How does free-lancing work?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

I hear people talking about free lancing in web development. But how does it actually work? And what skills/experience should you have ?

The Corinthian

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

I hear people talking about free lancing in web development. But how does it actually work? And what skills/experience should you have ?

Freelancing is essentially being a one-man-company, be it a sole trader or effectively a sole director of a limited company. How it differs from contracting tends to be in two ways; first you don't go through a recruitment agency or consultancy, but bring in your own projects and clients, as well as negotiate your own rates and contracts. Secondly work tends to be more project than time based; that is a contractor will get hired for a six-month contract, while a freelancer will tend to get hired for a specific project, such as developing an application or Web site. Ultimately, even if charging by the hour, a freelancer will tend to get paid based on what they deliver, a contractor or employee on time spent, even if nothing ever gets delivered.

As a freelancer, as you don't go through anyone for your work, you don't have to share any of the pie. This means you can earn significantly more per hour than a contractor, who in turn earns significantly more per hour than an employee.

Freelancing does not suit most people however. Contractors get a lot of hand-holding, payroll is often done for them (a common service of whatever recruitment agency or consultancy they're going through) and they don't have to go out and try to sell their services to anyone. As such, discipline and initiative is the first thing that a freelancer needs than contractors don't need as much - the discipline and initiative to go out and sell themselves, negotiate contracts that won't end up screwing themselves over, to hit targets, to chase up payments when they're due and all those things those aforementioned recruitment agencies or consultancies do.

Before going into freelancing, I would recommend a few years in the business, as your knowledge will need to be broad enough to get things done that you'd otherwise be able to pass onto someone else on your team. Additionally, some business experience is preferable as that is ultimately what you're going to be.

awec

You need to be really good at what you do to make a living from freelancing IMO.

The websites out there to help people get freelance work are for the most part pure muck.

1. Expectations are not realistic and some projects would be questionable at best. "I want a freelancer to build me a facebook clone. My budget is 1000 euro. I need this in 2 weeks."
2. Prices are being driven down by people in India / other cheap labour countries who can afford to undercut prices significantly.

To get work you probably need to be very cheap (probably not possible if you're looking to do this as your full time job), very experienced (vast freelance portfolio) or incredibly lucky.

beauf

Rather than freelancing, contracting would be a better route IMO.

The Corinthian

awec wrote: »

1. Expectations are not realistic and some projects would be questionable at best. "I want a freelancer to build me a facebook clone. My budget is 1000 euro. I need this in 2 weeks."
2. Prices are being driven down by people in India / other cheap labour countries who can afford to undercut prices significantly.

Essentially, you would want to be referred to as a consultant rather than a freelancer. Price yourself out of the low end of the market, it's actually worth your while to do so.