To freelance or not to freelance?

Business
1

I have been developing websites for about 8 years now, I’m pretty confident in my development skills. Something I do need help on though is my career path. Web development has always been kind of a side thing for me, my career for the past 5 years has been working as a teacher at a local college teaching network administration. However I no longer enjoy what I do. Something that I have always loved is Web Development.

Lately I have been thinking about doing two things.

  1. Starting a web development firm (for big projects. paying a staff when I need them.)
  2. Starting to take freelancing more serious.

I have done about 3 projects as a freelance developer this year, sure its nothing to boast about but, I do have a day job.

With all that said. If you are currently freelancing I would love some input on the following.

Can one survive with just freelance work?
What is the best way to get clients? I have only done work through freelance.
Is it a good idea to work both as a freelancer and as a development firm, using either one for projects when needed?

I should also mention my skills. I have been working with: HTML, CSS, jQuery, JS, PHP, MySQL, LUA, C#, and Python. I have focused my skills on LAMP development though for the past 8 years.

Thank you for any info.

2

Hey there,
Welcome to the community. :smile:
Sounds like an exciting time in your life!

I freelance, although these days not as a web developer, but as a Community Manager, so while there may be some similarities, there are also differences.

What country are you in? Do you need a reliable income to support a family? Both of those things are a factor when considering freelancing. Also, have you considered taking a job with an existing company as a web dev, or do you have your heart set on freelancing for a particular reason?

3

Hello HAWK thanks for the hospitality.

I am in the U.S living in California. I do have a family to support so a steady income is desired but not required if I can make enough money freelancing to cover bills.

I have worked as a developer for a school a few years back. It was fun and I loved it. Freelancing just seems like there is always opportunity.

I don’t plan on quitting my job just yet. But I would like an idea if one can live comfortably on just freelance work. Say make 45k in s year at a minimum.

4

I do, but as I say, my situation is slightly different.
Let’s see what others have to offer.

Best of luck in your ventures.

5

One of the best decisions I ever made was to become my own boss. I thoroughly enjoy working for myself, and I will never go back to being a salaried employee.

But freelance work is not for everyone. It can involve long hours of thankless hard work, and stresses and strains of dealing with clients and meeting deadlines. Importantly, it might also mean long periods on a low income.

To succeed as a freelance, I would say you need the following:

  • A good head for business, especially negotiating with clients and dealing with invoicing and payment.

  • A totally professional approach to your work.

  • A willingness to take a drop in your income (hopefully only in the short term).

  • A steady nerve - so you don’t panic at every setback.

If you happy with all of the above, by all means go for it. But keep in mind too that freelance web development is extremely competitive - and I would guess that’s especially true in California.

Mike

1 Like
6

Hello Mikl,

Thank you for that, it is very helpful. I get that as a freelance or any solo business there are time that money is coming in and other times where one might go through a shortage of work.

I think I am going to start getting ready to take the plunge, I am starting to get everything in place, developing a new portfolio site and a new company site. I still have to file the company name and do all the legal stuff though, I even ordered up some business cards so I can introduce myself to local businesses.

I have been doing work on elance for a while now and I just opened an account on freelancer. Hope that helps. Im not going to quit my day job just yet, but I am preparing to hopefully be able to go full time freelance withing the next year or two.

7

I’ve been freelance for ten years now and, like Mikl, I can’t imagine going back to being an employee. The web offers amazing opportunities to craft a career for yourself. I say that because it’s not that I’m especailly adventurous or anything. I don’t think I could be a freelance print writer - but the web is different.

I agree with Mikl’s points, and I would add three factors that for me proved absolutely critical. First, you’ve got to sell. Work is not going to fall into your lap, so you have to hustle. It’s not fun (or, rarely) but you have to promote yourself, and talk to prospective clients and partners and agencies and get good at selling yourself.

Second, if you’re selling your skills to the general public as opposed to seeking contracts with agencies, you have to remember that they’re after a finished product. Your code might be brilliant but it’s useless without design and content and UX and all the rest, So you need to form partnerships with people whose skills complement yours. Either, as you suggested, as staff you hire or as partners in projects you pitch for.

Lastly, if you get the opportunity for something that provides regular payment over time, maybe 10-20 hours a week and enough income to cover the basic bills - take it. Even if it’s not your favourite kind of work. Having that bread-and-butter income stream can be the difference between surviving long term or going under in the first year or two.

