I've been trying to find some work on the side in order to build up my savings and achieve my dream of buying a home for me and my wife, so we can start our family. I'm a full-time senior software engineer, 8+ years of experience, proficient in both backend and frontend development.
Unfortunately, my adventures through sites like Freelancer.com, Gun.io, and UpWork have been hard: most developers win projects with rates like $7/hr or $10/hr. That's pretty much impossible to beat, specially for someone living in the US.
As a matter of fact, since I haven't been able to find quality dev freelance work, I've been making some money as a contractor. I'm pretty good assembling furniture, plumbing, painting, stuff like that and my wife suggested that I used NextDoor to offer services. My rate is $30/hr and my nights are full (I think people who work like my schedule?).
How do you guys find good projects to work with? Is there a secret circle somewhere or something? Like a Freemasonry of software development?
2. Identify your specialties and craft a pitch for how you can use them to generate value for a company. Ideally these specialties will result in measurable value. Examples: saving money on AWS costs; generating sales leads; optimizing marketing funnels.
3. Focus on “push, not pull.” Find companies who could benefit from your specialties, and reach out to them directly. Set up phone calls, video chats, and face to face meetings. Learn to sell yourself as a product.
4. If you’re a senior developer, you should have a fairly extensive network of people who know your work quality, all working at different companies. Reach out to these people first.
5. Charge by the day, week or month. Do not charge by the hour. Start with your market-rate salary for a year, divide it by 50, and then multiply it by 1.5-2.0 to get your weekly rate. [EDIT: Just realized you have a full time job, so this might not be possible. In that case you’re going to struggle to compete against full time consultants, unless you’re working primarily on piecemeal work. The real money is in full time consulting, not moonlighting by the hour.]
6. Focus on companies that either have VC funding or revenue, and preferably 3+ full time employees working at market-rate salaries. They will not flinch at your price.
7. Increase your rates with each new contract.