Everything I wish someone had told me (about freelancing)

http://megrobichaud.tumblr.com/post/22147155867/everything-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about

239 80 14 years ago

megrobichaud.tumblr.com

aantix• 14 years ago

One additional note:

Automate wherever possible. Especially if you're a developer there are no excuses. Automatically log your time using something like Time Sink ( http://manytricks.com/timesink/ ). Adopt a convention for your git commits so that you can use some of your git messages as line items for your invoice (e.g. anything with "Feature: " in the front)

I wrote a gem called "Big Bucks No Whammies" ( https://github.com/aantix/big_bucks_no_whammies ) specifically for my billing purposes.

tptacek12• 14 years ago

I'm a little confused by web developers' fascination with time tracking. In my practice, if I'm working for you for a significant chunk of a day, that's the day, gone. I am more likely to just do work for you for free than to bill in less than 8-hour increments.

Do you really invoice clients for "11 hours, 3 minutes"?

I think I'd go so far as to say that the "N minutes" part of that invoice actually looks a little unprofessional. (I'm sure you're a consummate professional, though!)

patio11• 14 years ago

I think time-tracking has fascination for a certain bracket of freelancers because it is an easy, low-stress way to rescue waste from the business: you are actually doing more work then you are invoicing, so if you actually tracked it better your billings go up and your client will be happy and it doesn't hurt any shadow beliefs about the evilness of making money.

There are better ways to accomplish these goals, like switching to daily rates (or weekly rates). No client worth having cares what your work structure looks like if you're capable of producing -- just move to a day rate, give them your honest best effort, and deliver results.

e.g. Most of my clients are pretty happy with me. None of them would perceive value from me slicing out 7 minutes from an invoice because, e.g., I wrote a post on HN. (They just profoundly don't care about that, they care about the deliverables, the feeling of happiness they get working with me, and -- ideally -- measurable results as a result of the engagement.)

jdminhbg• 14 years ago

> In my practice, if I'm working for you for a significant chunk of a day, that's the day, gone.

In my practice, I'm more productive working on two or three different projects throughout the day. So I bill for the part of the day I'm actually using for that client.

_lc1i5• 14 years ago

Hourly billing gives a freelancer a lot more flexibility on their day. What if the number of hours you work for a client on any given day (or week) is highly variable? For example, you work off hours when you can. Or you are splitting time between clients. Or the amount of work a client has on-site wanes and spikes unpredictably. Or you feel like leaving at noon every Thursday and Friday. I am still newish to freelancing, but I do not feel comfortable billing an full 8 hour day for just showing up in any of the above scenarios. And I certainly would not want to give me time away for free if I did not hit some minimum.

enobrev2• 14 years ago

> Do you really invoice clients for "11 hours, 3 minutes"?

I would certainly hope not. I personally tend to round to the half day (including down to zero), and sometimes to the next hour depending on the client, the frequency of work, how much we've worked on together over time, etc.

I think you might be skipping over the personal benefit of time tracking. Sure after a few years of freelance development, Most estimates get easier, but only because you know how long things have taken in the past.

If I didn't track all my hours in the past, I'd have no idea how to estimate tasks, much less entire projects. The hardest part when I was first starting out was estimation. After a couple years of getting it wrong - and eating hours instead of food - I was finally able to get my estimates within a couple days.

Of course when projects get more innovative, it gets difficult to judge how long things will take, but I can still count on the parts I already know to build a groundwork for how long most of the project should take.

Otherwise, I've found charging down to the hour can be a good practice for new clients with small intro projects to make it immediately clear that they will pay my high hourly rate for the work they request. It's a filter. Over time, I'll probably eat plenty of hours for one-offs and whatnot. But I certainly don't want a new client to think so until a relationship has been developed.

driverdan2• 14 years ago

That's exactly what I do for long term clients with open ended projects. I use Freshbooks' timer to track my time. Whatever that totals to is what gets billed.

For close-ended projects I generally quote up front and track my time for my own purposes. For scope changes and other additional expenses I often use a timer and bill actual time.

adrianhoward2• 14 years ago

One productivity hack that I've used a few times is to flip it around. Rather than track work time - I track non-work time.

I set aside 20 hours (or whatever) of coding time for a project during the week - and then track all the things that stop me doing that and subtract it from the total.

By focusing on tracking the interruptions rather than the work - the impact of poor multi-tasking/poor-scheduling becomes much more obvious.

