Ask HN: How do you become an independent contractor?
I feel like this is something I'd like to do in the future -- and a way to increase income and be my own boss.
What are the pros/cons?
What are the pros/cons?
Plenty has been discussed on this before, but here are the biggest pros and cons from my experience.
Pro: Time flexibility. I wanted to be able to dedicate more time to non-dev things like reading, writing, creating, and learning things just for the hell of it.
Con: You don't get paid for time in several situations where employees do, for example, paid vacations and holidays. Another would be long lunches. As an employee, I never thought about the length of my lunchtime. As a contractor, I tend to eat as fast as possible so I can get back to business.
I think the benefits and drawbacks really vary by one's personality. I'm a very autonomous person and have always worked best when I can control my day and working hours.
Increasing income was not a direct goal for me, but it will probably happen. It's not quite that simple though — you need to make about 30% more to cover self-employment taxes and various startup costs like creating a company, legal, accounting, web services, etc.
Once you consider: (1) that you don't get paid vacation and holidays, (2) that you probably won't have 100% of your desired hours every week for 52 weeks out of the year, and (3) that you have certain time-consuming activities that aren't billable, like invoicing; it's probably more like 1.5x to net more overall at the end of the year vs being an employee. Note that this also ignores any equity you might have vested as an employee.
Before you even think about being a contractor, get good (or partner with someone good) at getting contracts.
That's where it gets difficult, because you have services that help you sell like freelancer.com - that are easy to go through but you get market price.
Then there's selling your services at higher prices, which is finding clients and offering your services - no clear cut way to do. You'll also find its not as clear cut as being your own boss that is just illusory, it's like being in a job but getting no benefits with it and being able to be let go at any time. Also it is difficult to get clients.
I would consider using a high-end marketplace or advice channel as supplements, but not as a main stream of work. Though it is more difficult and involved to find your own clients, it's a better approach once you've done it a few times.