
The other side of working for yourself - thehodge
http://thehodge.co.uk/2013/04/03/the-other-side-of-working-for-yourself
======
brc
Over the last 10 years I've done a mix of freelance development, developed my
own products and also been a salaried employee.

I can honestly say on reflection that the overall stress level is about the
same, but what stresses the self-employed (income variation) is different to
what stresses the salaried (deadlines and dependence on others to get things
done). I've come to the conclusion that a persons stress level is something in
their nature and there are deeper questions to answer if you're feeling
stressed.

Having been on all sides of the fence, I can definitely say that none of them
have the greenest grass, but all the grass is eaten in a different way.

Freedom is awesome and liberating, but that type of freedom denotes a level of
success (and lifestyle/workload design). It's also a slippery beast to
capture. Because if you fall short and end up working for bad clients on short
deadlines for not enough cash, then you're going to be twice as stressed as a
salaried employee getting ridden by their boss for TPS reports.

What's it all mean? Don't do anything without looking at it seriously, and
don't assume the other guy is having a great time of it.

And don't get into too much debt, regardless of your circumstance.

------
pan69
For me running my own development business gives me the problem of; 1) finding
the work, 2) doing the work, 3) manage meta stuff like tax etc.

I'm not a sales guys so for me finding the work is really something that is
out of my comfort zone. However, when I finally do get the work it's usually
heads down because this client want's it yesterday. So while you're heads down
there is no finding work being done. This can become problematic and a
downward spiral if you don't actively conscious of it.

~~~
rhizome
_However, when I finally do get the work it's usually heads down because this
client want's it yesterday_

This is down to managing expectations. You're doing the work, you tell them
how long it's going to take. If you think it'll take a week, tell them two.
Don't let them hound you into feeling bad for doing work for them. "Well it's
not going to be done yesterday, it's as simple as that."

~~~
obviouslygreen
Of course this is how it would be in a perfect world. We don't live there.
Managing expectations is certainly important, but it is nowhere near as easy,
efficient, or effective as you seem to believe.

It's just one small part of a very large and complex picture full of things
that never quite happen the way they should, mostly because what programmers
like us expect to do does not line up with what our clients want or, more
accurately, how they perceive what they want.

~~~
rhizome
The "I need it yesterday" attitude is unreasonable by definition.

 _mostly because what programmers like us expect to do does not line up with
what our clients want or, more accurately, how they perceive what they want._

This is exactly the problem that expectations management solves, but it
requires actually saying the words.

------
thehodge
Hey HN, I'm still not sure why I wrote this but I get asked a lot about 'how
to set up a business' and 'what is it like working for yourself', I just
wanted to write about some of the real things that I feel and go through
working in startups and building things

------
Tichy
Having to beg employers for time off is one of those things that strike me as
very humiliating.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Yes. I would trade 20-30% of my income to have more no-strings days off.

~~~
PeterWhittaker
12 years I've been on my own and this is still the best part.

Well, that, and just-walk-away-from-bullshit. That's pretty nice too.

------
andrewljohnson
You can't watch TV and code. You're always doing one or the other. I think
it's probably worth separating those two things into separate blocks.

~~~
thehodge
I tend to put stuff on that I've already seen, that way I don't have to
concentrate on things, partly it's there to have something to stop it being
quiet

~~~
jacques_chester
I use music for that. Jazz24 is a good stream.

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tspike
IMHO the key to happiness as an independent is to minimize your fixed expenses
to the point where you're not at all worried about cashflow. If it's a busy
month, great. You can sock away some extra cash. If it's a slow month,
awesome. Go camping, go skiing, spend time with your family. Keep some irons
in the fire, and work will surface again.

Seems like an excellent work/life balance to me.

~~~
miles_matthias
It seems like a lot of this has to do with how much you charge. Everything
I've heard about freelancing is that you should continually raise your rate
and never sell yourself short. So if you're doing that, why would you ever run
into a tight financial situation?

------
kleinsch
Based on the date, I thought this might be related to the pain of writing a
gigantic check to the US government for your estimated taxes. Just wrote my
first one and the amount you're paying hits you a lot harder when you watch it
come out of your bank account. ;)

I've been freelancing for 4 months now and I definitely miss the human contact
of having a "real job". Working from my apartment, I mostly only get water
cooler talk from my pets. I'm looking into coworking spaces in SF to try to
get more connected with the community.