[Edit: And in case it wasn't obvious - the time is tracked for me, not the client]

damoncali3• 14 years ago

Depends on the project and client. If the client cares at all, I just write down how long something took. If it's 1.05 hours, so be it.

BUT... I don't generally do anything that isn't at least a half day, totaled up. But if I do 3 things in that half day, I find some clients benefit from seeing how much time each thing took. It helps them to get more realistic about their time expectations. Other clients could give a toss, and for them, I just send a one line invoice: "Web development: $x,xxx"

ars2• 14 years ago

I round to the nearest quarter hour, and yes I time things exactly. If I stop working to browse the web I'll pause the clock. At the end of the day I'll round the time to the nearest 15 minutes and record it.

tptacek12• 14 years ago

This is a pretty good post; the latter half, I think, probably applies well to all solo consulting practices.

I particularly liked how flexible her thinking was on billing. "Hourly, with a cap" is one good way to do it; we tend to do "flat rate, fixed schedule" to similar effect. My only critique is with using "hourly" as your time quantum. Hourly sucks. It's probably some kind of standard in design, but even if you're a designer, I recommend pushing it at least to "daily".

Has anyone else here obtained a "line of credit" (say from a bank)? Do we think she just means "get an Amex card"?

Two other points I'd add:

* Incorporate: LLCs are (very) cheap and absorb most of the risks that are most likely to bankrupt you or take your house away.

* Get an accountant. Less cheap, but almost certainly cheaper than doing your taxes yourself; in several of the last 7 years, my accountant has made me money.

mynegation• 14 years ago

About line of credit: she is Canadian, and in Canada line of credit is a revolving debt instrument pretty much like credit card, but with lower rate and no card attached to it, so it is less convenient to pay from it. This is designed for medium-ticket one-off purchases, like say TV or washing machine.

graeme• 14 years ago

Wow, I had no idea that was just a Canadian thing. What do Americans do?

Duff• 14 years ago

I'm not sure about all banks, but my credit union offers an unsecured line of credit for up to about $10k with a rate around 9%. They go a little higher for small businesses.

If you're looking for a cushion to reduce the impact of receivables, it's a good option.

ineedtosleep• 14 years ago

> Get an accountant.

This is where I specifically fumble on. From all the research I've tried to do online, I'm still not sure how to look for an accountant. Are there different types that specialise in the work that freelancers/contractors do? Is there a specific title that I should research? etc.

phillytom• 14 years ago

I would suggest finding someone who's trusted in working with local small businesses - probably themselves a small local shop with a few accountants - ask your hardware store owner, coffee shop owner, etc. If you are within a taxing municipality it can be helpful to have someone who knows the local ins and outs.

Generally speaking, the tax implications of being a freelancer are less complicated than small scale retail (e.g. no inventory).

typicalrunt2• 14 years ago

Accountants are like mechanics. You are only going to find a good one by word of mouth... and even then you have check to make sure that he fits your business. You should approach an accountant like a job candidate; ask questions about his business practices and those that pertain to your business.

I found my accountant through a network of co-workers that all have the same type of freelancing business (single founder; very few clients). I know he makes a lot of money doing my taxes, but he ends up saving me more money than what he's charging me and keeps me worry-free with regard to the CRA (IRS; US-equivalent).

If you are in the Vancouver area, I can recommend a good accountant that works with small/micro businesses. Hit me up on Twitter.

adrianhoward2• 14 years ago

My account finding tip would be to avoid focusing on the amount that they charge, but get references and find out how much money they saved their clients. Cheap accountants generally provide less value in my experience.

enobrev2• 14 years ago

While I generally agree with and recommend getting an accountant, I've found a personal satisfaction over the past 8 years of doing my own taxes (10 years of freelance development). It can be tedious and confusing, but it forces me to stay in tune with the laws as well as my own income / expenses.

It doesn't hurt that it costs far less than an accountant, although that time can be considered lost considering the billable time lost gathering information, adding it all up and entering it properly (Mint.com has shaven days off of this process for me).

Every year I tell myself I'll go back to having an accountant, but then I feel I'll miss that couple days of better understanding where my money came from and where it's gone. I also appreciate understanding the details behind the chunk I send to Uncle Sam.

tptacek12• 14 years ago

Some people are like you. I suspect more people are like me. If you're not sure whether you're going to enjoy / be good at doing your own taxes, screwing them up is not a good way to find out. I managed to get myself into quite an annoying hole by not delegating this particular business problem.

juddlyon• 14 years ago

Interesting perspective. +1 for using Mint.com for business - my partner set us up and it's a great way to get a global view of the inflows and and outflows.

