“I’m talking to potential clients and I need to land a contract with one of them soon. Oh no: do I have to learn about sales now?”

I’m not a sales expert. Most of my clients have been long-term, and I haven’t had to close new contracts often. So, honestly, I don’t feel comfortable talking at length and in detail about sales techniques.

But.

I will recommend a book that’s been very helpful for me. If you’re an introverted techie like me, you’ll probably find it useful, too.

My problem when I started was that I overthought things (I still do!) And sales was one of the things I went overboard on: “I need to buy five books and learn all about this before I can even think of working for myself!”

Unfortunately, the sales technique stuff I initially found did not click for me. At all. 

I chewed through a bunch of material initially:

Sales systems, establishing rapport, questioning for exploration, influencing customer thinking, establishing value by highlighting benefits and cost comparisons, addressing objections, closing/post-closing, psychological biases, conversational hypnosis, NLP techniques, Cialdini’s six factors of influence, etc… 

And on and on. There’s no end to these books on Amazon. 

I did not enjoy my initial book haul at all. Most of the material seemed overly complicated, some of it felt manipulative and adversarial, and almost none of it appealed to me as an introverted software developer.

But then I finally found a book that clicked: a slim volume written back in 1969. The book is a quick read and well worth the 8$ investment:

The core idea is to think of sales as helping people get what they want.

Try to be an excellent listener (as opposed to an aggressive talker). Listen, ask questions, emphasize. Do your best to grok their business, goals, and constraints. Restate what you hear back to them in your own words and verify that you understand what they are looking for. Then, discuss how and if you are a good fit for them. If it’s not a good match, you simply move on to the next potential client. That’s it! 

I also really like that this book focuses on the following traits: being sensitive, alert, imaginative, honest, and a good listener. You don’t have to be charismatic or extroverted to be good in any of those areas.

Finally, an unexpected side effect of reading this book was that I gained a greater appreciation for professional salespeople—the good ones, that is—both when I work alongside them, as well as when they sell to me in my personal life. Any craft that people do well is fascinating. Especially so when you understand at least a little of what they are doing.

Relax, don’t overthink, be a good listener, land your contracts.

“Oh jeez, my client will surely discover I’m not as good as they initially thought. They’ll kick me out any day now!”

Recognize this feeling? I’ve been a software developer for over two decades, and I still feel this. If anything, it’s more intense now than earlier in my career.

Most of us will intellectually recognize that this is just impostor syndrome talking. It’s not logical, not based on reality, and you feel it no matter how satisfied your client or project manager is.

The problem when working as an independent contractor/consultant is that this “they’ll kick me out” feeling is extra scary. It can add a lot of stress, especially when you’re with your first client. And too much chronic stress can lead to burnout. 

So let’s work around it.

Here, I’ll go through the techniques I find the most helpful to mitigate impostor syndrome. #3 is the most important one, and it also tangibly helps your business!

One: remember that it’s prevalent!

Impostor syndrome is more openly talked about now than when I started, and it helps that we have a well-known term for it these days. According to recent research, as many as 58% of all tech workers report the same feeling. You are not alone! If you keep this in mind, it helps normalize the experience.

You should also share the feeling with others—you may find that the developers you least expected share the same experience!

Two: keep your expectations in check.

The full-stack developer is supposed to be a thing now, and it’s sometimes interpreted as “someone sharp across the whole stack.” In reality, most of us just have a few areas where we’re solid—plus many other skills where we are just okay enough.

You don’t have to be all-knowing: it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” 

Just focus on this: do you get things done? Are you able to make clients and stakeholders happy? Yes? Then you’re doing great—you’re not a fraud!

Three: record and review achievements

If you make your wins tangible, it becomes easier to remind yourself that you are competent. Here are two ways to do that:

Create a public portfolio. A web page where you showcase tangible things you have worked on, what problems you solved, and samples of your work: screenshots, open source code, and so on.

Collect testimonials and recommendations. Ask past and current clients, managers, and colleagues for a summary of your strengths and what they enjoyed about working with you. (You can use the LinkedIn Ask for Recommendation feature—or just email some of your contacts and ask for a write-up directly.)

Gathering evidence of your competency serves two purposes. First: if you regularly review this material, it helps mitigate your impostor syndrome.

But more importantly: if you’re working as an independent contractor/consultant, that public record of your achievements signals competence and trustworthiness to the rest of the world. And this makes it easier to sell your services to future clients.

