> Your first interactions with anyone will set the tone for the rest of the relationship. If you crush the first emails, phone calls, or meetings, your reputation will be solidified for the long-term.<p>It is a weird world. The above has been consistent in the following:<p>1- In high school. If you just meet some new kids for a first time and mumbble stupidly, they'll think you are retarded and it'll be hard to change that view.<p>2- If you fail to impress your potential date in the first date, you are pretty much over. I think as a guy I'm more tolerable with girls but I might not be accurate or maybe an exception.<p>3- It still applies in adulthood. I think that's why doctors care a lot about their medical offices. I mean if you check a doctor with a messy office, no secretary and not so expensive equipment.<p>It sucks: The first impression matters a lot. You are allowed to suck (within limits) afterward but the first impression is a must.<p>> Until you’re sure of your effective tax rate, set aside a minimum of 25% of every dollar you earn for the tax man. Put it away, don’t touch it.<p>Try to maximize your business expenses. Can you make your gym as a business expense? Your "personal" car? Your mobile phone bill? There are lots of things you can expense. Check with your accountant. Have a list and let him check what can be checked to the business account.<p>My advice will be: Don't touch the business money until next fiscal year. That might be hard if you don't have a full year reserve but you can do the math and "borrow" from your company.
There is so so much good stuff in this article. A++ content. Incidentally, my hunch is that one way to build trust with clients is to write articles like this. I can tell you know what you are doing if you can write something like this.<p>> I’d estimate over half of freelancers disappear before delivering their projects. Good for you: Finish your projects and you’re already in the 51st percentile of freelancers.<p>This matches my gut as well and I've been somewhat shocked at how many clients compliment me on answering my email in a timely manner! Clients seem to understand almost any mistake you can make if you are upfront about it and work with them to solve the problem and don't disappear. Though, I definitely agree on being very very careful about code that charges money (or sends email for that manner).
I've been remote freelancing for ~20 years. Some good advice in that post but I would add in:<p>1. You definitely don't need to form an LLC. I'm still a sole proprietor all this time and it's working out fine.<p>2. Personally, I'd hold back 35%+ of your income for taxes and expect to pay taxes every quarter.<p>3. 2 months of savings seems really low. People are wired different but I know a lot of people (myself included) who can't function with less than 6 months of runway when being self employed. It's not fun being in a position to take on low quality work because you absolutely need it.<p>4. Billing style really depends on the job you're doing. A lot of my work is billed hourly due to the nature of what I'm asked to do.
> "Take your finely-calculated estimate and 3x it, both in time and money.<p>You should get really comfortable with “no”; Both saying “no” to bad fits, and hearing “no” from clients who can’t afford you."<p>Two quick thoughts:<p>1) "It always costs twice as much and takes twice as long" is a benchmark that has never failed me. 3x? Probably could have helped 25% of the time.<p>2) The key to freelancing or even being an agency is...avoid the time sucks, the bad clients. It's not finding grand slams or hat tricks. Sure those are good to have. But the killer is the bad ones, the really bad ones.
Not a freelancer, but I've worked remotely...<p>> It gets pretty dang lonely sometimes, particularly if you’re working remotely. I don’t care if you’re an introvert or extrovert, it’ll affect you either way.<p>I'm an introvert. I was lonely. It does affect you.<p>> But for maximum productivity, your routine should involve getting dressed, brushing your teeth, and treating it like a “real job”.<p>I had to do this. If I wasn't wearing street shoes, I wasn't "at work."
Really good post.<p>The main thing that sticks out is that the author mentions how referrals are the number one source of leads for basically every freelancer. The problem is that he only mentions it. Ok, that's great. How do I get referrals? The issue is that none of the other stuff matters if you don't know how to get referrals.<p>The author did a good job with the post, but I can't express how important it is to be a people person when freelancing. In order to get referrals you have to get projects. In order to get projects, you have to leave your house and meet other local business owners. That's very hard for freelancers to do and I think the post would be 100 times better if the author spent a little more time on that aspect of freelancing.