~~~
nissimk
If you've already setup a corporate entity of some sort, I recommend using a
payroll service to take care of this stuff for you. This way you can set a
salary to pay out of the company and leave extra cash in there for downtime or
expenses and pay any extra out occasionally as a bonus. They will withhold all
of the appropriate taxes and you can set up retirement structures etc.

I've heard good things about these folks:

<http://www.surepayroll.com/>

~~~
toomuchtodo
Surepayroll was acquired by Paychecx (and their customer service was pretty
bad _before_ they were acquired).

Try ZenPayroll. Nothing but good things to say: <https://zenpayroll.com/>

------
beneth
This is one of the few posts I've come across that doesn't just focus on the
self-congratulatory aspect of self-employment.

I've been self-employed for the past 8 months and I have struggled to find a
balance between work, play, personal relationships, and health. It's nice to
know that I'm not just terrible at this and other people have similar
problems.

------
rs
If you're lonely working from home and missing human contact, co-working might
be suitable. It does come at a cost compared to working from home entirely,
but it does help remove some of the loneliness.

If you're in London, there are a few places that offer co-working arrangements
- you can even do it part-time, rather than having a full-time desk.

------
auctiontheory
He didn't mention trying to find health insurance, probably because he is a
country that provides it to everyone.

~~~
ja27
We can find it. Paying for it is another issue. It's our #1 expense, well
above our mortgage.

------
MysticFear
Definitely feel the same as you, but I feel I'm more healthy now than at a 9-5
salaried job. I can get go for run anytime I feel like it, 2pm run for 2
hours? Why not?

The downsides are definitely there though. Trying now to build a product that
generates passive income to stay sane during the times in between contracts.

------
wildgift
thehodge is on a crazy schedule. (I'm working a regular job, doing foolish
hours and harming my health too :/) My personal optimal schedule is 4 hours in
the morning, 90 minute break, 2-3 more hours in the afternoon. Then take care
of business. 5 or 6 hours of billable work, an hour of work communications
just to stay sane :), and 1-2 hours of other stuff.

Last time I went solo, I learned I needed to hire a bookkeeper (at least) and
a sales agent of some kind. If you're not good at it, outsource it to someone
who is better.

~~~
legutierr
How did you find your sales agent?

~~~
wildgift
I didn't. I was doing my own calling and networking, and came across a regular
job, and took it. I was sick of managing clients and finding new ones.

------
Mahn
Not sure about the freedom part, personally ever since starting bootstrapping
my startup I feel I don't have time for anything, and when I do, it's hard to
justify spending time and/or money on yourself when both things are running
against you. I used to be a gamer, for instance, but I don't remember anymore
when was the last time I touched a videogame. I know it's my choice, and I'll
stick with it; I just secretly think I'd have more time for the little things
if I were working for somebody else.

------
Cigano
Going freelance for me is a combination of aspects:

\- A Project (or more than one, but sufficient to provide you a minimal
budget); \- Motivation; \- Discipline; \- Detachment by routine.

~~~
jacquesm
Discipline is the hard one.

~~~
thehodge
Exactly! It is very easy to think oh, I'll do this now and carry on later,
then later get distracted with things.

At home especially, dishes to wash, rooms to clean, always something that
could be done but separation is a must

------
vickytnz
Funnily enough, today there was a piece on Jezebel (I know, it's my guilty
pleasure) "We’ve Seen the Future, and You’re Freelancing"
[http://jezebel.com/5993227/weve-seen-the-future-and-youre-
fr...](http://jezebel.com/5993227/weve-seen-the-future-and-youre-freelancing)

------
shadowrunner
Wake up at 10 am? I do more web surfing in bed on my smartphone by 7 am than
you do all day.

~~~
thehodge
Do you also go to bed at 4am? I also don't consider web surfing on my
smartphone actually work. I was about to go to bed now actually, it's 2am and
I've an 8am train but here I am, web surfing, Puzzled by your comment really,
not sure if your just trolling or just saw the fact that I get up at 10am and
commented.

~~~
shadowrunner
It was my quirky way of saying I get up early every morning. Its surprising
how emo people are on HN.

~~~
EliRivers
Good to know that you get up early every morning. Perhaps some other people
will chime in with what time they like to get up and a selection of other
irrelevancies.