“OK, I think freelancing software development is right for me. What steps should I take to get there?”

I’ve laid out the most important steps below.

Note that some details may change slightly depending on whether you’re doing online remote only or focusing on local, regional, on-site, and hybrid projects.

You don’t have to do them in the order they are listed here, but the more of them you nail, the easier your life will be.

Step 1: Figure out your value proposition

What skills and services will you primarily sell? What are your unique strengths? 

Having your selling points ready before you promote yourself and talk to potential clients is a good idea.

If you think of yourself as primarily a Java developer, database specialist, or full-stack JavaScript programmer, then yes, lead with that. 

But your tech skills should only be part of the story: what soft skills and project scenarios do you excel in? Maybe you’re particularly good at dealing with legacy software. Or perhaps you’re excellent at collaborating with designers? 

Keep this in mind, though: be open to opportunities outside your core selling points. I initially thought I’d sell myself as a full-stack developer but ended up specializing in Android native development for five years instead! I had a few years of experience in that field, but it wasn’t my most solid skill set when I started contracting.

Step 2: Warm up your network

Be ready for a bunch of coffee and lunches! Get back in touch with your favorite previous colleagues and contacts. Sync up with them and find out what they’re working on. 

Let them know you’re available as an independent contractor soon: “Please let me know if you hear about any opportunities!” 

And there are many ways to broaden your network further: I’ve written more about networking here.

Step 3: Collect testimonials and references

You need some evidence that you’re able to build software. And no, it does not have to be a portfolio: the simplest way is to collect as many testimonials as possible from past employers, managers, and colleagues. 

“Jane is a pleasure to work with and very good at her craft!”

“Mark is a solid developer; any company would be lucky to have him on their project!” 

Social proof is powerful: showing that you have people willing to vouch for you makes you look like a much safer and more attractive choice. 

Use the LinkedIn “Ask for recommendation” feature, or email people directly: ask if they’re willing to give you a testimonial and serve as a reference if a potential client does a background check on you.

A nice bonus side-effect: positive feedback from people you’ve worked with helps with impostor syndrome, too!

Step 4: Get a grip on your finances

Set up a realistic budget for your personal life, determine your monthly expenses and minimum income. See if you can find ways to lower your burn rate (at least for a while). 

Step 5: Build up your savings  

If you don’t already have 3-6 months of expenses saved up, try to find ways to save that up now (this is why I mentioned lowering your expenses in the previous step). 

The idea here is to give yourself more time and less stress while looking for your first client.

After you start your first contract, you can build up an emergency buffer in your company. But for now, you’ll need liquid personal savings as a safety buffer.

Step 6: Figure out your minimum hourly rate

If you have your budget and expenses figured out, you can determine the minimum rate you need to charge clients. Knowing your minimum rate lets you filter out prospects and opportunities that would pay too little to be worth it.

Step 7: Update your CV

CVs are not just for employers; clients and contracting brokers often request a CV or resume.

Update and improve your CV, and make it easy to see online and share with clients: there are many services to create and host polished CVs.

Step 8: Set up a web landing page

You’ll want at least some web presence: a domain name and a website that lets you present yourself, your services, and what people say about you (remember the testimonials in the previous step?). In addition, make it simple to find your CV on your website.

Don’t overthink this initially: a minimalistic WordPress or Squarespace site is enough.

Step 9: Create a portfolio 

This one’s optional: I know many contractors and consultants who do fine without an online portfolio page. And many developers work on internal projects, which can be tricky to show to potential clients.

However, if you do have any public projects, take the time to craft a portfolio page on your website where you can show them off.

If you don’t have any public work you can showcase, you could create a few projects—if you have the time and energy. Make sure to scope them down, though: you want to show off small, finished, polished pieces, not a graveyard of ambitious but unfinished projects.

Step 10: Set up your company

Register your company, create a business bank account, and find a good accountant.

Research your local tax laws and other legal requirements you must know of. A good accountant can help you get up to speed on this.

Step 11: Start doing outreach

Many of us find our work via referrals and word of mouth in our network. However, when you start, you might need more than this, so be ready to hunt for leads.

Talk to contracting brokers and headhunters (some headhunting companies also broker contracting and consulting projects in return for a cut of your hourly rate). 

