I second the network point, but not quite in the same way. I often find meetups and conferences can be hit-and-miss (though a developer conference may be more useful!), but I agree that connecting with people is good.

In the thread on consulting a few days ago a great point came up: if you can translate your skills into value to a business, you might end up having conversations with people they didn't know they wanted to have. An example: you can go to a tech meetup and pitch yourself as a full-stack Rails developer, and try to get work from people who know they need Rails developers -- or you can go to a finance meetup and pitch yourself as a solutions builder, and end up getting 10x the revenue from a project that's turning a spreadsheet pipeline into a CRUD app.

My take on networking, and what's been working for me, is to reach out through people you already know. They might not be hiring your skillset, but they might need a solution to a problem. Almost all of the work I've been doing lately has come through intros, and several of those started off as fairly cold relationships. For example, I applied to a startup incubator, whose founder decided I was smart but too early in my idea, so hooked me up with another founder who needed some heavy lifting done on the Android side. Other projects have come through more direct referrals, but almost all have been for startups who are flexible on parameters (including time, remote, etc) and who don't even have websites, let alone job ads.

jlees,

Definitely they are hit and miss; but I have found that to be true in all forms of networking. This should certainly not be your only avenue for networking.

I take multiple approaches to networking. Meetups, events, conferences, calling/emailing people I already know, cold emailing companies directly if I know they use a technology I specialize in. I also wear T-shirts almost constantly that are simple and state the nature of my business and a phone number to reach me at.

Solid points all. I guess what I didn't say but was trying to get across was: if you are uncomfortable cold-introducing yourself repeatedly at a large gathering of strangers, you don't have to do that.

Does the T-shirt approach work? I've wondered what would happen if I put my details on my laptop skin, as I work from a lot of SF/Valley coffee shops :)

jlees,

I have bought large numbers of T-shirts and give them away as well as wearing them myself. I honestly don't have any statistical evidence that shows they have worked to gain me more business. However I always wear these when going somewhere that I specifically intend to network. In the same way as having business cards does; company branded T-shirts lend credibility to your business and I have been approached and directly asked questions about my business from wearing the shirts.

And believe me; I totally understand the uncomfortable at introducing yourself point. I am an introvert by nature. I have a rule for myself when I go to these places; I force myself to do a minimum of 2 new introductions each time. More is better, but a minimum of 2.

I keep expecting to see a win-win industry where introverts with skills revenue share with extroverts who can sell their skills. Specialization is a good thing, it seems inefficient for people who don't enjoy networking to need to do it in order to make money.

But then the best extroverts will want to work with the best introverts and vice versa, so the introverts still have to "sell" themselves!

Or the best extroverts will seek out the best introverts. If you are selling something, you want to sell the best product around - it makes your life easier - so you find the best possible thing to sell.

Right, but how do they know who the best introverts are if the best introverts are not marketing themselves in one way or another?

But isn't that how most companies no matter how big or small operate? You have the developers creating and the sales team selling?

Yep, but it isn't how the market for developer skills works. Seems like there's probably a reason companies do it the way they do.

> Instead it took over a year and the lead developer on the project walked away making a rate of right around $10/hour.

To me, this sound like: if you accept a fixed rate contract knowing it'll work out to $10/hour, you can be employed for an entire year. Yes, please.

To put it into perspective; my average hourly rate is $75/hour and I charge as high as $100/hour. I use a sliding scale that goes something like this... If the project is shitty cleanup work and the client is desperate = $100/hour. This is typically someone who outsourced the work overseas for $20/hour labor and is now surprised that X feature doesn't work or Y won't scale. I don't like cleaning up other people's messes; so in that case you pay a premium.

$75/hour is my standard rate and this is anything that lasts 2 to 5 months and is either new project/features, or a generally decent code base (most clients are happy to allow me to look at the code before we agree to rates and moving forward; some may want a non-disclosure signed at this stage though)

If the work is guaranteed for a 6 months + contract then I will bid my normal rate of $75/hour to start, but will then negotiate with the client and give them a better rate, but then there is a signed contract clause that explicitly states there is a time based discount contingency; in they event they cut it short then it they essentially owe the difference between the normal rate and the discounted rate.

