Re:How to start a successful freelance business as a softwar...
by cm2012 on Monday January 10, 2022 @10:12AM
(#29876018)
Same here, I've been billing clients for consulting work for 7 years now, the only person who refused to pay was my 2nd or 3rd client for a $200 job lol.
Re:How to start a successful freelance business as a softwar...
by pc86 on Monday January 10, 2022 @11:53AM
(#29877667)
I'm very interested in how you've used recruiters to help source freelance work. The ones I've spoken to are either uninterested in doing it (90% or so?) or just have the same poorly run companies as your second client.
Re:How to start a successful freelance business as a softwar...
by mcv on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @03:20AM
(#29888942)
I don't understand why a recruiter would talk to a freelancer and yet not be interested in sourcing freelance work? What is that recruiter doing?
What I do is quite simple: make sure my CV is on LinkedIn and similar places, make sure it ends up in the databases of recruitment agencies. Then, when they see a freelance opportunity for which they think I'd be a good fit, they call or mail me, and if I'm available, we discuss it, and if I'm interested, they send my CV to the client. If the client is interested, I talk to the client. If we agree, I sign a contract with the recruiter, they sign a contract with the client, and I work for the client but bill my hours to the recruiter. Recruiter gets their cut.
I could probably cut out the recruiter's margin if I was able and willing to do their work, but that's a lot of work, and I'd rather focus on programming.
I've been freelancing for 9 years (with a 1-year interruption last year as a regular employee, but I managed to escape that), starting with small projects for small customers, but very quickly moving on to larger projects for larger customers that pay better. My second client (a 4-person company) stiffed me for about $600, which lead me to avoid such small companies, and I've never had any payment problems since moving on to bigger clients.
There's usually a recruiter in between, which partly sucks, because they have their own margin, but I can imagine it may also have played a role in making my payment more reliable. Those recruiters also find my projects for me, so I barely do any acquisition of my own. I guess I could do more, but this works well enough for me.
(I have no problem working with autistic people; I come from a family that's probably riddled with high-functioning autists (though only one was ever diagnosed), and at work I've noticed I'm pretty good at translating for people who struggle to express their technical ideas.)