9 votes

Looking for advice for starting out as a freelance software engineer

Beginning of next year I am setting out as an independent software engineering consultant. As such I am interested in hearing from others who have already done something similar! I have been working as a developer and team lead for more than 10 years of which the last 5 have been focused mostly on the .Net stack. Now I want to expand my horizons a bit more, preferably with a new domain or another tech stack.

What are some suggestions/advice you'd give someone just starting down this path? Anything I should avoid doing? Anything I should definitely do? I suppose the specifics will vary a bit by country, but are there some general things I should be thinking about?

Oh, if you happen to have a need for a senior developer/tech lead, give me a ping!

9 comments

  1. [2]
    noble_pleb
    Link
    Your success will depend directly on your ability to win projects, so you're no longer just a developer! You'll also be your own project manager, delivery head and sales guy. Communication skills...

    Your success will depend directly on your ability to win projects, so you're no longer just a developer! You'll also be your own project manager, delivery head and sales guy. Communication skills matter far more when it comes to interacting with the client and finding projects, so make sure you're great in that dept. (most Engineers typically aren't, especially those who work in corporate where it's somebody else's responsibility to manage projects and revenues).

    5 votes
    1. archevel
      Link Parent
      Yeah, this is largely what I'm after. Over the years though I've found software development to be a very social activity. Understanding what to build and why is often more important for a...

      Yeah, this is largely what I'm after. Over the years though I've found software development to be a very social activity. Understanding what to build and why is often more important for a project's success than technical skill of the people involved. That said, I probably will need to work on my sales pitch!

      1 vote
  2. [2]
    stu2b50
    Link
    patio11 (Patrick Mckenzie) has written a great deal of excellent material on it on his blog. One particularly important is this one on throwing away pricing your services by hour. I think that's...

    patio11 (Patrick Mckenzie) has written a great deal of excellent material on it on his blog. One particularly important is this one on throwing away pricing your services by hour. I think that's something you'd really have a hard time getting use to moving away from being a salaried employee.

    You are not hours worked - hours worked is meaningless. Impact is all that matters. Price by impact, by the difference to the bottom line for the clients. Something that takes you 80 hours of work can bring in $100k of additional revenue/yr easily to a client; don't get tricked into being paid, say $200/hr (a pretty high hourly pay in the salaried world!) for $16k total; charge $150k for it - it'll pay for itself in a few years.

    When you buy other finished products, like a car, all you care about is how that car performs and how much it costs. It doesn't matter if the engineers labored 5x as much on a Ford Focus than a Civic if the Civic is objectively better and cost less.

    It all balances out in the end, you're not going to get paid those sums regularly, and you'll have way more costs (full FICA taxes, insurance, travel, so forth).

    4 votes
    1. archevel
      Link Parent
      Maybe I'm completely wrong on this, but it feels like this is a viable thing to do once I'm a bit more established. Also it might be simpler to do when working in marketing? It is easier to see...

      Maybe I'm completely wrong on this, but it feels like this is a viable thing to do once I'm a bit more established. Also it might be simpler to do when working in marketing? It is easier to see the direct impact on revenue/sales/inbound leads there. This approach seems more about solving a particular problem a client is having vs helping the client create whatever their vision is. Arguably the former is more valuable to a client (otherwise they wouldn't have a problem they need solving). Doing a part of the work needed to realize some project feels more difficult to price this way. Interesting newsletter none the less!

      1 vote
  3. [2]
    Adys
    Link
    Hello! I'm a tech consultant for the past ~15 years, now with my own agency. I'm happy to give you advice. AMA? DM me your cv/references/github profile or whatever you have. If you want to pick up...

    Hello!

    I'm a tech consultant for the past ~15 years, now with my own agency. I'm happy to give you advice. AMA?

    Oh, if you happen to have a need for a senior developer/tech lead, give me a ping!

    DM me your cv/references/github profile or whatever you have. If you want to pick up some subcontracting jobs, I can forward :)

    4 votes
    1. archevel
      Link Parent
      Many thanks, I've sent a DM with some info :)

      Many thanks, I've sent a DM with some info :)

      1 vote
  4. [3]
    rkcr
    Link
    I've never freelanced so take this with a large grain of salt... but I recently did a job search, also trying to expand my own horizons, and found it difficult to find companies that would even...

    I've never freelanced so take this with a large grain of salt... but I recently did a job search, also trying to expand my own horizons, and found it difficult to find companies that would even let me get my foot in the door because my resume had the wrong keywords on it. Nevermind that I have 15 years of software development experience, which matters far more than tech stack.

    When companies hire contractors, they are looking for someone to show up and smash it on day one. I'm not sure they're going to be willing to hire someone who needs to learn the stack on the job (beyond familiarizing themselves with the codebase).

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      archevel
      Link Parent
      I imagine you are right about that. Having a fairly broad technical base makes picking up new technologies easier (in my experience), but I wouldn't expect a client to pay me so I can learn tech...

      I imagine you are right about that. Having a fairly broad technical base makes picking up new technologies easier (in my experience), but I wouldn't expect a client to pay me so I can learn tech X. I do plan to set aside some time for learning whatever piques my interest, similar to what I already do in my spare time, but probably a bit more structured.

      1 vote
      1. rkcr
        Link Parent
        In my new job I've found this to be 100% true; despite coming in knowing nothing of the tech stack, I've been contributing code since week one. However, many companies are blind to this fact. It's...

        Having a fairly broad technical base makes picking up new technologies easier (in my experience)

        In my new job I've found this to be 100% true; despite coming in knowing nothing of the tech stack, I've been contributing code since week one. However, many companies are blind to this fact. It's a bit sad; I wonder how many great candidates are passed over because they got pigeonholed?

        4 votes