10 New Year’s Resolutions for the Freelance Developer
The new year is always a good time to set goals for the next 12 months. As a freelance developer, at least some of them should focus on how to stay on top of your game.
Today I’ve written out my ten resolutions for 2008. Some of these apply not just to developers, some are especially important for them. Some of them are inspired by one of my favorite books The Pragmatic Programmer. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you do it first thing in the new year. The following are things I usually go through over the course of a new year, not one of them, all of them, if it’s possible.
1. Learn a new programming language
For me, this is one of the most important things to do. Learning a new programming language not only gives you more things to put on your portfolio, it also broadens your knowledge and makes you look differently at things and how you’re doing them right now or have done in the past. Continue Reading
How to Use Social Networks to Find Gigs
I can see through you. You read the headline and think “MySpace”. Far from it. It’s true that social networks are all the rage these days. Every day a number of new communities pop up on the scene. Some are for fun, but some can be quite useful, especially for the job-seeking freelancer.
MySpace for some is only a place to hang out, chat, be friends with hundreds of bands, or just have cool-looking personal pages. For others MySpace is a place to get new gigs. I know many people who’ve gotten new jobs through it, and I’m pretty sure that some of you could tell similar stories.
Without passing judgment on any of them, the platforms I’d keep my eye on are LinkedIn, FaceBook, and especially for European freelancers, Xing (formerly known as OpenBC). The latter is my main platform for business networking. Since my focus is on the German market this works out pretty well for me.
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Tips For Handling Multiple Projects
As a freelancer you usually find yourself working on several projects at once. Whether you’re working on different projects, handling different clients on the phone, or working on some small fixes on the side, having more than one commitment is what most freelancers consider normal. I usually work on at least two different projects at any one time, commitments in my free time, such as work for friends or the aforementioned side projects, not included. Don’t even get me started on writing, accounting, handling client emails or phone calls.
Am I complaining about it? No, it’s my choice. I could work on just one projects at any one time, but what fun would that be? The important thing is to know how to handle your commitments. About a year ago when I started working as a freelancer, I usually only worked for one client full time. That meant sitting on site for eight to ten hours a day so there wasn’t much room for anything else anyway.
But over the last few months the situation has changed. I’ve found myself committing to several projects, writing more and doing more smaller things on the side. So I’ve had to come up with some strategies to deal with my commitments efficiently and avoid me burning out.
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5 Ways to Speed up Your Development
They say that time is money. So logically, one wants to find ways to improve their speed and make more money with their time. If this is your goal, then here you’ll find a list of what I’d recommend for the toolbox of every software-developing freelancer.
Automation
If you’ve had to do something twice, automate it. Whether it’s recreating a database, transferring new files to the web server, or just crunching a handful of data, doing it by hand twice is already once too many.
Learn a scripting language, get comfy with the automation tools your applications offer you (think snippets in TextMate or macros in Photoshop), and start using them, so that you can focus your valuable time on the important things.
Imagine your tools doing the work for you in the background while you’re sitting in the sun with a coffee, and reading everyone’s favourite freelancing site.
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What’s Your Client Relationship Like?
Client relations aren’t easy, just as personal relationships can be challenging. But are they that different? When looked at closely they actually seem pretty similar:
The Friendship
The Good: You’re best buds, you’re both pretty sure you can talk about anything, tell each other everything. Problems are there to be talked about, so that’s what you do, usually over a beer. You seal deals with a handshake, since friends don’t need any contracts, quotes, or other written documents.
The Bad: Money is a weird issue for you. It feels uncomfortable to charge a friend, right? So you avoid it, postpone charging till the last possible opportunity, and even then it doesn’t feel right. Smaller jobs are not worth charging for anyway, so you do some of the work as a favour for them, because that’s what friends do. Over time the work adds up, and you realise that you really could have used the money you haven’t charged but are afraid to bring it up – because that might lead to:
The Ugly: After you realise you have money problems, you want to talk about it, but your friend points out the obvious: You are friends and friends don’t charge each other money. Plus, you don’t have anything signed to prove it. You charge him anyway, since you need the money. Things get messy, and you have to go to court. You go separate ways afterwards and never call each other again.
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7 Cheap Ways to Promote Your Development Skills
Marketing yourself is no doubt an important part of freelancing. There’s a lot you can do to find and approach new clients. Some of them can cost you a nice sum of money, others you can do for very little cost.
Especially for software developers, here’s seven ways to make yourself known and to turn your name into a brand.
Write A Blog. It may seem an obvious one, but many people miss out on this fantastic opportunity to make yourself known.
Writing a blog (or writing for other blogs) doesn’t have to be personal. For personal issues, write a separate blog. To promote your development skills, write about things that concern your profession, your everyday work, and the problems you run into. If you find a solution to a nasty problem, chances are other people will find it useful as well.
Of course it’s no use looking for those nasty problems. Your job is to find solutions to problems every day, be it small problems or big ones. Potential clients will hire you because they realize you’ll be able to solve their problems too.
The bottom line is to find an effective way to put these solutions into words and post it on your blog. This also has the advantage that you have a searchable archive, so if you run into these problems again you can go to your own blog.
Blogging about what you do shows you care, which is exactly what potential clients want to see.
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Freelancing 101 – The Basics
So you wanted to become a Freelancer. That’s great! You’re one step closer to more personal freedom and a job you actually enjoy. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind – things I found important to consider when I began freelancing. Of course there are many more, so feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section.
Finances
Your finances are the most important issue to consider when starting out. You’re probably used to getting a pay-check by the end of the week/month/year. Not having that is what many people are afraid of when embarking on their freelancing career. Luckily, you will get used to this pretty quickly. You just have to approach your finances differently. The most important thing is to always have enough money in your bank account to allow you to live for the next couple of months, even when it seems the work is rolling in.
Taxes are an important part of accounting that many overlook in the early days. It’s tempting to spend all the money you get, but it’s important to keep in mind that someday the tax office will want its part of your income.
In order to avoid being trapped in the pitfalls of your tax system, I highly recommend getting an accountant. It’s generally not too expensive and allows you to focus on what you’re good at. At the beginning of every month I collect my bills, drop them off at my accountant’s and wait for her to tell me how much I have to transfer to the tax office.
However, it is possible to take care of your finances without the help of an accountant. If you have the time to spend on your accounts (and a mind that bends well to these things) you can have a far greater control and insight into your financial situation. The most important thing is to be realistic – if you know you’re not the accounting type, get an accountant straight away. Hiring an accountant at the beginning of your freelancing career will be far less expensive in the long run than fines from the tax department and hiring someone to sort out your abysmal records.
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Hourly vs. Fixed Pricing
Work isn’t free. Well, for the most part. It should be common sense that if you do work for a client, eventually you’ll get paid for it. No matter how much it is in the end, it is often a question of how you charge your client, or on what basis you do it.
There’s a lot of dispute about what’s the right way to charge, and doing it wrong can lead to unwanted situations between you and your clients. In this article I’m going into the most common ways to charge and how to make them work successfully for you.
Getting Paid By The Hour
This should be a no-brainer. You work a certain amount of time and get paid for the time spent working. This usually means keeping a time-sheet and billing your client the result of (hours x hourly rate).
It clearly has advantages. You get paid for what you’re actually doing in terms of time spent on a specific project. This kind of charging surely is in favor of you, the freelancer, since you also get paid for those extra hours you put in.