Contact local contracting/consulting agencies (many of them use subcontractors if they have too much work; they’ll take a cut of your rate if you work as a freelancer under their umbrella).

Contact potential clients via LinkedIn, email, or phone. One way to find clients who need temporary help is to look for companies with open job ads. Sometimes, they urgently need help in those areas and may consider using contractors while looking for new employees.

Step 12: Resign from your job

Some developers leave their old jobs before finding their first freelance contract, and others after. 

In any case, resign your position professionally and respectfully. Don’t burn any bridges. 

Be open with what you’re doing, and offer transition support to your employer. You never know: they might want you to stay on as a contractor while they look for a replacement. For many freelancers, their last employer ends up becoming their first client!

So, that’s your pre-flight checklist. Take your time, don’t rush it, and good luck!

“My client just asked me how long this project will take. What do I do?”

If you’re doing fixed-price projects, you need to estimate work upfront to know if it’s worth doing.

But even when you’re charging by the hour (as is typical in long-term contracting/consulting engagements), clients will ask you to provide timelines for features and projects: sometimes to know if something is worth building at all, at other times to help them with product management and scheduling.

So, you should have some basic techniques in your bag. Let’s look at a simple workflow to find a timeline for your client’s project.

Come up with initial numbers.

Do your research. Make sure you perform enough analysis and design up front. Talk to stakeholders and users. If new and unfamiliar tech is involved, read docs, search Reddit to see what the known Gotchas are, and play with the tech yourself.

Ask questions, lots of questions. More context up front means fewer assumptions and less guesswork. 

 […] Who’s the end user? How many people depend on the new tool? How are they working today? What pieces are most important? Are any parts “nice to haves” and possible to drop/postpone? How polished does the UI need to be? Are there restrictions on which technologies and patterns we can use? Is there a hard deadline of any sort? […]

Come up with as many questions as possible!

A little bit of design upfront. Do rough wireframing, flow diagrams, written stories, et cetera. Run them by your client early to help you “sync up” and ensure you agree on scope and constraints. 

Even if the client seemingly has a clear picture of what they need, retelling it back to them in your words/diagrams/sketches can uncover serious misunderstandings early on.

Not a solo project? Include the rest of the team early. Estimating other people’s work is risky; people have very different strengths and weaknesses. And they can see and catch things that you may miss. So, if you need to develop a timeline for a team you’re working with, ensure the other team members participate at every step. (Planning Poker is an example of a technique to find team consensus on estimates).

Define the concrete tasks. Try to split work into jobs smaller than a day or two; big “buckets” of work are trickier to estimate accurately.

Estimate individual tasks in ideal hours. “How many hours could this task take if I could work without distractions?” Don’t map to actual workdays yet; decouple each task estimate from your day-to-day schedule. (We’ll map to total days/weeks in a separate step; keep reading).

Tag the most risky and uncertain estimates. For very unclear features, mark them clearly (I usually make them red and bold in my spreadsheets). Estimate those tasks higher to make them stand out, and try to describe what the uncertainty is.

If you can’t resolve all of these upfront through enough research and questions, then make sure you (and your client!) keep them firmly in mind when the project starts: “These parts can bite us!”

Sum up the tasks. Now, you have the total number of ideal hours you think the project will take.

Multiply the total ideal hours with a safety margin. Adding a % margin on top takes overall risk into account: Murphy’s Law will strike at some point, so you need some slack built into the schedule from the get-go. My absolute minimum is usually a 10% margin (if I’m working with familiar tech for a client I’m very comfortable with).

How many ideal hours do you have available in an average week? Think through your daily life. After subtracting recurring meetings, other projects and obligations, how much focused time do you usually have available each week? Be honest with yourself.

Total number of ideal hours divided by average ideal hours per week = number of weeks the project will take. Now, you have an initial timeline in weeks.

Discuss the timeline with your client

Remind everyone involved that estimates are guesswork. Estimates are often treated as prophecies: “Know, O Client of Mine, that on June 1st, the project shalt be completed“! In reality, estimates are qualified guesses. As with weather forecasts, many known and unknown variables can nudge the outcome, especially if you make a long forecast. This brings us to the next point: is the overall scope too big?

Should the project be split up into multiple increments or milestones? Estimates are less confident the more extensive the project and the longer the timeline: if you’re looking at a timeframe of months rather than weeks, it’s a good idea to split the project into multiple parts. Deliver an initial milestone first, learn from it, then regroup and adjust the estimates/timeline for the remaining work: build the next increment. Rinse and repeat until done.

