Ask HN: How do I get started freelancing?

Instant success took only four years to accomplish: I've been blogging for quite some time now about my business and the kind of things I've done to improve it. For example, Rails programming, SEO, A/B testing, what have you. These are valuable to a broad spectrum of businesses which have rather more money than I do.<p>When I wanted to do some consulting work, I contacted folks I knew from blogging (and other forms of participation on the Internet) and said "Hey, are you interested in buying my time? I know you need X, you know I can do X very well, how's about I X for you?" (Both of them said "X is kind of meh but if you could Y we'd be thrilled", and happily I could Y, too.)<p>How much you charge starting out is entirely a market question. I'll give you my typical pricing advice for anything: "Charge more." You will have better clients, because cheapskates are disproportionately pathological clients, and your clients will be happier with your work. Price communicates an expectation of value, and that framing is <i>shockingly</i> durable. Incidentally, if they're hiring <i>you</i> rather than an undifferentiated freelancer in X, then the global market clearing price is <i>whatever you say it is</i>.<p>You can also get inbound offers in a similar fashion. (If I were more interested in them, I'd have a page on my site advertising my availability and making a focused case for hiring me, and I'd optimize that page with all the tricks I use for product pages. And detail exactly how I did it on the page, because that is, after all, a visible indication that I'm good at what I claim to be good at.)

A few tips, in addition to Patrick's excellent advice.<p>1) Make a nice portfolio. That's the #1 thing people will look at on your site. Do a free site for a charity if you have nothing to show (do your homework too - there's a lot of local business people on the boards of charities).<p>2) List what you do, explicitly. Don't be afraid of being verbose. You would think most people would assume if you can do a Wordpress site you can probably do Drupal, vanilla HTML, etc. They will not.<p>They also don't know industry terms, so speak plain English. For example, don't say "I'm going to install a content management system", say "you'll be able to change the text on your website any time you want."<p>3) Don't underestimate LinkedIn. Make sure everyone you know is aware of what you do and that they can hire or recommend you. Leave recommendations for others.<p>4) Following on 3, scratch people's backs online. When you order lunch, leave a review on Google Local or Citysearch. Do this for every service you buy - the vet, your doctor, etc. If they have Twitter, mention the great service you just received at @joesplace.<p>5) Scratch people's backs in the real world. Want to know the secret to networking? Send other people business. If something comes in that's out of your range (e.g., logo design), send it to another firm. You'll absolutely get their attention, and they'll probably reciprocate the favor.<p>Following on this: other firms are an <i>excellent</i> source of business. There's a ton of print and graphic designers who can't code, and need someone good to pair with. So get good at PSD -&#62; Wordpress, Drupal, etc, and you can always find work.<p>6) Pricing. As Patrick said, "charge more." If you need a number, start with $50 or $75/hr and go up as you gain experience. Make sure to offer firm estimates when needed (but not without detail! Mockups is worth the $100).<p>Good luck!

patio11 has solid advice. I do B2B contract work (I don't interact with the end client) and have noticed, however, that many of the small web shops that need "help" have a hard time paying you anything good because they've already charged the client 25k for a website and that gets diluted as they take a cut to pay for their expenses.<p>I've found my niche contracting for other freelancers (particularly designers) who are willing to pay more because they don't have four other employees and related business expenses to care for with that income.<p>What has been said about "charge more" holds true as well, I heard it a lot before I started but couldn't figure out "how" to charge more (confidence thing). One fine day I had a fellow approach me and said his budget was x, I told him if he doubled it he would have my minimum rate. He said it was a bit high for him and that we would stay in touch; two weeks later he came calling and met my rate.<p>He was also one of the many "good" clients I've had. High-quality and fairly priced (for you) work just <i>tastes</i> better...<p>Oh, and as a rule whatever your initial time "estimate" is, double it and you will get a more accurate number (works consistently for me). Avoid any clients that want "a Groupon website built using Joomla but with a custom shopping cart done in three weeks with a budget of four grand. Oh, we also want to be making money the day of launch in three weeks." (true story)<p>If you build it well and test it well, the project won't nag you long into the future. It will be <i>done</i> when you are <i>done</i>; I can't stress that enough either. Kind of goes hand-in-hand with the high-quality thing.<p>Be sure you handle taxes properly too, since I'm a sole-proprietorship I just have a business savings account that I stuff what I withhold. I also keep track of all the things that I can claim as an expense.<p>(this is the end, I promise) You should also have a way of organizing and tracking your projects; I use heavily customized templates for projects in Emacs org-mode. I write up quotes using it and I also write up the requirements, sprints, payment schedule, backlog, notes, etc... using a project template. I can track my time with it, how much they've paid to-date, and invoice them.<p>Whatever you use, have a system for tracking and organizing the non-code related material of a project.<p>Good luck!