Hope that helps.

1 Like
8

@thesebflo The single most common point of failure for freelancers is poor business management. Anyone that starts a business without any knowledge of running one is asking for trouble. You may be one of the best developers on the planet, but that doesn’t preclude you from failure as a business.

The only way to ensure that you have the best chance of success is to get adequate training in small business management. Local colleges usually have a Cert. I-IV course or two that covers all you need to know.

How you market yourself depends on what kind of personality you have. If you are an extroverted, people person, then face to face networking should be your main thrust. If you’re an introverted, private person, then indirect marketing via mail, email, web etc is the way to go. Of course there’s more likely to be a combination of the two.

Whichever marketing tactics you choose, you have to get amongst other business managers and owners and get known. One of my favourite ways to kick off a business is with a competition for free services wrapped up in a neat package. Have simple entry forms placed in public facing offices around your local area and obviously on the web. This gets you introduced to other business owners in the area and the comp entries are a good source of pre-qualified leads.

Being a web developer, you’re also missing a key skill-set in being able to deliver a complete service to market, web design. The vast majority of web developers don’t have design as a strong-suit. Perhaps consider a relationship with a designer to round off your business offering.

Can you survive with just freelance work? A resounding yes! But be prepared to hone all of the required skills, not just those you use in production.

What is the best way to get clients? The best way is, and always will be, customer referrals. Your most important business asset is your client base. Protect it like you would protect your own family.

Freelancer or dev. firm? My opinion, start and be your own business. Use freelancers to round off your services and boost productivity when required. Freelancing has far too much feast-famine cycles to reliably support yourself (and family?) year-round.

9

@ronsman, Thank you for your input, that is a great Idea, I am fortunate enough to know a few UI guys I can team up with when needed. Im decent with UI and have decent graphic design skills but I am no graphic designer.

@metho, Thank you for the advice, business is definitely key and although I am no expert, I do know the basics of financing and business management. I think a good step would be to enroll in some business management courses as you mentioned.

I am developing a new Freelance portfolio website for myself, and a site for my Non Freelance business. I just got the business cards in, so far I have pretty much been relying on Elance to get gigs but I think a good step would be to introduce myself to local companies that dont have websites yet or have really old websites, give them my business card and let them know I am here to serve their web design needs. Not sure if this is the best approach but just kind of feels right. What do you guys think?

10

I have more to share if you can answer…

Do you have a formal, written Business Plan in place?

And what part of California do you live in?

12

@DinoTheDinosaur I wouldnt necessarily call it a formal business plan, but I definitely have an outline of my business goals. I am in Temecula Ca.

13

Thesebflo,

Have to get my head back into your OP and my advice… :wink:

I would go over to Banes & Noble - or wherever - and look through some books on starting a small business and specifically Business Plans.

People may laugh, but I read “Dummies Guide to Business Plans” and I found it quite helpful!

If you don’t have something written out then it isn’t real. And just scribbling down some thoughts won’t cut it either.

By following some sort of guide on what a Business Plan needs to cover you will be much better off.

But remember that this isn’t about flash or prettiness, it is more like writing a Masters Thesis - just not quite as rigorous.

Some question that a Business Plan should help you answer - off the top of my head - include…

  • Why do you want to start a business?

  • What do you like and not like about working for others?

  • What are the advantages and disadvantages for working for yourself?

  • What do you want to do? (This is crucial and like a Problem Statement in a paper.)

  • Why do you want to do it?

  • Who is your Target Audience?

  • Why would your idea/business/services/products stand out from everyone else’s?

  • Who is your competition?

  • How much $$ do you estimate this will take?

And so on and so forth…

Remember, if you don’t have solid, succinct answer to these and other important questions IN WRITING then you probably aren’t serious about this, and you are likely to fail. (Not that writing stuff out guarantees anything, but what I mean is that counter to what the movies say, successful people rarely if ever just start Apple or Microsoft in their heads.

In my experience, what will determine your business’s fate is more about BUSINESS and less about technology.

Once/while you are doing that, you also obviously need a portfolio.

Any idea where you want to target customers?

Orange County? LA? Bay Area? Des Moines, IA?! :smile:

If any of my advice seems reasonable, or you have more questions, feel free to ask me for more thoughts!

Last thought…

GO FOR IT - there is no reason you can’t be successful doing this as long as you heed my advice above!!

14

This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.