
Show HN: we like to work from coffee shops, so we made this - _yb
http://freelancersticker.com/
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elmuchoprez
I'd be very curious about the viability of clients who approach you in a
coffee shop. Seems like you'd get an awful lot of, "So hey, I have this idea
that's like Facebook and Youtube combined and I think it could be the next big
thing".

That's not to say you won't ever find a good client in a coffee shop, but I
suspect it has a lower viability rate than a Craigslist ad, and at least on
Craigslist I don't have to spend any real time talking to the people who are
clearly not serious clients.

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JVIDEL
You forgot the part about the idea being worth _one hundred billion dollars!_

~~~
nodata
Aimed at all the people in China! Think of the money!

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joshcrews
I've been running the sticker, "Hi, I build software. Come talk to me!" at a
high end coffee shop in my town (Nashville) for 2 weeks and it's generated 3
good conversations. I would say I'm very satisfied with how it's gone so far.

~~~
coreymaass
I'm moving to Nashville in two weeks! and I want to know what are the best
coffee shops to work from! What coffee shop do you work from? I'll come find
you :-)

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tommoor
How about something a little... bolder:

[https://twitter.com/iWaffles/status/256984030552129537/photo...](https://twitter.com/iWaffles/status/256984030552129537/photo/1)

~~~
BuddhaSource
This will not work! You missed the Apple logo.

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dkrich
I'm truly amazed that this made the top of Hacker News. A $5 decal that
advertises services. We've officially come full circle. I hear that people
have even tried approaching potential clients and _talking_ to them and once
one crazy person actually spent money on soliciting business in a printed
periodical with somewhat widespread distribution.

~~~
duiker101
get something we already have, apply a use case nobody should care, make a
nice website with a video and promote it like a great idea, overprice it =
success.

~~~
larrys
"overprice it"

Why do you feel it's overpriced exactly? If someone thinks it's a good idea to
try $5 isn't exactly a big risk to take to have a turnkey product.

~~~
duiker101
it's not overpriced in the meaning that it will make you go bankrupt but I
think you can buy adhesive paper for much less that fits in any printer.

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jiggy2011
This just looks like another generic meaningless sticker that people stick all
over their laptops.

If you really want people in coffeeshops to approach you try something more
personal and direct. "I'm xxxx. I build websites/applications, feel free to
say hi,let's chat!" or whatever.

~~~
setrofim_
That's a lot to put on a sticker -- people aren't going to read that. Maybe
something a bit snappier, e.g. "Freelance coder: available for gigs" or
something.

I would question, however, whether putting a sticker of any kind is gonna help
you score gigs. I mean, if you were looking for a coder, would you really
approach some random guy/gal in a coffee shop based solely on a sticker on
their laptop and knowing nothing else about them?

Maybe having a sticker with a link to your github, as suggested by others,
would be more useful (if your user id is memorable).

~~~
jiggy2011
Depends what you are going for, unless you are looking for people who are
already reasonably tech savvy your potential customers might not know that
github is a thing.

I full sentence briefly explaining what you do, and more importantly giving
people permission to interrupt you would stand out more than just some random
sticker.

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maresca
If you are working, do you necessarily want to be bothered?

~~~
josefresco
If you don't want to be bothered, why would you be working on a coffee shop?
Libraries (or pretty much anywhere else) offer more privacy for _real_ work.

~~~
rocky1138
I find I work better in places with hustle and bustle. It doesn't mean I want
to talk to other people or be interrupted.

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kmfrk
I like the idea, but the execution not so much. A round sticker would be
better in my view.

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mbesto
What has been your conversion rate so far using it? Since this is a
marketing/sales practice, I'd love to know what the funnel looks like for
this.

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josefresco
Do coffee shops really want this? We all use them from time to time to meet
clients, or sneak in some work but I highly doubt most shops would want you
building your business (by advertising your availability) around them.

~~~
escaped_hn
They probably won't care unless you are making an online version of starbucks.

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denzil_correa
I liked the video especially the bit at 0:32 seconds.

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hkarthik
Right below this sticker you should probably list your hourly rate, otherwise
you're making yourself a magnet for the wrong kinds of clients.

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jraby3
This is a great (and virtually free) way to pick up business. I don't see a
downside.

~~~
Killah911
Downside: you're meeting with a potential investor or client for your start-up
and you've got to pull your laptop out.

Other possible downsides include, people coming up to you and bothering you
with non-relevant "work" or "free work for equity" which you're not interested
in.