I've gone the opposite route (hired an accountant) and feel I have a much better understanding of what's going on than when I did it myself. I have the accountant walk me through everything - no more guessing my way through Turbotax and having an anxiety attack each April.

thejteam• 14 years ago

I asked my lawyer about this when setting up my LLC. He told me to get an accountant for the first year, watch what they do, and then you'll be able to do it yourself every year after that.

sjlo• 14 years ago

My company has a line of credit from our bank. Thankfully, we've only had to draw heavily on it once, but it was a life saver at the time.

We had a situation where we simultaneously hired new employees, kicked off several sizable consulting projects and were stuck with late payments on several projects. As a result we were cash-flow negative for several months. Drawing on the line of credit helped keep payroll, AP, etc running smoothly. As a small company it's a nice low cost way to have ready access to money which you can use for anything (not just purchases).

With decent credit we were able to get a line capped at about 1/6th of our yearly revenues with a ~4.25% interest rate. This was a much higher limit and better rate that we could get with AMEX advances. The only downside is the amount time and paperwork involved, since you generally need to provide tax returns, P&L, balance sheets, AR statements, and go through lengthy approval process.

jtbigwoo2• 14 years ago

At the mega-bank in my neighborhood, they try really hard to sell a line of credit to every business customer, even if it's only a couple thousand dollars. Their standard small business application package has a checking account, savings account, debit card, and credit card and then they try to up-sell a line of credit.

54mf• 14 years ago

If you're freelancing, you need to read Design Is a Job by Mike Monteiro. It's an absolutely brilliant overview of the entire client/contractor relationship, and how to operate in a way that protects both you and your client from any potentially hairy situations. Can't recommend it enough.

http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job

tptacek12• 14 years ago

Every time I read about this book I really want to buy it, but I hesitate because I'm not a designer; how designer-specific is it? Like, the drama involved in getting clients to accept a creative brief is interesting, but it's not very relevant to what I do.

rglover• 14 years ago

I just finished the book and while it's weighted toward designers, a lot of the lessons can apply to various industries. Namely: dealing with clients, negotiating contracts, getting paid on time, and the importance of developing a working and business process.

Go buy it.

pacomerh• 14 years ago

It's not designer specific. It feels more like the word 'designer' is being used in terms of being a creative, rather than specifically a graphic specialist. So it applies to freelancers who invent, but doesn't touch developers issues either, so its weighted to professionals who need taste to acomplish their job. It's a good book, I like Monteiro's no-BS approach to things.

beosrocks2• 14 years ago

Steve Friedl's So you want to be a consultant...? ( http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html ) is also a must-read. Not only is Steve a Unix expert (and the brother of Jeff Friedl, regex legend), he's an excellent writer as well.

pessimizer• 14 years ago

That's the link that I needed most in this world right now. Thanks for posting it.

beosrocks2• 14 years ago

My pleasure! Glad to hear you found it helpful. It played a large part in shaping my course (and later success) as well.

trucious• 14 years ago

Post seems pretty enlightening, makes me wish I could find something similar regarding software development specifically.

typicalrunt2• 14 years ago

The "Fuck You. Pay Me." slide aggravates me. No matter how you dress it up with asterisks, you're still swearing and showing a lack of class. I agree that a large part of freelancing is making money (getting paid), but there are nicer ways to say it. The rest of the presentation is really well put together, but this particular slide seems out of place.

veenix• 14 years ago

If you actually read the article, you will see that the slide that you're referring to is sarcastic. The actual text just says the facts and is not laced with profanity or emotional words.

jwwest• 14 years ago

This is a reference to an infamous talk given by Mike Monteiro who's infamous in the design community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZGra65Nob4

SkyMarshal• 14 years ago

Which in turn was a reference to Goodfellas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ydqjqZ_3oc

megrobichaud• 14 years ago

Heh yeah, I was referring to the Mike Monterio talk. But in the actual talk that I'm giving at the school I changed it to "Hey you. Pay me" if that makes you feel better?

Udo• 14 years ago

I'm not sure why he or the talk is considered infamous. (Full version here: http://vimeo.com/22053820) When a client orders work to be done, that work should be billed as agreed and then the client should pay for the work they ordered. In design and web development, there seems to be some moral confusion among some clients whether they actually have to pay for the work the ordered. The speaker argues, and I believe rightly so, that this is bullshit.

dusing• 14 years ago

"Fuck You. Pay Me." is a pretty well established philosophy, not just a curse word.

https://vimeo.com/22053820

driverdan2• 14 years ago

The only thing that aggravates me about it is that she put an asterisk in "Fuck" as if it makes some kind of a difference.

