The freelancer's guide to good jobs and great pay

I think there is a difference labeling yourself a generalist here on HN, and with a respective client.

> Why would you keep labeling yourself a generalist?

Because variety and new challenges are the spice of life? All jesting aside, if I had deep passion/believed deeply in something, I would be the specialist for that ("Appointment reminder systems for equine vets") -- but I don't.

This is the best quote I've seen on the subject. Haven't made the transition, and still trying to see what to define myself a specialist as:

"The generalist is drawn to the problem he has not yet solved. His curiosity trumps all else. He feels no discomfort in operating outside of his area of expertise because such an area is broad, shallow and loosely defined. He pursues with passion the new and the different. When the transition is made however, and he becomes used to the benefits of deep expertise—when the client ceding control to someone deserving of such control becomes the norm—he will not be easily enticed back to operating from the powerless position of the generalist. "

I forgot to reply to this bit:

> Your best month isn't that great. And if you've been at it for over 10 years, you probably have a lot of experience to share. Ever thought about re-assessing yourself, giving yourself the credit you deserve and creating a better pitch for your services?

Oh yes. Been trying to work out where to reposition myself for 18 months now. I've written out my case studies, talked to clients, but can't find a single thread running through the work that ties it all together :)

> At $100-$150/hour $20k/month ranges from doable to dependable.

Err... math is off.

100 (rate) * 7 (full work day, don't get paid for lunch) * 5 (number of days in a week) * 4.3 (number of weeks in a month) = 15,050

That's 15K. And that's assuming you have a 100% full schedule and spend 0 time on invoicing/marketing/non-billable activities. Realistically, you're probably looking at a 10K rate per month with a 100/hour rate.

The only way you'll see 20K is if you're the middle man hiring the help or you're not billing hourly/daily/whatever. Assuming you're not in the business of managing other engineers, not billing on time increments means fixed price jobs.

Unfortunately, there is only a sliver of work that will fit well into that model. Where the job is very well defined, simple enough to do in a few hours, but complex enough that it can't just be handed off to any random joe. Not too many clients with that kind of work on a consistent basis.

So the OP is right, the only way you'll see that kind of money is once in a blue moon, if you specialize in something niche and can charge 250/hour, or if you're managing other people.

Doesn't it also depend whether you bill by the hour or by the day/week?

There was a discussion on freelancing a year or two back on HN where it came out that at a certain level of experience, you're better off bidding by the week, e.g. $5K/week or $10K/week because clients often prefer to think in terms of total project costs rather than hourly contractor costs.

Freemium is scam.

Yes, its way better than Linkedin's "free" premium trial, which despite being free wanted my credit card details.

The free course cannot work.

There is a particularly good reason why the free course in how to be a successful freelancer won't teach you how to be a successful freelancer: If it did then there'd be no reason to buy the paid course.

They ought to be more clear that you're about to spend time on something that they know won't do what it says it does.

Well, I would start by telling my customers that I have this great course and it's going to cost X dollars. I would also say what this paid course entails, what the chapters are, what I am going to learn etc. Instead, he is offering a "free email course" and only at the very bottom of the page, in gray font, he does say that there will be an option to buy a paid version at the end. No price, no details, absolutely nothing. That's something that I wouldn't do.

Actually the number does not surprise me, but the source would be great. My informal observations show that great number of knowledge workers freelance on the side of their day jobs, so I suspect that the number of full-time freelancers and part-time freelancers is different.

Also, the studies might indicated breakdown by profession and how it changed over time... Programmers, graphic designers, writers, etc.

Here's the definition the stated source used:

“individuals who have engaged in supplemental, temporary, or project- or contract-based work in the past 12 months.”

That's very vague and broad. I mean even restricting yourself to "real/full-time" self-employed, you'll find out that many truck drivers, most mechanics, most hair dressers, they're all 1099s...

Regular employment still has one thing going for it - the unbounded term. Contract employees have to renegotiate every so often. Employment - no issue. Also your insurance keeps renewing, which is convenient.

It's very true. Companies pretty much provide healthcare that may be a better deal than a freelancer can get, paid vacation, and stable income during periods of time when it might for one reason or another be difficult to find work.

In exchange for that, you take on the high risk of only having 1 business paying you at any given time, and only learning about the world via 1 business. If something goes wrong with that business, or they end up doing things in a way that is not relevant to the wider world, you can get screwed.

I'm a freelancer and too have wondered why every one else isn't.

I think part of the reason is that freelancers actually do the work; they write a proposal, and then three months later people check what they produced.

So called "white collar" employees, for the most part and in my experience, pretty much sit around doing, well, nothing. They go to meetings, talk on the phone and check out the work produced by various contractors, consultants and trainees, drink gallons of coffee, and that's pretty much it.

This is of course a generalization; people who have physical jobs (moving things or making them) are in a different category, as well as people whose output is somehow monitored, etc.

But in many many big companies there are swathes of people who would be hard pressed to account for any of their day.

And they still get paid, and they still have a job, and they still have colleagues. That's something.

I never thought of it that way. However, I think companies would be fine (for a while) with all their government contracts and lawyers. I get the impression the "free market" doesn't really apply to big corporations.

One advantage corps have is teamwork. (Maybe I need to get in on some kind of mastermind group.)

I've changed the way typekit serves fonts (no longer async, but at least it loads the fallback).

In particular, view your freelancing as a service organization and partner/contract/hire a salesperson to generate and/or convert leads. Offer a commission on your revenue. We've done that before with a few jobs, and have gotten opportunities we likely couldn't score on our own.

I bought this out of desperation. Quit my job a few days ago and I only have runway for at MOST 3 months. Going to try the freelance thing again.

I mostly got inspired by this site + http://ivomynttinen.com/blog/freelance-business-report-2014/. Ivo is a fucking beast freelancer.