For extensive projects, fine-grained estimates upfront of the whole thing are unrealistic: concrete dependencies, time available, schedules, and dependencies are unknowable many months in advance (this is why large fixed-cost projects are such a bad idea).

An ideal timeline does not map cleanly to calendar dates! Sit down with your client and discuss external factors affecting the timeline over the following weeks or months. Are there risky dependencies to external factors, people, and events? What deliverables must your client or third parties supply along the way? Write out any assumptions and requirements that you see together. 

It’s now possible to find a rough target in the calendar. Just make sure everyone agrees on the assumptions and caveats above. “This looks like late February if everything works out like we discussed.”

Track and adjust your estimates during the project

Don’t throw away your estimates after you start building. Instead, try to keep your spreadsheet updated throughout the project. If unforeseen tasks show up, add them. If some tasks turn out to be unneeded, remove them. If the original estimates start to look too pessimistic or overly optimistic, adjust them.

Revisit the numbers weekly with your client. Given the adjustments above, let them know if anything has changed in the scope if the risk has gone up or down, and if the total timeline looks altered. And if everything stays the same from one week to the next, let them know about that, too.

Bonus: a template spreadsheet for estimates

I’ve created a Google Sheet template based on the process above:

You’ll find it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Dnk4g_5xwS_J5I5GA9byaQow6welA5nFK27UXTCW1o

Feel free to clone it, share it with others, and use it as you see fit. 

I may revisit and adjust this template now and then. I’ll increment the version number each time I do so.

Please let me know if this was useful to you; I’d love to hear about any adjustments and improvements you come up with!

“So what do I call myself when I go self-employed? I see people refer to independent developers as freelancers, contractors, and consultants, and it’s unclear what the difference is…”

They are not mutually exclusive words. Let’s first attempt to define the different terms.

Definitions

Contractor

A contractor builds things for others. For software developers, this means you show up to write software as specified by the client.

Consultant

In this case, you’re paid not just for producing but also—or mainly—for advising the client. 

As a software developer, this may mean that you help them make tradeoffs between different solutions, that you translate business requirements into technical solutions, and so on. 

Consultants are further up the value chain than a pure contractor, so their rates can be higher—but there’s a gradual sliding scale between a pure contractor role and the pure consultant role.

Freelancer

The umbrella term for “self-employed software engineer who sells their services to others.” 

Contractors and consultants can be freelancers, but only if they are self-employed— many contractors and consultants are salaried employees working for consulting agencies.

Term confusion!

When I write about related topics, I often word myself like this: “[…] as a freelancer, contractor or consultant […]” 

I do this because the terms are used interchangeably and often imprecisely. 

Sometimes, people do this by choice. Contractor (and freelancer) is sometimes considered a “cheap-sounding” title. Consulting is the more “high-end” moniker, so every agency calls themselves a consulting agency—even though their business model often boils down to renting out mostly junior contractors!

Different places have different naming standards, too. For instance, in Norway, most software developers building anything for others is always called a consultant by default. You may see different naming standards in your region or sector.

Finally, the three words are usually not legal terms. But this, too, may differ in your region. For instance, the United States has the term 1099 Contractor to differentiate independent contractors from salaried employees (for legal and tax purposes).

Keep the sender in mind when you take advice.

Remember: a fully remote junior part-time freelancer will give you different tips and opinions than a senior full-time consultant working in client offices. Their tools, tactics, and daily life are different.

I’m a freelancer contracting and consulting for local and regional customers hourly, and I serve one client at a time—often on-site a few times a week. Thus, I’m probably not the first guy you ask for advice for doing fully remote, fixed-scope projects on Upwork and Toptal!

“I’m always anxious; my client calls or texts me at all hours!” 

What to do?

A story.

Years back, I worked in a consulting agency where we built apps for large companies. One day, we had a meeting with a new client. One of the C-suite people there gushed about the experience they had with another firm:

“Those guys are great; they stay late, order in pizzas, and generally go all out to get things done—you know?”

I smiled politely and said:

“I prefer regular office hours: you’ll find you get my best work then.”

I worked on that project for a year. I can count on one hand the days I stayed later in the office than 1700. In a debrief afterward, the client’s project manager explicitly noted that he always felt he could count on me.

