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Ask HN: How to migrate from employee to freelancer as a SW engineer?

16 points by throwcean ↗ HN
I have 7-8 years of experience as a software dev. Currently I am pondering if I should take the step to become a freelancer at some point in the near future. I was self-employed before but that were special conditions. (I am located in Germany if that matters.)

My main questions are: how do you realize this change? Do you try to find contracts before leaving your day job? Where/How do you find work?

I know the most common platforms but are there some rules you should follow on there?

Do I have to suck it up and offer my service for "cheap" in the beginning? Or should I only take jobs for my self-defined minimum even if it's my first?

What else should I consider?

13 comments

[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] thread
PragmaticPulp
Your ability to find work will basically define your success as a freelancer.

The public websites for contract work are not great places to look unless you're okay taking the lowest common denominator jobs.

Your personal network is the best place to start. You need to start reaching out to contacts and offering your services for hire. If you're uncomfortable with this, you're not a good candidate for freelance work.

Some people get lucky and find a constant stream of niche work from their network right away. Others will have to work hard to find each additional contract. It will get easier over time as you build a reputation and expand your network, but it will take work to get there.

tylerben
I would echo the bit about the personal network. I have found it surprising how many opportunities have surfaced from people in my network who I never thought would need a website or know someone who does. Once you start doing work for folks in your network it can snowball into even more opportunities.

I would shy away from offering your services for cheap if you can. It can be a good thing to do when you are just getting started as developer and don't have a portfolio yet. Given that you have been building things for 7-8 years though, I would guess that you have some examples of things you have built that you can share with prospective clients?

If you have the capacity to try out freelancing on top of your day job, I think it is a great way to validate if you have the appetite for it and earn some extra money while doing it.

ygram
I find it easier to get work on a short notice. But that requires a stable economic situation. Personally I don't mind going without work for a month or two, I even like it. May be stressful for the first contract though.
patwoz
Hey, I just started my Freelance career last September. I have the exact same years of experience and also located in Germany. You should take a look at Freelance.de and freelancermap.de. I'm getting 2-5 projects requests each day. I just finished my first project successfully and will start my second project next week. As a web developer I can earn 70-100€/h. That’s 2.5x more than I got as a full time employee. You should have at least 2 months of earnings as a backup due the payment deadlines. The only thing I regret is that I didn't start much sooner :)
giantg2
If anyone is from the US, I would be interested to know the equivalent US site(s).
throwcean
Hi, thanks for the info. Indeed I know of both these sites but I didn't know the rates possible there. My first rough calculation gave me an estimate of 80€/hour as a lower bound. My target would be 100€ but it wouldn't be a problem to start out with 80€.

How much of the offers you are receiving are low-ball crap offers you would say? Also for how long are these contracts going on average? Thanks for your input.

fred123
What’s your expertise and technology stack?

100€ is easily possible, I think it is kind of the default rate in my space (Python Data Engineering, cloud stuff, …).

From my experience there are almost exclusively very professional people on those platforms so no low balling.

Typical contract will be 4-5 days a week for 3-18 months

throwcean
Good to know. My stack is mostly in the space of Go, Kubernetes, Docker, Linux, backends, microservices, networking etc. I think it is kinda one of the hotter topics these days.. so that could help.
gregjor
The easiest way to start is to change from employee to freelancer (contractor) with your current employer.

If you can start freelancing with projects lined up you won’t have to start out trying to get work, which will get demoralizing fast.

Don’t expect to get much from the popular platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. While it’s possible to get good contracts there, those sites are (a) full of low-paying short-term gig work, and (b) full of low-balling competition. Your need to aim higher because competition is always most fierce at the low end. Instead look to past employers, professional contacts, friends. Focus on building long-term relationships rather than churning through online piece-work boards.

Position yourself as a specialist in a niche that has business value (i.e. e-commerce security expert) rather than with a laundry list of languages, frameworks, stacks. Know your customer — no small business needs 2,000 more lines of Javascript by next month but lots of businesses need specific business problems solved.

I’ve been freelancing for over a decade. I wrote some opinionated advice on my web site (no ads, no paywall, no affiliate links).

https://typicalprogrammer.com/how-to-start-freelancing-and-g...

There are some other possibly relevant articles there too. Good luck.

throwcean
Thanks. That's valuable input for sure. I don't have the option to freelance for my current employer but that's OK. I know a few people that might know potential customers They have worked as freelancers themselves.

I will now go on reading your blog post and potentially others you have written. Thanks!

BTW I have read that advice to position yourself as a specialist in a niche before. For all others reading this thread here I can also recommend this article: https://andyadams.org/everything-i-know-about-freelancing/

gregjor
A business value niche, not a technical niche. Your clients will most often have no idea what React or PHP or Postgres mean. They will understand cost, risk, opportunity. Domain expertise has a lot more value to a freelancer than technical expertise.

I usually start with clients by asking them to list their top five or ten pain points or unfulfilled needs. Those are usually business problems: Our invoices get sent out late, we’re not calculating shipping charges accurately. Sometimes they are technical problems: server crashes every other day, we don’t have good backups, we failed a security audit. I’ve never heard low-level programming problems as top pain points. The potential client wants to hear that you can address their actual problems. How many years of React experience you have, or how cool you think Rust is, are not relevant.

contingencies
Did this once, but not with the goal to find other consulting work, just to have more control over where I lived and how much time I chose to invest in the client on a weekly basis as I wanted to build something myself. The general process was: 1. Make self indispensable. 2. Explain new reality to client. 3. When I wanted even less work from the client I raised hourly rates.
paul_f
A rule of thumb, whatever you expect to make as an income, charge your customers at least double that per hour. Then you can spend up to half your time finding new business and still break even.