Living Self-Employed Online: The Manual They Forgot to Give You | Hacker News Reader

Living Self-Employed Online: The Manual They Forgot to Give You

viperchill.com

100 pointsicey12 comments

This was a good article. My favorite points:

View anything public as Marketing

This is good advice for anyone and everyone. It doesn't mean that you always are out selling your excellent services or plugging your web site, it's really more "Use your real name and don't look like a stupid jackass anywhere online."

Only spend money on essential items

I totally fell into this trap the first time I was self-employed, and a little bit the second time. It's so easy to justify all sorts of expenses as "for the business" but the truth is, being smartly frugal can be a competitive advantage. That said, you can take my new laptop SSD when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Be Open About Your Position

I find it interesting that high profile doctors, lawyers, and real estate agents don't like to hide behind a name and a facade of "enterprisey-ness" and false sense of scale. If anything, they do the opposite, having you work more closely with with assistants and nurses than the name-brand expert.

If you're good, you are your brand, and you don't have to pretend to be a dozen people. In fact, a dozen people don't generally solve client problems better than one person who really has his stuff together. I'm proud to be able to deliver well as a one-person shop.

"you can take my new laptop SSD when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."

Say that buying a SSD is excusable, please! :-)

I guess I'll buy one when I first have cause to celebrate something (something being some kind of income >> cost of SSD)...

Buying an SSD is absolutely excusable, just buy the smallest one you can get away with and keep your machine very clean/small. I'm living comfortably with 40GB right now, as all of my media (music, movies, whatever) is on my iMac.

"View anything public as Marketing"

It also means that anything in public sends a signal. You're not always actively selling but you're communicating in ever so subtle ways about yourself and your business.

I'm pretty sure there's a Vonnegut or Hunter S. Thompson quote where they say something like...everyone lies during working hours or no one tells the truth once they leave their house for work. But yeah, it can often seem like you live life on a stage and every action you take has to be made in consideration of your audience.

"I saved myself $1,500 by finding workarounds for my problems, rather than just purchasing a new laptop straight away."

But how much time each day was spent dealing with the fact that his computer didn't have a hard drive? If your time can be valued in terms of dollars (it can), I bet it would have been cheaper for him to just pony up the $1500 for a usable laptop.

ya, seriously. There's frugal, then there's just wasting your time. It goes back to the saying I always liked "linux is free if your time isn't worth anything" (not trying to start a linux debate, the quote came years ago when it required technical knowledge to do anything in linux).

Maybe it's just me justifying my spending, but I've always freely bought things to reduce the friction between me and getting things done. A solid laptop would be #1 on the list.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” – Lewis Carroll

That's not a good quotation to cite when suggesting you define your goals :)

I think it is. Goals are a destination. Strategy is the road that leads to your destination. Put another way, this quote is saying, "If you don't have goals, your strategy can be anything and you'll succeed at reaching your non-goals."

Thus you need goals, so you know the success condition of your strategy. The Lewis Carroll quote is quite appropriate here.

I understand what the author's point is, but the quotation lends support to the counterargument: accept that the joy is in the journey, not the destination, and continue moving forward because you will get to where you desire, no matter where it is.

Or succinctly: life is about adventure, so don't make plans.

"Cheshire Puss, she began, rather timidly, as she did not know at all whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. Come, it's pleased so far, thought Alice, and she went on. Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?

That depends a good deal on where you want to get to said the cat.

I don't much care where, said Alice.

Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the cat.

... So long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an explanation.

Oh, your sure to do that, said the cat, if you only walk long enough."

It's good to have goals. It's better to have precisely-defined goals.

I'm not being flippant. Honing goals brings clarity and helps focus one's energy.

The way I interpreted the quote was that if you don't know your goals you are going to take every opportunity that comes your way and not turn down any projects.

It's very easy to fall into this and end up with lots of crappy projects that continue on for months. Especially when you first start out as a freelancer and worry about getting consistent work.

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