Determine constraints and expectations early.

As you’re onboarding a new client, talk through—in detail—how you usually work. Make sure it’s a good fit for them.

Be clear on your schedule, your availability, and the best way to communicate with you.

Here’s an example of how this can look in practice:

“I can be available up to 30 hours per week. Depending on my family’s logistics, I can be on-site twice to thrice weekly. I primarily work between 0800 and 1600.

I can stay at this availability for the next six months—I’ll do my best to inform you well ahead of time if anything changes.

Both of us should focus on Slack and email for communication rather than phone calls and text messages—that way, we can have all the conversations in as few places as possible, and I can provide better responses to you.”

Having most of these details explicitly laid out in your contract is a good idea—especially your availability.

Be cheerful and solution-oriented, and acknowledge that you’ll work together to make something good. At the same time, make it clear that you’re a professional: boundaries are essential for getting the best possible work from you.

Remember: it’s just business. There’s nothing personal about setting ground rules.

Strike a balance: strict vs. approachable.

How rigid should you be about your rules?

You don’t want to come off as grumpy and off-putting. At the same time, you need to protect your time and mental space.

I leave a little bit of wiggle room verbally. I usually touch on it like this: “If there’s a true emergency, I’ll do what I can to help out outside of normal hours.”

Unless you work on something like a critical banking system or medical software, clients will probably not need to call you in the middle of the night. If you need to be on-call at odd hours, you should have that explicitly in the contract (and get compensated accordingly). But, for most software projects, everyone involved can afford to wait until the next day for that answer or bug fix.

And if you do find yourself on a project where real or imagined emergencies come up every week? Unless it’s due to something you can control and fix yourself, you should probably drop that client.

Be a good communicator: less need for checkups.

Another way to make it less likely that clients ping you constantly is to push frequent updates to them. Send task/project status on a regular cadence—on your schedule.

Much client communication is simply, “How’s the thing coming along?” So, if you’re proactive enough with updates, you’ll have fewer incoming status requests.

Incidentally, the client will feel safer as well when you do this.

You almost want to over-communicate; we’ll revisit this later!

Use tools to enforce limits.

You can constrain your communication with tools, as well.

For instance, always set Slack to mute after office hours. They can call you if they genuinely need to reach you for an emergency.

Consider getting a separate mobile phone for client calls. Or set up a proxy service like Google Voice. This way, you can adjust your phone availability separately from your personal life.

Stick to it.

It can be tempting to reply rapidly late in the evening when you see a Slack message. That ugly bug is trivial; I could deploy a fix in five minutes!

Doing the occasional surprise flourish for your client is a good idea. As I mentioned, you don’t want to come off as too rigid.

But as a general rule, once you have a project going with clear expectations from both sides, stick to it from your end as well. Don’t let your constraints slide.

“I have all the client work I need, but I’m exhausted each night, grumpy as hell, and my body feels like dogshit!” 

Congratulations, you’re probably burned out! 

Freelancing, contracting, and consulting can be a way to avoid burnout in the first place: it gives you more control of your schedule (one common source of stress and eventual burnout is not having enough autonomy in your work life).

But on the flip side, work-life balance can also become harder to maintain when you’re self-employed.

What to do?

When times are good, prepare for the bad times.

First, here are a few things you should work on while things are still going well.

Build up your buffer. Pay yourself a moderate salary and accumulate liquid savings in your company to give yourself time and room to maneuver if you must dig yourself out of burnout later.

Build and maintain your network. Again, the idea is to have options. Stopping, finding, and scaling down projects becomes much simpler if you know that you can reliably find new leads from your local network.

Set clear boundaries and work regular hours. Some freelancers want that extremely open schedule, but I suggest you stick to a standard 9-5 cadence instead.

And try to do most of your client communication during those hours! Many of us are eager to please, and once the client is used to your rapid Slack replies late in the evening, well. You’ve put yourself on pager duty.

Personal self-care. Eat well, improve your sleep hygiene, and exercise regularly.

Reduce digital overwhelm. Turn off notifications for almost everything, mute Slack and Discord after working hours, and make your phone flip to grayscale in the evening. Less social media, less screen time.

These measures improve your odds of avoiding burnout altogether.

Spot the signs of burnout.

The WHO defines burnout like this:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

Stress can sneak up on you. Part of the trap—especially when you haven’t experienced burnout before—is that you may not recognize the warning signs of chronic stress until it’s too late.