There is also the exclusivity thing, where a potential client might perceive
you as "too eager" for work, and you end up loosing a gig you might have
gotten otherwise. (Granted, I'm reaching on this one).

I think it's a neat idea, but you have to be judicious when putting on any
overt "label" on yourself or on the tools of your trade. I only bring this up
due to my own experiences with stickers on my laptop. Getting them off is no
easy task either (glue residue and such).

~~~
maresca
Velcro would work.

~~~
Killah911
Now that's a neat Idea, you could be a billboard when the time is right and
take it down at other times... You might even get more creative and hook up
your smartphone or tablet as a display on the other side with whatever wording
you want.

Maybe a scrolling marquee app. Heck, you could advertise whatever you want on
your display at that point.

If it then becomes a trend, one could pay people small amounts of money for
becoming mobile billboards on location enabled devices.

~~~
astrodust
Maybe you could make an app for laptops with a reverse-facing screen
([http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/06/22/dual-display-
laptops...](http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/06/22/dual-display-laptops-
seeing-double-with-asus-taichi-lenovo/)).

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hnriot
I thought it was a new band :)

Wouldn't coffee shop owners use this to kick you out?

~~~
astrodust
"Oh, it's _that guy_ again."

The stuff some coffee shops put up with is truly bewildering.

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neona
They only come in black, so you wouldn't be able to see it on my laptop.

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justinph
"My laptop is full of valuable code. Please come steal it."

~~~
fchollet
Excuse me. Stealing a laptop for the _valuable code_ it contains?

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Aardwolf
Would this sticker be visible on a black thinkpad?

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_yb
Yes, get the white one: <http://instagram.com/p/XzdnxHut8u/>

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skormos
I'd buy that for a dollar; but five? Not so much.

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omegote
$5 for a sticker... Someone said profit margins?

~~~
bonf
well, intergalactic shipping costs more than you'd think...

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DoubleCluster
Someone should order some for the guys in the ISS.

~~~
bonf
they got one already: <http://imgur.com/RYfYZDp>

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BuddhaSource
I would rather go for "We are hiring"

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larrys
To the OP:

Good idea but you need some _contact info on your site_ and please remove the
"whois privacy" from your whois record for the domain.

In all but a limited amount of cases you don't need that. Use a separate gmail
account that forwards to your real email to filter if you are worried about
spam. Put another address into the whois and google voice number if you are
worried about phone calls. To begin you won't get that many with one domain
and you also are preventing anyone who wants to get in touch with you from
contacting you.

Also, why should someone give you money if you don't even have any info as to
who you are that they can trace on your website? (which to repeat I like the
idea).

Registrars (I run an ICANN registrar) typically push privacy because it's good
for them. I've seen privacy on records with businesses that want the exact
opposite.

Anyone who disagrees please post your thoughts and I will address them
individually based on my years in this business. (I'd actually like to hear
new reasons why people do this that I haven't heard before).

~~~
dkrich
The timing of this is interesting to me because I recently registered a new
domain, opted to leave my contact info public, and have since received an
unending barrage of spam emails that I have to attribute to the WHOIS record
due to the timing.

I agree about publicly displaying contact info, but would like to know some
good suggestions for filtering out the crap that comes with it.

~~~
mindcrime
I have my contact info publicly available on all of my domains, and I don't
see any specific signs that any of the spam I get is directly attributable to
that. But I did get an email from a guy in Canada a couple of weeks ago,
asking about buying one of my domains, which I sold to him. Personally I think
the benefits of having valid whois info outweigh the negatives, but that's
just me...

~~~
bonf
Whois privacy email addresses will forward incoming mails to you as well.

A buying offer can be a smart way to probe the owner behind that privacy wall,
who I guess most of the time is just a normal guy/gal...

~~~
mindcrime
Interesting.. I didn't realize that, as I've never bothered to pay the extra
fee for the "private" registration. But I do use a less-important GMail
account for the email contact, so at least my main email doesn't get swamped.
But the phone number on there is actually my personal cellphone, which could
be annoying if a lot of people started calling, but so far that doesn't seem
to happen.

~~~
larrys
"But it just doesn't happen at the moment."

(Can't reply to this below).

Want to point out though that once the info is slurped and appears elsewhere
you won't be able to put the genie back in the bottle.

I many times pull up old info for domains in search.

~~~
mindcrime
Now that's a fair point. Now that you have me thinking about this, maybe I'll
make it a point to change it sooner than later after all. :-)

Edit: Done. Thanks for the nudge, larrys.