There are plenty of good suggestions in this thread about acquiring contacts, so I wanted to mention there is a lot of administration work with freelancing that the sooner you get started on the better. Remember, as a freelancer, you're in charge of taking care of taxes, health care, vacation days, sick days, work related costs, and unemployment time.<p>I would try save at least half of everything you make. First, 1/3rd should be saved for taxes. Second, save at least 1/6th for misc expenses and everything else. Second, look into tax deductions, there is a lot of associated costs with running a freelance business that you can deduct and save a lot of money. So get a system together for keeping track of expenses, ie gas mileage traveling to a client, cost of new computer hardware, if you work from home then you can deduct the percentage of space your office takes up from your rent (not quite that simple), and electricity and internet, etc etc.<p>Invoicing is another thing that is a hassle. Keep track of hours everyday and stay on top of it.<p>The best advice I can give is to really treat freelancing like a business and get a system setup that works for you. Doing business/administrative stuff is not as fun as programming by any means, but the headaches of not doing it up front will be much bigger.<p>Best of luck to you.

I'm a freelancer and get work from two main sources: friends and former colleagues; and RentACoder.<p>RentACoder has worked very well for me, I rarely use the site to get work and instead get referrals from previous clients. It was painful working essentially for free in my first two weeks, but you make up for it pretty quickly.<p>One thing I would have done differently is to shout from the rooftops, right from day 1. I only recently took advantage of the likes of LinkedIn to find work, and this has also worked really, really well. Keep building your list of contacts, shout out to <i>everyone</i> you know that you're available and this is the list of what you can do.<p>Charging is simple: when you don't have many clients, drop your prices. As you get more and more work coming in, raise your prices. Keep doing so until your work drops off, then drop your prices a bit, and keep doing so until you get work. I was terrified the first time I told a few clients I was increasing my rates, I thought they'd all desert me! Break through this psychological barrier, the rewards are there for you if you do :)<p>Finally, get prepared for the fact that from time to time you're going to have to wait longer than you want to get paid. I've yet to get properly burned, but have definitely had to wait to get my cash from time to time.

Do you mean you want to be a freelancer for other agencies or to work directly for clients?<p>When we set up our agency, here's what worked:<p>- Get your own site set up so that you have a web presence and can start to build a brand.<p>- You need to build your portfolio, so do a bit of work for cheap/free if you have to. You want to do this quickly, if you do a site for free the client will be more willing to go ahead straight away as it requires little decision making. We did a website for a primary school and a couple of photographers we knew to start off with.<p>- You're probably going to need to have low prices to start with, as smaller businesses are more willing to give a new business a shot, but won't have as much of a budget as bigger companies. Over time you can decide where you want to take the business and start charging more as you build a reputation. Your aim at this point is to build a portfolio, so you can charge more later on.<p>- Classified ads on Gumtree or whatever the equivalent is in your area. We met two of our biggest clients through classified ads (just be honest, link to your site and try and get across your ethos).<p>- Reach out to personal network, previous employers etc... they already trust you (hopefully) and may have work that can keep you going.<p>- Get involved with a co-working space, this has 3 main benefits: 1) regain some of the social element of work, which you may have lost if you previously worked in an office environment. 2) Meet other business owners and freelancers that can offer advice and are a good sounding board, and interesting people usually too. 3) You might even get work from other business working at the same space. We've got a couple of clients as a result of using a co-working space.<p>- Cold calls! I could write a whole post on this, but basically, try and figure out a niche and what your hook is; Why are you going to go after a particular niche? Have you worked in this industry before? Can you offer a service that will add value to them? Are you in their area (geographically)?<p>Remember this is one of the hardest bits of going it alone but once you gain some momentum and build a portfolio it will get easier.

