Podcast: | (Duration: 51:46 — 71.1MB)
Panel
- Charles Max Wood ( )
- Eric Davis ( )
- Evan Light ( )
- Jeff Schoolcraft ( )
Discussion
- /
- Website Contact Form
- business/niche apps
- libraries
- getting involved in open source projects
- Refinery
- Instructure
- speaking at conferences
- talk to other developers, have a community presence
- users groups
- referrals from other/larger firms
- subcontracting
- blogging and podcasting for lead generation
- be an expert in your field
- build trust with potential clients
- the tiers of intimacy
- do what you enjoy doing
- job boards
-but- - not job boards
- compete not on price, but on qualities
- recruiters
- government contracts and associated suicide accessories
- don’t work for equity unless you’re fine as an investor
- vetting clients
- define availability, timetable, deadline and rough spec
- research the client
- Statement of Work
- subcontractor agreements
- if the client gives you a contract, it will be slanted toward the client
- if you give the client a contract, it will be slanted toward you
- considering a client “in the pipeline”
- signed contract
- deposit in the bank
- determining sufficient deposit
- deposit in escrow
- does the client set off alarm bells?
Picks
- (Chuck)
- exercise and make time for yourself (Chuck)
- sleep (Eric)
- (Eric)
- (Evan)
- limit your billable hours per week (Evan)
- (Evan)
- (Jeff)
- (Jeff)
- (Jeff)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I am a RoR developer with 5 yrs experience who went freelance a few weeks ago.
I wonder if you could expand on “money in the bank” by explaining how you collect payments (check?, paypal?, other?).
I love the detailed info you guys are sharing – keep it going!
I collect payments by check, PayPal, and wire transfers. Typically my USA based clients pay by check and my international clients pay with PayPal or a wire transfer.
So you all tend to not bill your clients for 40 hours a week, instead you tend to bill for 20 – 30 hours per week. I’m just curious, when you take on a project do they normally ask for “full-time”? If so, doesn’t “full-time” normally imply 40 hours per week?
I was recently talking to someone about a job and we discussed 20/hrs per week as “part-time”.
I have yet to see a freelancer bill at 100% (40 hours worked, 40 hours billed). In fact, that is a red flag for me that the freelancer might actually be an employee (a very bad thing tax-wise).
In my experience, when I work a 40 hour week I typically bill 20-25 hours. If I put in some overtime then I might approach 40 billable hours in one week but that is an extremely high amount (e.g. 80/hours worked). 50% billable time is a good average.
Some clients might be asking for someone “full-time” because they are actually wanting something like a contractor or a temporary employee. In those cases the contractor bills for every hour which is how they get to 40 hours/week.
(One common problem is that these terms are mixed and used in different contexts. I consider consultants/freelancers, contractors/temp-employees, and employees as separate groups).
Hi all,
Great podcast! I’m eagerly awaiting the next one…
I have a question for Eric: he mentioned his use of the GPL license for his source code… what version, though?
I think it was v2. It’s Redmine that’s GPL licensed, which means that all of his enhancements to it must also be GPL v2.
I believe he mentioned that it’s in his contract just to avoid ambiguity with what he’s creating. (You can’t have a contract that stipulates that you’re closing the source and then use GPL licensed software.)
Love this podcast.
You mention the deposit being held in escrow. Is there an escrow service that you use? or can recommend?
It seems that billable hours are about half the hours actually worked. What qualifies as “billable”? the obviously non-billable hours are doing the things to run your own business, but is the typical overhead of keeping the pipeline full, bookkeeping etc really 50% of a typical freelancers time?