photoguy112
photoguy112 on Hacker News
so hard to read that text
That was an Emperial ban when emperors had power. Pulling a similar stunt now would be impossible.
I feel like his comments do not apply to all of the world. In Japan for example, meat consumption is so prominent that we hardly ever consider not having meat. Sure, there is a lot of hamburger here but for the most part people stick to meat in its natural state - lots of pork, beef. Trying to convert Japan from a pork eating society would probably be a feeble attempt.
Back when I was a kid, after a heavy downpour the roads would be crowded with earthworms. You really had to watch where you step to avoid stepping on one of those suckers. Fast forward today and I RARELY see a single worm out on the road after a similar downpour.
Most startups don't have an exit, I believe most fail. So you could be sitting at a failing startup and your options worthless.
You really don't have to figure out anything, it's all been written about many times over and posted all over. The post is a good summary but lacks details. I am a UX consultant, not a developer, I figured it out on my own (although I'm sure there are things I am not aware of that perhaps I should research and figure out further) but I probably didn't have to if I did some googling around first.
The biggest thing that makes you successful as a consultant is thinking like a business. You are not a person performing a service for the company (that makes you a hire / an employee figuratively speaking), you are a business, solving their business problem. When you think of yourself in this way and act accordingly, then everything becomes easier - saying no to bullshit, billing and collecting, charging way more.
I nodded my head when I read the point about increasing your rate for every new client. People think charging more is being unfair, but this is just business practice. You don't need to charge "your worth" whatever it may be. There is a supply of a very particular thing, and a demand of a very particular thing and the rate does not matter whatsoever when the return far outweighs the costs. A million dollar product is worth exactly zero if it cannot be produced and if you are the one to help see it through then you can charge whatever you like, given the margins make sense. These days I find myself increasing my rates for every new client. Sometimes, just for the heck of it, when I have many leads, I'll double my already high rate to see what happens ;)
Haha, I am not looking to find out but I'm sure it'll happen soon enough. Oh god.. just thinking about the exhaustion that comes with that, maybe I'll run off into the desert.
I am thinking of launching a course on how to become a UX consultant / designer if anyone here designs and wishes to go down that path. Let me know... You can expect 60-150k, work from home.
It makes total sense. If your time is worth way more than theirs (in terms of pay), why not outsource as much of your daily boring, time-consuming work to someone else?
We had a kid last year. My time went from some availability to NONE. Granted, we don't have a babysitter, both myself and wife stay at home (I work from home, she doesn't work). Despite both of us being available, just the daily chores and things that must be done with a little one are insane. Ours could be a unique case because my kid is kinda difficult, but it's definitely a huge change from not having kids. That being said I think anyone who recently had a kid and works from home can attest to forming new abilities to manage time super effectively. Before I would waste a lot of time on non-important things, now I know what my priorities are and get things done really fast. I am a lot more focused because of this.
I'm in Japan. Last year I remitted $16k. My residence is paid for and I spent an additional $12k cash. In total, I live on 28k / year. Add in a residence if I had to rent, down where I am it's $500/mo for a 3 br "home". It's really a shanty by western standards but enough for me. On 34k if you rented, one can live comfortably in Southern Japan. Of course, this is not possible without a valid visa. I have lived in Midwest, California, Washington and visited most of US. I would still choose to live here than anywhere else. I think most Americans who have not done enough travel do not seriously consider living outside of their country (if they had the chance) just due to a mindset that America is the best place to be (hint: it's not).
I can attest to this. Being on your own clock is still stressful in some ways, but compared to a standard work week - not even close.
Chase beats Citybank - they ask for a case sensitive password but dont care about case sensitivity when entering your password.
Can we get a list of Skype alternatives going? I feel like it's time to dump the corporate behemoth mess.
Youd be surprised. I have worked with some large multinational companies that do zero testing before making product changes.
Start your own business, hire people and treat them well. When people keep working for shitheads, the shitheads dictate their lives.
If your company is acquired, it is reasonable to expect that you'll be laid off, no matter how talented. Acquisition = layoffs - general rule of thumb.
I am really curious what goes on in the minds of the people working at these companies in top positions. How do they sleep at night? Do they simply say to themselves "I'm just one person, I can't do anything about a global problem and I need money"?
I find it hard to believe that there is some sinister plot to do damage as long as possible to make the most money. Surely these people realize we are all doomed no matter the amount of money you have in the end? Or perhaps that's it... perhaps they know we are doomed and just want to live out their lives in the most comfort possible and buy whatever comfort money may afford for their children?
I think people are trying. It's an uphill battle, but better than doing absolutely nothing. We may sink the ship but we'll try to swim to shore. If people profiting off the environment do not feel bad for their kids, let it be on their consciousness.
Any positive effort is good news to me. We need more of this, everywhere, along with the thousands of other moving parts that need to happen to change the world.
If only every airline would stop flights into China... see how quickly they acknowledge Taiwan as a country.
The reason I did weekly vs monthly pricing is simply because it breaks down to a "smaller" amount, visually ;) But yeah.. in essence you are just asking for a monthly retainer. Also, with weekly you don't need to worry about collecting as much in case of nonpayment, at most you'll lose a week's worth of pay.
Thank you! This whole time I didn't realize Freshbooks allows you to create recurring invoices that let people save their cc details. Doh!
