Ask HN: Going Freelance | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Going Freelance

2 pointscarrja995 comments

Lately I've been getting all kinds of freelancing offers from both well established companies and recently funded startups. So much in fact I've even had to turn down companies due to not having enough time in the evenings to work on their projects.

The obvious choice seems to go completely freelance yet I'm a bit nervous. I make $100,000 / year at my day job and have a wife and two kids. What could I do to make the leap and feel secure at the same time?

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100K is no guarantee in freelancing. In fact, I would say that especially getting started, you may be hard pressed to hit that level. However, you have a better idea on your ability to do this than I do. Obviously this depends on what your rates are. It seems that perhaps your 100K job isn't quite enough either since you are supplementing that with freelancing. Personally, I could never do that, I would quickly burn out. Freelancing is a business, and running a business is a full time job.

Make sure that you have at least six months living expenses built up.

If your clients aren't local, and you are living in an expensive area, then you might consider moving somewhere cheaper since you can work from anywhere.

There really isn't much more to it since you have already been doing freelancing.

I'd also recommend having a few months' expenses with you. With freelancing, it's not very difficult to get a few initial clients but it will take time to get to a sustainable $100,000/year.

Having a few months' expenses saved would be pretty safe. Even better if you can get a few long term projects before jumping in.

Here's something that may help you: http://blog.sidu.in/2012/06/everyone-is-running-business-inc...

> I make $100,000 / year at my day job and have a wife and two kids. What could I do to make the leap and feel secure at the same time?

Does your wife work? Could she potentially be the bread winner when you don't have any projects (say for a few months?).

You can make a lot more than USD 100K per year through freelancing. Of course you could end up failing as well. There's always a risk involved.

I'd suggest talking to your existing client(s). Are any of them offering you a long term projects?

If you have a lot of demand, raise your prices. Don't price gouge, but people often really underestimate how much big companies are willing to pay. Especially for quality work that isn't a pain for them to manage.

Can you email me about this? I might have a few alternatives that you might be interested in.

shahed [at] viatask [dot] com skype: sdnerzz

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