I'm a pretty standard PHP / MySql kinda guy, with some experience in JS (jQuery and Angular, together with some Nodejs) and knowledge about Java and C# and Linux.
My experience spans about 2 - 3 years.
How do I know the time's right (for me) to start freelancing? Either locally or remote?
I'm not a freelancer, but I have some experience of helping set up other companies, so perhaps questions to help you decide for yourself (and the reasoning behind asking them).
1. Can you relate to people? Are you happy in a social environment? Can you 'market' yourself? Part of freelancing is you're going to need to find work for yourself. If you're happy cold calling and asking a company if they need work done then it'll work out, but you need to be able to sell yourself.
2. Are you self motivated? It's all very well getting out of bed to travel to somewhere you /have/ to work, but actually doing it for yourself when you could just hit that snooze button until midday, and then play some of that new game you just got...
3. Are you good with numbers? Starting out, you're probably going to be doing your own taxes, it's dire, and something that is frequently put off until the last minute. However, you're going to need to balance your own books, or hire an accountant ( which increases the initial money you need to earn ).
4. What capital do you have? If you get no money at all for the next 6 months, can you still survive? People throw figures around all the time, but the one that (for some unknown reason), has stuck with me is 1 year. Do you have enough in the bank to survive for a year without work, scraping by?
I can't answer the 'local or remote' part. It'll be related to what you know, what you want to be programming/doing, where in the world you are. Essentially - the opportunities around you.
This means you'll need self discipline. Until you get enough squirreled to survive just on your bank account for 3mos you must squirrel away every cent you can.
It also means that 3mos is just the bare bones parachute. You need to save money for medical emergencies, car emergencies, relative visits, conferences, etc.
You also might be thinking, well I made $100k at my last job, I can make that freelancing. Problem is you are now covering your own medical insurance, and a host of other things that were cheaper or paid by the company when you collected a paycheck. As an average figure you will need 1.6 times your salary to have the equivalent standard of living. So you'd need $160k. As an aside, your company probably bills you out at a 2x - 3x multiple, so this is not as much of a cost to corporations as it sounds. Of course, when you start you may be working for smaller companies who can't hire the big firms like where you used to work, so it might be big to them.
You'll also work much harder as a freelancer if you are going to succeed. You'll need to spend between 40-60 hours a week on client work to keep clients happy (more like 30-40 once you get fully established, get a rhythm, and get regular repeat clients), then an additional 20-30 hours marketing yourself. The good news is that you're your own boss. Except...you're not. The clients now become your bosses, until you are established enough that you are turning down work, or better yet farming it out to trusted freelancer friends for a 7% cut of the work.
Marketing yourself is key. You asked how you can tell you are ready. If you're reputation is not such that you are getting at least one unsolicited query a week asking to talk to you about a job opportunity, then you're going to have to work hard on marketing, very hard. I'd recommend you find a corporate job in that case, and work on building your reputation: speak at conferences for free, contribute to open source projects, blog, participate on the professional social sites (quora, LinkedIn, stack overflow,reddit for starters). I get several unsolicited queries a week, and I don't feel my reputation is where I want it to be yet to go back into freelancing.
On risk there is always the legal risk, and you can protect yourself better...incorporate before any consulting as an S or C, and get liability insurance. Std caveat: I am not a lawyer, and no part of this post is legal advice in any way, merely an expression of personal opinion. Have I scared you yet? If so, good. Freelancing is a roller-coaster ride full of risk, where you work harder for mostly the same std of living. If you are good, and lucky, you can make much more money than you ever would at a salary and grow your consulting into a lifestyle business. Just remember that for every 100 there convinced they are the lucky ones, one of them will make it. Don't become a freelancer as a way to get rich, the optimal approach for that is to be a hard working corporate person at a company, ideally a B-Series startup. Want more risk and potential reward? Then join a startup. For me being a freelancer is about freedom. I get to do the work I want to do (as long as money is not tight), have freedom on when to do it (as long as client deadlines are met), and do it the way I want to do it.
Some of you may have noticed...I said I was a freelancer, and plan to be one again. I got married, had a child, had several illnesses in the older generation of my family, and needed something with less risk. I'm now getting back to the point of freelancing/a software company and when I do, I will let you know how it goes.
- You gotta love the hustle. Not "be able to" hustle. LOVE the hustle. Otherwise you're set up for misery, and we don't freelance to be unhappy - you can do that in a cubicle farm. What do I mean by hustle? Self promotion, client follow-up, content creation, book keeping, socializing, skill development, and so on. - Your core skills don't matter. There are a million out there like you. I've seen many many great developers, engineers, and designers fail at the freelance game simply b/c they didn't appreciate how much sales is involved. - On that note, find a way to stand out. We don't freelance to fit in with the industry standards. This is your chance to be you and find clients who appreciate that. My first website had "Kick Ass" as the first thing you see. I've since progressed to using the "F" word a bit more. I can get away with it. And furthermore, I don't want to work for someone who sees a curse word or nontraditional self-branding and gets uppity about it. Not for me. - Money. Learn to manage it. Learn to let go of the anxiety. Learn the difference between taking a less-than-desirable job to put food on the table and selling your happiness out of fear.
This turned into a bit of "Freelance Starter Kit". Sorry. But, if you can mentally own the areas I described above, you can do it. Learn as you go, pivot, move and shake.
Good luck, Dave -
- Technical ability: I wouldn't worry here; if you have the skills you mention, then you probably have the ability to solve meaningful business problems with them.
- Business ability: This is much more important. Are you able and willing to get out there and network? Can you talk with people and find pain points you can solve? Would you be comfortable constantly working to fill your pipeline, while delivering projects?
- Family state: Are you supporting a spouse or children? Do you need comprehensive health insurance, or are you a twenty-something who is basically invincible?
- Financial state: Do you have some savings that you can use as a runway for ramping up? What yearly income would you need to make to maintain your standard of living?
These are just some discussion-starters, but hopefully they are helpful.
My advice is to look at this from a totally different angle: optimize for learning. If you're under 40, you're still early in your career and the knowledge you pick up now will pay off in the long run. Take the most interesting work you can find. Often, bigger projects with bigger teams are going to teach you more. If not, grab whatever freelance work is available. When an interesting corporate job comes up, ditch the freelance at once and jump in and learn as much as you can!
Good luck!
I hope it will!