For most freelancers "consistent demand" is the hard part. I found it easier to price a service once you can estimate the type of value it will provide. For development work this is probably hard to do, but with experience and enough poking around you can learn the type of value your work provides. It helps if you can get down to the core details such as how much the product is currently earning, and how much your work will contribute. At that point it becomes much easier to sell yourself because when presented with a $ cost and a $$ profit, it becomes really clear that it practically doesn't matter what you charge because the returns are on-going whereas your work is one time. If I made a business $2 mil additional revenue, all of a sudden a 5% investment doesn't seem as hard to swallow. Coincidentally, charging a high rate leaves less of a gap, especially once you figure out your typical gaps and when they happen and budget appropriately.
What did you use to make a subscription invoice? Stripe? Or another platform integrated with Stripe?
I am curious how you transitioned into a product. How did you validate your product?
When I think of freelancers, I think of 3 tiers: 1: the bottom of the barrel. They will beg for anything you give them and will do it for $5, or even show you a free demo (by building out part of the project, or designing it) They will bid on every project on Upwork. My guess is 80% of Upwork falls into this category. 2: Freelancer who charges a mid-range or "market rate" or even above market rate. They can't fathom that they are worth double what they are charging. 3: The highly paid freelancer - the person who decided to double their rates and "capped out" at some high rate. This person thinks he can't go any higher, he tried, but it wasn't working. Sometimes they do really well.. like a developer charging top rate and putting in 8 hours a day or whatever realistic amount of time developers work. This freelancer can make above market salary and some are perfectly fine with it.
Then there is the consultant. The person who realized that time does not equal money, that businesses pay for value, or more importantly, they want to know how much money this is going to save/make them. The consultant charges for value, at a markup. The top of the ladder make over a mil a year, the ones still learning can make very good sums of money, but its all limited by them. If they don't do the work, the money stops. This is a great place to be, but you quickly learn that you don't want to be stuck here, unless you are the top tier consultant and you love your work and don't mind the day in day out. I have not heard of too many of these, but they usually turn into product businesses well before reaching that.
If there is one thing any aspiring freelancer needs to know is that their mind is their worst enemy. Overcome your mind and you can go a lot further. I was and still am a victim of my own mind and work on overcoming it.
Transitioned simply by trying something different, until per project quotes succeeded. It was hard so I gave up and decided to try something else, seemed to have worked.
My projects usually last a month or two, sometimes longer. Smaller businesses with smaller teams seem a lot more accepting of weekly invoices. It becomes a line item for them, just an expense among many (this is my guess).
In terms of products, I am not qualified enough, but if I had to guess, it's best not to compete with the mega SaaS. Position differently and find a unique niche that won't necessarily make you super rich.
As for naming, that's an interesting point. I don't know if it's true as I've seen consultants go by their name and make a lot of money. Some people simply build a brand out of their name and become well known for the work they do. Sadly, I don't have a brandable name so I went with a business name. I think there is some truth to your point when it comes to being seen as a company to do business with than "hiring a consultant".
My start in freelancing was forced. I was laid off as part of a merger for lack of face time (fully remote, while others showed up in office so naturally they were chosen over me). It was really tough. I lived in an expensive area all of a sudden without an income. I guess the reason I did not go applying for jobs was just the sour taste that the layoff left. I felt angry, not at the company, but at myself for letting others dictate my life.
I started on Upwork. It was a bitch. Upwork is known for low quality, but I didn't have any choice. I just tried doing as best as I could for everyone I dealt with and that seemed to manifest into a 100% rating, which led to even more contacts. At one point some of the clients weren't so terrible. I think the first year I did 40k, much much lower than the salary I had, but it was enough to pay the bills. I also moved to a much more affordable area so it helped.
Having 100% rating on upwork lead to agency work. Agencies are great, if you do good work they often have a steady workload for you. You know what comes and when and can schedule more time to work on other projects, thus upping your income. If you are a developer working with an agency, this can be very rewarding if your charge your worth. I am a designer and our industry naturally caps what people think I am worth. It sucks.
At one point I was doing well enough that new clients I was taking on were willing to pay per project. It was super hard and scary, but I said bye to agency work except for 1 agency where I befriended the CEO. Per project work was really nice, but I learned quickly that if you can't sell your value (which I couldn't at the time as a "designer" and just lacked experience in this area), it can be difficult to close larger quote projects. People are just scared of large numbers. Tell someone they should pay you 50k and they run away (I am sure that other's experience may differ and people don't mind paying them that sum). I tried a bunch of things, price anchoring, huge fancy proposals.. yada yada. What happened is that I was getting burned out on huge fancy proposals and not getting anything out of them and that was the breaking point. I figured, I am done with proposals, from now on I get people on the phone, talk to them, and if they don't agree at the end of the call then I won't put any more effort. THIS WORKED.
Now the process is simple: Schedule a call, we talk, I ask you about your BUSINESS problem and offer you a business solution. No talk of design. No talk of development. What is it that is costing you money or not making you money? Let's change that.
As far as new work it's 100% referrals at the moment. However, I know that this can't last forever and at some point I will burn out (I already feel this after 3 years). My goal is a product or a product-service (have someone else do the work I offer at a reduced scope for a cheaper price). I have read about several people here on HN doing this and making a killing (by my definition). This is what I look forward to next, but it has not been easy. As a side note: if anyone is running a product service or a SaaS and started in a similar fashion, I'd love to hear from you!