Really good article filled with excellent advice! I actually started out down a similar path after leaving Netflix. For me, the biggest challenge for software engineers that want to go freelance will always be finding work (aka sales). It's just really scary to know that if you don't find another gig, you don't get paid.<p>Shameless plug: I ended up starting a company[0] to help freelancers/contractors with this. We are the sales and collections team for you. We focus on high-quality clients that can afford to pay for senior engineers. You pick jobs that appeal to you. We currently have way more openings for contract + remote jobs than we can fill and the clients are good (Vizio, Disney, Colliers). It's a great way to transition from full-time to consulting.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.facetdev.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.facetdev.com</a>
Great content. I've been doing freelance machine learning work for a while, and it's hit or miss. Some clients are great, others are a complete pain.<p>Most recent gig I had, the client cut hours and then rates... all due to the fact that the CEO didn't manage the project properly from the outset, and they were hemorrhaging cash. That fell squarely into the "not my problem" category, so I quit.<p>It's a tough business, and one I've not completely figured out yet.
Been a freelancer since 2003, working from home, introvert living alone, not affected by loneliness. Darn, I must not like people !<p>Will try the shoes trick.
"If a client previously posted their projects to Fiverr or UpWork, it’s a signal they don’t value expertise."<p>I disagree with this. Some clients just don't have any idea where to get something done other than a "site" they heard about or found on the internet.<p>But these clients usually are fairly technically clueless and require a lot of hand holding and/or have unrealistic expectations. Come to think of it I sort of have to agree with the authors basic point... not a great signal (although for different reasons).
Well, it's definitely helpful. Let me tell my story, I had been working as a freelancer for 2 years. I mainly worked on Upwork. Most of the clients are cheap and micromanagement. And most of the jobs are short term. I think the big problem is how to find a good client? If you are an American, you may have networking. Your friends can refer you a good job. Or you can go to the events, and try to sell your business. But if you are not an American, you may struggle to find a good client. So I think this post is for those who are living in developed countries, not developing countries ( third world )
As a new freelancer, this is so good!<p>> "If a client gives you a design to implement, make your implementation pixel-perfect. It’s crazy how sloppy some developers are; the client put together that PSD for a reason."<p>Shamefully have to admit this was me when I started -- my mind says "the tool does the thing!" and the client says "it looks nothing like my design". Can't be afraid to charge for CSS.
> Don’t work on promises. Get projects down on paper with clear terms, and have your clients sign. Until you do so, all the talk in the world is worthless.<p>I wish it expanded more on this. Some questions:<p>- when you're remote, do you print the contract, sign it, scan it, send it, and have the client do the same? or do you send 2 physical copies via DHL or something? or do you just rely on a "looks good!" reply to an email detailing the terms?<p>- what's the typical practice in the freelance market on using contracts? I mean, when you're working remote from a country different from your client's, I imagine it's pretty difficult to write good enforceable contracts since they involve 2 very different jurisdictions. Do people typically bother trying to make good quality contracts, or are they used on the assumption that both parties will act in good-faith?<p>- when you're just starting out and can't really afford the services of a lawyer that can write international contracts, how do write such things on your own? some tips?<p>- are there standard clauses in these contracts that people expect or are they really diverse?<p>It would have also been cool if this talked a bit about how the interactions typically are between a freelancer and a client. I mean, I imagine there's a general protocol, right? I imagine the freelancer should guide the interactions, but what are clients' expectations? For example, what's typically used for communication? skype? plain email? Are there some etiquette rules specific to freelancing?
> If a potential client tells you how something should be implemented, they don’t want you to think too much and don’t value your expertise.<p>Not necessarily. My team has recently inherited a system developed by an outside contractor that has absolutely nothing to do with our stack, and taking over its operation ended up taking much more time than if we had developed the functionality from scratch.
Great article, Andy! I really enjoyed reading it. I wrote a similar piece about going freelance as a software engineer a while ago, perhaps you’ll like it:
<a href="https://blog.classycode.com/going-freelance-as-a-software-engineer-some-advice-13c4064c72ce" rel="nofollow">https://blog.classycode.com/going-freelance-as-a-software-en...</a>
To me this was a well written, no bullshit, super helpful piece. My thanks to the author, from someone relatively new to freelancing. I feel extremely lucky to have landed an 80-hour monthly retainer as one of my first gigs, but this article gives me plenty of ideas on how (and how not) to make sure things are going in the right direction over the next few years.
I have experienced almost each and every point listed on your blog in my 9 years of freelancing. Learned a few today. :-)
Thank you for keeping track of all those points/experiences and summarising for all the freelancer buddies out there.