ChrisNorstrom2• 14 years ago

The biggest mistake I made when I started freelancing is I had NO plan on how to take care of maintenance after I closed up shop.

Websites are living business cards that are almost always changing. So when you take on 5 projects over a year. You're never really going to get away from them. They are perpetual. You will always get calls later on about "fixing this" and "changing that". And if you think you can simply give the client all the code so they can go on to someone else, it's not that easy. Especially if you're hosting everything for them (which I now understand is a big mistake). Clients don't understand code well enough to be able to do that, and the changes they need are sometimes so vital to their business, you'd feel like an asshole for not giving in. Sure you can charge them for the changes but again: If you get busy later on in life you'll always be haunted by your former clients. It's hard to let go.

Learn from my stupid mistake. Before you even create index.php create a plan on what you're going to do when you get sick of freelancing. Set everything up around the idea that one day you will need to pass this all onto someone else.

jiggy2011• 14 years ago

Could you not build up a network of people who you would trust to do a decent job of maintaining the website after you moved on? Then recommend these others to clients if the need arises.

I know some developers will offer "understudy" type services where the code is always available to at least 2 developers. One will do the majority of the work and the second will simply look at changes incase they need to take over.

goostavos• 14 years ago

How do you handle that sort of thing? Is there a cut-off or something? I've never done any web development, but I can see how this would be a hairy situation.

damoncali3• 14 years ago

You put it in your contract - it should be crystal clear. If at some point, you don't want to continue (i.e. extend your contract), just refer them to another developer. It's not that big a deal.

cageface• 14 years ago

This is one of the biggest reasons I've decided to focus on native apps. No server to maintain.

danssig• 14 years ago

But on the other hand, you've created customers that are practically guaranteed to produce repeat business dollars.

Mjux• 14 years ago

real gem, in the mix. Oh, the definites, very. Thanks for the Joey Tribbiani strictness.

lawnchair_larry2• 14 years ago

Of course we are not supposed to reply to spam, but this has me curious and amused. Why is there a markov bot posting on HN? In hopes that it will be coherent enough to get enough upvotes to be useful to someone?

egypturnash• 14 years ago

Learning to say no is one of the most important things IMHO.

In the Discworld books, there's a bit where the Best Smith In The World shoes Death's horse. It's a thing he HAS to do now and then, because otherwise, well, he's just not the Best Smith In The World anymore, is he? It's a little weird and unsettling, but he does it, and he does it well.

Every now and then a job comes along that makes me feel like that. It's something that the client is coming specifically to ME for, not just because they like my style but because I am one of about three people in the world who could do justice to this idea. And when one of those comes along, I make room in my schedule for it. I warn the client that it may take a while - but it'll be worth the wait.

But most of the time? Most of the time, I politely say "no". Once you've gotten your head above water, this is not a luxury; keeping your workload under control and not having twenty unfinished projects hanging over your head makes you AND your clients happy.

(Underpricing yourself is also a terrible idea, and one this piece doesn't address. Most of the stories of nightmare art commissions my friends tell are of a too-cheap piece where the client demands endless re-dos for free.)

dafritz• 14 years ago

wow. thank you for that helpful post!

chrisrhee• 14 years ago

> You’re not your own boss, you’ve got about 30 different bosses

As a freelancer, you get to choose those bosses. Much harder to do at a regular job.

> If you’re not on twitter, it reflects poorly on you. The design community is strongly linked to the start-up and web-dev communities.

Minor nitpick: Our design community is strongly linked to the start-up and web-dev community. But other design communities exist outside of the software world :)

Good information in the article. Shared it with friends who are getting started with freelancing. I'm sure they're in a better position now than me, when I was starting out.

BillAtHRST• 14 years ago

One not so minor point: you can't just "write off unpaid invoices" - if you're on an accrual basis (i.e., you record income when you bill), then you can "write off unpaid invoices", but what you're doing is simply subtracting the unpaid invoice from the income you earlier recorded; - otoh, if you're on a cash basis (i.e., you record income when you receive it), which is far more common for small biz, then you never recorded the income for that unpaid invoice, so attempting to write it off will get you in big trouble with the IRS (or the equivalent in the Great White North).

Everything I wish someone had told me (about freelancing)

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