
Advice for the Freelance Developer - marknutter
https://medium.com/@marknutter/advice-for-the-freelance-developer-68b63c69b050
======
eschutte2
This is good advice. One thing that surprised me was viewing a long-term
contract with a big company as a holy grail. That's different from my way of
thinking. Also, I've never been tempted to double my rate for those; my
instinct is to pass some of my overhead savings back to the client. I'd be
interested to hear some elaboration on those topics.

~~~
marknutter
A long-term contract with a big company paid for my first major down payment
on my current house, helped me even qualify for the loan in the first place,
and helped me get a huge head start on saving for retirement. When you find an
opportunity where you can get paid your hourly rate and the number of billable
hours is unlimited, my advice is to jump at it. Corporations are much more
financially stable than small clients and often far more willing to pay for
quality rather than penny pinch. You also have an opportunity to work on
larger scale problems and meet other developers whom may provide you with
future opportunities both from within that company and at any future company
or ventures they join. The only problem is that it can start to feel like
you're wearing golden handcuffs, especially if the work isn't rewarding. Just
make sure not to do what I did and forego taking vacations and working too
many hours during the week, because that can lead to burnout.

And as far as hourly rate goes, there's only two universal truths – you are
either undercharging, or you are overcharging. Most freelancers undercharge by
a wide margin, especially younger freelancers and engineers (who in my
experience tend to be more humble and self-doubting). It sounds like you may
be up against universal truth #2 and passing savings onto your client is a way
to attract more business. You also sound like you're happy with the amount of
money you're making which is great, but keep in mind that the amount of time
you'll be able to continue doing what you're doing right now and make good
money at it is finite. Also, think of it from the client's perspective; how
often have they offered to double your rate to pass on some of their profits
back to you? It's a business arrangement, not a friendship. Make sure you're
getting something in return for discounting your rate, like future
opportunities or referral opportunities.

It's important to keep in mind that there's no guarantee what you do will be
in high demand for the next 10x years, and there's no guarantee you'll be able
to or even want to continue doing it that long. Because freelancing does not
scale like a company can you have to maximize your revenue as much as possible
while you can and save as much as possible along the way. When you're done,
you're done. You won't have ownership in a company you helped found or a
pension from a company you worked for. You'll have whatever you set aside
during the fat years.

~~~
eschutte2
Great followup, thanks. Getting a home loan is one time when it pays to be on
board with a big company.

Good point about networking. My best networking came from mid-size companies
(~100 people - for me that's a big company), because there was a good flow of
new people coming through regularly from elsewhere in industry and I actually
got to meet most of them.

In general, it seems to me that the best results came when a small, motivated
group of people with money had an opportunity to make a lot more money by
solving some hard problem before someone else did. In those cases, the payoff
was very clear to them and they were ready to pay accordingly. Big companies
do this, but they usually seem to do it by partnering with smaller companies
or by doing a skunkworks project, often relying on outsiders.

I agree that not enough developers plan for a short career. One of the nice
things about being independent is you don't get to fool yourself into thinking
you'll have a job in a month.