If you (or your spouse!) gradually see more typical symptoms in yourself, you should start taking action.

Different people experience different signs, but let’s run through some common indicators:

Physical

• Chronic fatigue
• Insomnia
• Frequent illness
• Headaches, digestive issues, muscle tension

Cognitive

• Difficulty concentrating
• Memory problems
• Indecisiveness
• Reduced creativity

Emotional

• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Detachment
• Cynicism
• Lack of enjoyment in work and hobbies
• Pessimism

Behavioral

• Withdrawal
• Procrastination
• Increased absenteeism
• Impaired performance

A disclaimer before we proceed

We’ll look at ways to decrease stress, but if things are bad enough that you’re suffering from deep depression and real physical health issues, you should seek medical help immediately. 

Talk to a professional. Advice from people online is not a substitute.

However, if the situation is less dire, below are a few tips for giving yourself breathing room.

Manage your stress level.

What was the cause of burnout again? Oh yes: “…workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

So, if you’re barreling towards burnout or are trying to dig your way back out, find ways to decrease stress.

Figure out what the most significant stressors are. Is it specific tasks, people, projects, technologies, environmental factors in the office, or others? Are there things you can stop, avoid, or adjust—while still working for your client? Or perhaps it’s bad enough that you must look for a new project?

Talk to others. Don’t sit on your problems; talk it out with your spouse, other freelancers, and your friends. They sometimes see things you don’t.

Adjust your schedule. Weather, seasonal cycles, circadian rhythm—and menstrual cycles for women—can affect how stressful work feels. When you work as a freelancer or consultant, you usually have more leeway than an employee to adjust your daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule to make your day less stressful.

For instance, I live in Norway. During winter, it stays dark until mid-morning and gets dark again early in the afternoon. I know that if I do a bunch of full-time, on-site work and don’t take breaks to see daylight during the days, I’ll get extra tired by February-March.

A chaotic client project does not have to equal stress for you. If people in your project often stress out, avoid mirroring them. Pace yourself. Detach. Try to differentiate between real and “fake” urgency—it’s easy to get worked up over issues that are not super serious. Always consider: “Is this urgent, important, or both?” Provide good work and a positive attitude—but set clear boundaries.

And I repeat: if the project is bad enough, find a new one. 

Schedule regular vacations. It’s tempting to keep grinding when you’re self-employed: time off can feel like money not earned. Take that vacation anyway.

A change of scenery. It could help to work from new locations or even remodel your home office.

Close your laptop on evenings and weekends. Remember that I suggested a 9-5 schedule up top? If you haven’t done so, try to constrain your working hours. If you’re constantly “on,” it becomes much harder to catch your breath.

Fewer projects at a time. Juggling several client and personal projects can be a way to diversify and “take many bets,”—but it can also be a source of major overwhelm and stress: more context switches, more spinning plates. Simplify your life.

Outsource tasks. If you’re doing everything in your business, maybe shift some admin tasks to your accountant—slightly fewer spinning plates.

Band together with others. If “I have to do everything!” is a significant stressor, starting a small agency with like-minded people might fit you better than working alone. If you band together with people you trust, you’ll still have autonomy, but it becomes possible to share the load of running the business—everyone won’t have to do everything all the time.

Scale down client projects. If you’ve worked with a client for a while and they’re happy with your work, it’s likely possible to scale down your work for them temporarily. “I need a breather” is a valid reason when you’re being transparent and genuine with your client. You are not a machine.

If you’re paying yourself a moderate salary and the hourly rate is good enough, you may have room to decrease your working hours for an extended period. (It helps if you know what your margins are for your business here. Build a spreadsheet for this!)

Take a complete break from client work. If things are bad enough, you may need to stop entirely for a while and recover—this is possible if you’ve built up some buffer, and it feels less scary if you’ve built up a good enough network to find projects again later reliably. Remember when we talked about networking up top?

Take care of yourself.

Be careful, look out for warning signs, and take action early if you start seeing warning signs in how you feel and behave. 

Good luck!

Is freelancing worth it?

I don’t think it’s for everyone—and you have to decide if the tradeoffs fit your life and personality. 

Here, I’ll do my best to help you choose for yourself. 

Let’s walk through a few trade-offs you should consider.

