
to avoid personal liability for issues that arise in the business, assuming
you are not grossly negligent in some way.

