Working As Freelance

All,
do you know if working as freelance does effectively pay enough for a living ?

As a software programmer (.NET, PHP, Blitz) I would like to try, but I've no idea where to search jobs and, generally speaking, how it really works - that is, how to get a project, how to deal with money, how to interact with the other programmers, and the like.

It would be really helpful from you, if you can provide me some hint from your personal experience, and also some useful link where to search for oportunities.

What makes me enthousiastic of working as freelance, is that I could theoretically work from any place in the world. And what scares me, is the question 'would I find enough tasks to work with' ?

Thanks in advance,
Sergio.

My advice would be to first get a full time job that pays all your bills and freelance on the side. Working within the industry will allow you to create a network of contacts and will give you the experience and skills you described. There will then be plenty of oportunity to discover little niches where your skills could be used.
Once your freelancing starts to produce a decent income then you can leave your full time job and do your own thing.
The successful freelancers are those who have got the experience and contacts from working in the industry first.

>>do you know if working as freelance does effectively pay enough for a living ?

It is possible to earn a living, but remember that working as a freelance meens spendig a lot of time selling yourself, the coding aspect is not the bulk of the job.

>>how to get a project

Find a niche in the market, then get on the telephone.

>>how to deal with money

I forget what they call it but you can do a thing with banks where the customer pays and the bank looks after it until the project is completed. The customer cannot get their money back unless you tell the bank to refund them, but you dont get your money until the job is completed. It's a win win, very usefull payment method for freelancing.

>>how to interact with the other programmers, and the like.

Remember that you are not in competition with every programmer you meet - especially those that you work with on the same project, so be open. By working in an open manner your colleagues may find improvements in your work and you may learn from them and vice versa.

Try not to write an "engine" which you keep secret and too yourself. Your engine may be impressive - but I can already tell you anything you code isn't the most valuable piece of modern technology ever produced - so why hide it? Be open with others, and they'll be open with you - it's mutually beneficial.

>>It would be really helpful from you, if you can provide me some hint from your personal experience

I've been programming over 25 years and have worked in hardware for over a decade, and I worked for a major software house when I was younger. I am hoping to move into the software industry as a programmer when I am good enough.

>>What makes me enthousiastic of working as freelance, is that I could theoretically work from any place in the world.

I've got to break an illusion here, yes you can do that as a games studio but as a freelance programmer put yourself where your customers are. Firstly the phone calls will be cheaper, secondly you can close a deal face to face where necessary. If a deal is worth £5000 or £10000 and you cannot close it because your 36 hours and jetlag away from shaking hands then you've just lost several months of income.

I totally agree with Smiff. I tried freelance work after leaving uni, but it just wasn't happening. However it was through freelancing that I made the contact to get my current job; and now I'm doing this and that as side projects. My boss is very supportive also, and has provided me with many new skills and contacts - so ultimately, it worked out for the best.

I freelance but like working on like 12 month contracts as you don't have to worry for ages then. Currently I work 25 hours a week at home, have the odd meeting with the firm (like when I deliver stuff) and charge them by the hour (a lot) although I'm about to change to fixed-prices contracts in an effort to be more IR35 compliant. The rest of my time is spent looking after kids or programming in Blitz!

Freelance is another name for almost unemployed. It's financial suicide. Worth trying if you own your own house and have minimal bills to pay.

Yeah, I don't call myself a freelancer (although my partner is a freelance journalist fot the chemical industry and she does FINE). I have a Ltd company, an accountant, and call myself an IT consultant but I also do development (which is the bulk of my work).

Yes it does.

In that case, no it doesn't.

Well Smiff pretty much said it all. A good network, is the key to being able to successfully freelance your skills. The more people who know and trust you, the easier you'll be able to find jobs. Taking jobs that no-one else wants (tedious/trivial tasks and/or long/late hours) can help too.

Try freelancers.net - plenty on there. Also rentacoder.com.

There was a similar post in this forum a few days ago by Po.

I am a freelance web designer. I work 4 days a week as a Sales Consultant and spend the rest of my days and evenings developing web apps and web sites for customers.

Becky Rose said selling yourself is a bigger job than the actual coding and I agree 100%. I've put adds in the paper, built several different web sites, banner adds on other sites, etc. Conventional advertising is a waste of money. You need to get out there and SELL yourself.

About 80% of my work over the past 2 years has been refered to me by computer retailers. You will be surprised how many business people buy a new PC from a retailer and ask "Do you do websites?" or "I need to keep a database of this and that. Can you help?" So, get down to your local computer shop and ask if you can leave a business card stand on their counter. Be sure to service that client. Buy things from them every now and then or offer to do some work for them for free or at a discount. It's the Law of Reciprocation. They will refer everyone to you in return.

Give your business card to every one you meet - the mechanic, the newsagent, the gardener, your kids school teachers, everyone. Entice them. The back of my card says. "SAVE $2000 OFF THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR NEW SITE! HOW? WWW.JOHNPITCHERS.COM.AU ". One of my clients owns a flooring shop a few suburbs away. He didn't have a web site so I built him a simple 3 page site without telling him, uploaded it to my server and sent him the link. Three days later he signed up for a new site for $800. Took me about 4 hours.

When I first started, I built my first site for a friend. It was about six months before I got another job. 2 years later, I'm generally working on 1-2 projects a month. Unfortunately, to answer your question, it's NOT enough for a full time living! But then again it's a good second income but I do it because I love it not because I need to.

If you want to freelance then, as Smiff said, do it on the side to start. Don't be put off if you find it hard going. You will be competing with large organisations and other consultants who have been in the industry along time. Just keep SELLING your service.

Regards
John Pitchers

Thanks for the wise advices.

At the moment I do work in a company, but I'm not happy with it.

Do what a boss says is not the way I would like to work, expecially when the creativity is not appreciated.

That's why I want to change, and I thought that a self-employed solution is the way to go.

So, first things I need are contacts and advertisements.

I have also a website; perhaps I should start to improve it, and put some more professional job there..

Oh well. Lots to do, but at least I have a job that supports me.

Sergio.

some more advice. I've been a boss (of developers and other staff) for 6 years and sometimes creativity is appreciated, but other times it is not simply because in business time is money and you have to get the bare minimum done in a short time to satisfy the client. Sometimes extra bells and whistles take time, create bugs and won't generate any more money, so whats the point (apart from making your staff "feel good")? This is another viewpoint, you boss could be an arse but he may have a point.

What kind of development work do you do, Grey Alien?

I suggest trying to learn more about the people who are successful freelancers - perhaps or more exactly such as the people who helped you with this post - if possible try to become their friends via email...visit their websites or google their names in a bid to find their customers....then contact said punters and undercut your rivals as well as matter-of-factly and completely coincidentally telling your potential new customers that you used to work with said 'post-advisors' relaying their poor hygiene, ethics, prison record and raging penchant for illegal web sites and identity theft.

In this way you will quickly gain many grateful and loyal customers and succeed in freelance at the expense of all your forlorn and kindly rivals...Bill Gates would be proud!

Neuro: I am currently adding a multi-site module to a bookshop management system. http://www.merlio.com It's in Delphi which is object oriented Pascal. So basically it's a Client/Server windows app using TCP/IP, and SQL to access the huge database of 130 tables. It's quite specialised because I have to know about accounts, databases and SQL (to a high level), and Windows GUI programming and network code, plus a whole bunch of other stuff.

Hujiklo: Let's hope he doesn't *really* try that