One thing I did was check out members of local tech community groups -- googled the names and found something about them (say an article/post they wrote). Then I would write a personal email with some comments directed to that person specifically, with a quick note about me and how I might be able to help them. It's time consuming but does get responses if you choose people carefully, and don't spam.<p>I also did pro/low bono work for organizations with lots of members -- it's a good way to get your name out b/c you're identified as a potential local resource.<p>Most people/orgs that I work for want fixed pricing -- I handle that by writing up an estimate that breaks down each task/feature, how long it takes to implement that feature, and my hourly rate. That way you still give them a set price, but you get the hourly rate in their heads, so you have a basis for pricing changes/enhancements. You can also give first-time clients a "first project" discount -- that way they are more inclined to hire you, but also have an idea how much your "real" price is for future work. If you are really good, they will hire you again.<p>For an hourly rate I think the advice already posted is good -- I started low and bumped up my rate with each new client. I typically charge for-profit companies more than individuals/non-profits. If you think your rate is too high, it's probably right on target. :) You can always renegotiate down if the rate is a dealbreaker, but you can't renegotiate up.<p>Scope creep can kill you -- in my estimate I write as specifically as possible what I will do (based on requirements discussions), and more importantly what I WILL NOT do. You can't catch everything, but that goes a long way toward resolving conflicts. When there's a material change/addition, you can then price that new task accordingly. People will take advantage of you if they can get changes/additions for free.<p>A good web presence is important -- I get calls from out of the blue from people who have seen my web site, and those have turned into long-term relationships. Do some SEO to make sure you're visible to your local area.

This is going to scare the pants off of you, and I'll get downvoted into oblivion but:<p>Give your first client a free website.

In my opinion the main thing that you need to do is get out there, meet people and make friends with them. All those conferences and lunches will pay off in the long run, and probably give you a lot of opportunities for work down the line. If you are really serious I also suggest that you go to the state department's page, and register an LLC so that you can start getting tax benefits for work related purchases. If you are interested in my story of how I've started out freelancing as a college student myself you can read it after the jump.<p>Here are some good resource websites: <a href="http://freelanceswitch.com" rel="nofollow">http://freelanceswitch.com</a> <a href="http://workawesome.com" rel="nofollow">http://workawesome.com</a><p>I go to an art and design college so it is probably easier for me to get connections for work, but here is what I've done as a student. Making friends with staff and faculty has been of a huge benefit to me. I've gotten a couple small jobs, a work study and an internship simply by being friendly to other people in my major, and staff at the school. A teacher in my program who I took a two classes with saw an art piece I did (web design related) at an exhibition in the schools gallery space, and referred me for a flash job similar in nature to another client of his that he didn't have time to complete. I got a work study at my school's in house design firm as a referral from a student in my program who knew my skill set. I also got an internship this summer in NYC as a result of being casual friends with one of the study abroad staff. In the spring I attended a Flash Developer's conference, and made connections with several people there, and one of them whom I'm communicating with now seems like a really promising opportunity for some contract work.

1&#62; You need a portfolio. I don't know what sort of development you're looking to do, but make 3-5 nice looking sites/programs/apps. Remember, you can't show off snazzy technical stuff (as clients won't understand it), but you can make it look pretty or do something that would interesting to a layman.<p>This should likely take you a couple months to finish, if you're putting the quality in I'm talking about.<p>Now you can do these for free for someone else, but that makes the relationship a hard one to transition to paid eventually.<p>2&#62; Don't ever charge low amounts of money. The people who offer work for that amount are often horrible to you. I'm not saying start out charging $150 an hour, but get far north of $20 an hour for any sort of development.<p>3&#62; Borrow or beg a standard contract from someone else. Include cancellation clauses, so the manner in which a cancellation occurs is dictated by prior agreement. Make sure you include what payments are still due, who gets what rights to use code or already finished products, etc.<p>4&#62; Just start! Seriously, you'll learn most of this by doing. Remember though, these people <i>aren't your boss</i> like at work, they're clients. If they say jump, you need to make sure you <i>Really should be jumping that high</i>. Oftentimes, they'll make outrageous demands and the first alternatives that come to mind aren't the only ones.<p>5&#62; If they ask for extra work: Attach price tags to it. If it matters to them, they'll buy it. If it doesn't, they won't.

Jerry Weinberg, in <i>The Secrets of Consulting</i>, recommends charging about 4 times the hourly rate that you want to make. Thus, if you think you could live on $40/hour (about $80,000 a year), you need to charge about $160 an hour. This gives you the buffer that you need for unplanned downtime (illness, early termination of contracts, lulls in business) and planned downtime (vacation, training, business development activities). While you could argue the exact proportion, I think this is good advice, based on my experience as a consultant.

- Make yourself visible, create your own webpage,portfolio page and link it everywhere, starting with your HN profile. You don't have an email address there right now. So you might've already lost 1-2 potentials that didn't bother to signup/reply just to get your contact address.<p>- Make some apps on your own, build a portfolio. Just 1-2 should do it. There's google appengine for free hosting.<p>- Try Elance.com, i've had better luck and more pay per effort on projects there.<p>Also send me an email with your hourly rates.