Putting that into perspective; if a fixed rate contract comes out to $10/hour then I'm making in a day what I would typically make for 1 hours worth of work.

I decided to begin contracting in 2011; the work was sporadic at first, but for the last year and 1/2 it has been growing steadily. Last year I left hours on the table (e.g. existing clients wanted more of my time than I could fulfill; and this was with bringing aboard 2 sub-contractors). I spent 3 years of hard work networking and selling myself, but the last 3 contracts I had were acquired by people in that networking calling me and asking if I was available. From 2012 to 2013 I saw a 3000% increase in revenues. I expect to grow revenues again this year contingent on finding good subcontractors, but not nearly as much so as from 2012 to 2013. I would anticipate somewhere between a 300% to 400% growth rate is more realistic this year.

I've been doing odesk/elance gigs for a few years, and though I can find work at $25/hour, the competition is stiff, it's a pain trying to get paid for all hours billed, and the clients aren't those you can easily list on a resume (good portion of the jobs are well-paid corporate sysadmins/programmers outsourcing their jobs, or shady fly-by-night spammer/advertiser types). All meaning, if companies really think $75/hour is normal in some areas, but more established programmers are unwilling to do fixed-price contract, then those contracts are low hanging fruit for the likes of me.

If you have $150/day of living expenses, no thanks.

$150/day living expenses? $4500/month? Where are you?

Near Stanford.

I was just wondering, could one have a contract like this (I haven't done freelancer work yet, but might look in future): "Up to 3 months of development time, I will take a fixed rate. If the development goes beyond that, I will charge hourly."?

I haven't done a contract quite like what you describe, but as has been pointed out, if both parties agree, anything in possible. I have found more success in a "retainer" model of consulting. We agree on a certain number of hours needed up front, say three months. If they pay a retainer up front, they get a 5%, 10%, or 15% discount (dependent on negotiations). They then burn time against these "retainer hours". At the end of their retainer you can slip into a normal hourly rate billing cycle or negotiate for another retainer at a discount. The client knows more fees are coming as the retainer approaches zero, and thus will very often not allow scope creep to come in.

I often try to keep a little retainer left over at the end. Some say I should keep this for "change" orders. However, I will give it back to the client! Why? 9 out of 10 times when I offer to return the leftover they are ready to add it to a new retainer for another project. You can't make a client happier than saying "here's the final demo of your project! It was great right? Oh by the way we came in under budget." Just make sure you are in constant communication with the client, have regular demos, and deliver something amazing.

I haven't used a retainer model in the past, but I have offered term of contract discounts. Some people tend to think that a contractor that bills hourly is just going to try and waste time to make more money. I have only seen this with one contractor that I came in contact with (I'm sure there are others), but most contractors will not do this.

People talk about people; within your network you quickly learn who is reliable, who is honest, who isn't, etc...

Also when I bid work for a client; while I bid hourly I am open about the reasons. I tell them point blank how many hours I believe their requirements will take to implement in a worst case scenario given they do not change the requirements. I then tell them that likely it will take less hours than that, but they need to know how much the total cost could potentially be. If the customer is still insistent on a fixed rate contract I explain that it can be difficult to prevent scope creep for customers when there is no dollar amount tied to it; and that I want everyone to be happy. I explain that if they really want a fixed bid I can make an exception, but that the fixed rate pricing will be double to triple what we have agreed upon as the max cost associated with the project. I explain this is to cover the scope creep that will inevitably be introduced and to protect myself from the loss risks associated with such a decision. Most clients then agree to the hourly rate; the rest keep looking for someone else.

If the other party agrees to it, any contract is possible. However, in this case you get more money if somehow the project is delayed over the three month period; so you have an incentive to work slowly or to have the project creep up in scope. That's not a good basis for a contract for your client may complain that you should've worked faster, even if you've put in all-nighters. Given a fixed price, it's easier on the relationship to have the fixed price be renegotiated on basis of objective measurements that you used to arrive at the fixed price in the first place. Examples are the number of pages in a site or screens in an app, the number of revisions of the visual design, or the number of function points [1] if you have data available for that. Mention in the contract that if a client wants more than X screens, Y pages, or Z revisions, the fixed price is to be recalculated.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_point