I'm surprised that no-one has posted "So you want to be a consultant?" by Steve Friedl. This article helped me to get started:<p><a href="http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html" rel="nofollow">http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html</a>

I added myself to <a href="http://hnhackers.com" rel="nofollow">http://hnhackers.com</a> yesterday and I got a contact from a potential client today. Even if that's the only client I get from it, it was worth it.<p>You should charge twice the hourly wage you'd make working for someone else. Some more details about why: <a href="http://antipode.ca/2009/what-your-time-is-worth/" rel="nofollow">http://antipode.ca/2009/what-your-time-is-worth/</a>

I landed my initial contracts through registering on get a freelancer (GAF), getacoder, rentacoder (RAC), all the common freelance sites. It is very competitive, and there are many bids posted on each contract/job listing. Most of the bids are generic replies from Indian companies, offering web services. They have a lower living cost compared to US/UK, so that is why they are sucessful in this industry. Setup a keyword alert on your skill and bid often and respond to exactly to the requirement, in order to 1-up on them.<p>My advice is to find your niche. Do something different. When you bid on something that has a perfect fit to your skills you will have an advantage. Get in contact, build a rapport by responding fast, thoroughly and accurately. If possible, send some sample work or ideas on how to solve a problem. Try and bid on something you are likely to win, and always bid on a project that when you look back, it will seem like a stepping stone in what you learnt or experienced. Don't bid on dull jobs or those that require little skill. There are plenty of people around for that already. Be smart.<p>If I started over, in hindsight, maybe I would have taken a different route, by researching companies and building a network of contacts, e.g. through HN or Linkedin. I would be more confident about my skills too.<p>One last tip: work hard and read a book on self-motivation. Good luck! :)

Start with building an app that you can be proud of. Others have mentioned working for free, but if you're going to do that, you may as well build an app for yourself.<p>Treat it as a client project and be willing to put some money into it to keep yourself committed and ensure its success.<p>Once it launches, you have an instant portfolio and hopefully some Github contributions that come out of it that you can point to.<p>This is the route that I am going with. I'm about 60% done with my app.

My best freelancing success has always come from former colleagues and managers already familiar with my quality of work. I'm not sure what your professional experience is, but if you have an existing network to leverage it will make your ability to secure projects a lot easier. I've also found that as a general rule of thumb, you can usually charge your former hourly salary +50% (and sometimes more) and nobody will bat an eye. If they do, you might want to reconsider them as a client.

When starting out freelancing you could attract clients by offering to complete a project first and let the client pay what they think it is worth.

I have found that having a good network helps. People who know you can recommend you to their contacts. You should hang out at the local barcamps and other events and let people know that you are available for freelance work.<p>Building a website and writing a blog helps too. Lots of time people have contacted me through my blog for work.<p>Best of luck

I need some quick cash, so I'm thinking of taking area restaurant menus and creating a quick iphone web version for each one, then walking in to the restaurant, showing it to a manager, and asking if they want to pay a couple hundred bucks for it. Hopefully a few will buy it and it will lead to more work down the line.

This question comes up a lot (because it is important.)<p>I have the opposite question: How do I find good freelancers?

You could start by putting some contact info and a portfolio link in your profile.<p>How much time do you have for freelance work? What are your rates like?

There are freelance camps all over North America, each sessions info is stored on wikis. One that just finished is Vancouver Freelance Camp <a href="http://www.thenetworkhub.ca/freelancecamp/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thenetworkhub.ca/freelancecamp/</a> and the wiki is updated with info

Here are my best 5 tips that I can think of off the top of my head:<p><a href="http://togger.com/breck/tips_for_freelance_developers" rel="nofollow">http://togger.com/breck/tips_for_freelance_developers</a>

I'd suggest doing open-source work, blogging, and presenting at meet-ups. Sharing your knowledge with other people is a great way to make friendly connections.

jacquesm has a pretty good guide: <a href="http://jacquesmattheij.com/be-consultant" rel="nofollow">http://jacquesmattheij.com/be-consultant</a>

Want to go freelance? Then you need one thing more than anything else:<p>Confidence.<p>If you don't have it, get it. You can't pick up women or clients without it.

Do you already have the skills necessary? If so, beg everyone you know for a cheap job, and then beg them more for referrals. In freelance, 95% of your work will come from your network of clients and referrals.<p>You could also scrape craigslist and get your first initial gigs that way.