Downsides

1. You can’t just code anymore. You suddenly have to spend at least some time on networking, self-promotion, marketing, sales, and admin. Some of these tasks can feel like a drag if you’re the introverted programmer type (though admin and paperwork don’t have to take a lot of your time)

2. Everything is on you. Ensure company liquidity is good, stay on top of taxes and admin, and keep your network warm. Don’t get sick. Don’t get sick. It can weigh on you mentally if your family depends on your income.

3. If you can’t work, the engine stops. When you’re employed and get sick, you may—depending on your region—still get paid during sick days. But when it’s just you? Anything that stops client work must come out of your buffer account.

And there’s a mental trap waiting for you there. Consider vacations: When you’re an employee with vacation/PTO available, you just take it, and that’s that. But when time off means client work stops, you risk thinking of summer downtime with the family as lost earnings—even if your company has plenty of liquid savings! It’s not a mindset you want to have.

4. Region-dependent: HEALTH INSURANCE. I’m not a US citizen, but I hear horror stories about how challenging and expensive healthcare is for self-employed folks over there. My heart goes out to you! (Norwegian public healthcare is imperfect, but a severe illness is unlikely to bankrupt me.)

Upsides

1. Control your schedule. You have the vacation and paid time off fixed in the employee handbook when you work for an employer. When you’re self-employed? If your client is happy and your liquidity can absorb it, take time off whenever necessary.

2. Control how much you spend on learning vs. earning. “We give you one ticket to a tech conference each year” instead becomes, “I think I’ll completely block out three weeks to master this new programming language.” You fully control when and how much you invest in yourself—both in time and money.

3. (Potentially) much better compensation than salaried employment. If you work full-time for clients on long-term projects, you can usually pay yourself a larger annual salary than a salaried employee in the same position.

4. Decouple from office politics. As an independent agent, detaching your mind from what goes on in the client’s office is easier. You simply get paid per hour or delivery; no annual bonus is on the line. Neither is your career as tightly wrapped up in the actions and strategy of company management compared to when you’re a full-time employee at the same place.

And when you run a business that sells services to companies, it clarifies things. You are fully aware that you’re in a business relationship, that engagements end, and that you must prepare for your next client at some point. (As opposed to how harsh it can feel if you’re a salaried developer and your employer starts laying off people—“Wait: we’re not one big family after all?”)

Is this for you?

So what do you think: Do the positives outweigh the negatives—for your personality and circumstances? And if you have a family, does your partner agree with your conclusion?

I can’t answer this for you. I don’t think full-time freelancing/consulting is the answer for everyone. 

But every software developer should think it through at some point.

How do you know when you’re ready to start working as an independent freelancer, contractor, or consultant?

It’s tempting just to say:

“Do you know how to ship software? Great, quit your job and find your first client!”

But if you’re like me, you want to think things through first. Let’s try this: I’ll walk you through a few points, and you can consider how you stack up on each one. 

1. Do you have enough industry experience? 

Let’s start with your expertise: You must know your craft before selling your services to clients. Duh.

But a few years of experience as a salaried developer also helps in other ways: you’ll know how to collaborate with peers, managers, and stakeholders in a professional setting. 

Years on your CV also makes you appear more trustworthy: I’d prefer to hire an electrician with a few years under their belt rather than someone straight out of school.

How many years, though? Personally I think five years of software development experience is enough to start freelancing—provided it’s somewhat well-rounded.

Have you worked on various projects during your five years, or is it just the same year repeated five times? “I’ve just written stored db procedures for the same large corporation.” Being a specialist can be an advantage (potentially higher hourly rates!). Unfortunately, unless you’re genuinely excellent at that skill and you’re able to find clients that need that specific expertise, too narrow of a skillset can also make it hard to find clients.

2. Do you have evidence of the ability to build software? 

Expertise alone is insufficient; others must perceive you as valuable, too. There are several ways you can do this.

Testimonials and referrals from past employers, managers, and peers are an excellent way to build trust. If you don’t already have this, I highly recommend you contact people and ask them for favorable write-ups. 

LinkedIn makes this easy via the “ask for recommendation” feature: just write personalized notes to the people you contact. Maybe go out for a coffee and catch up with them, too—it’s an excellent way to start warming up your network.

I also found that this helped somewhat with impostor syndrome when I started working for myself: “Hey, people appreciated my work on these projects! I can’t be all bad then…”

A portfolio can be a big help. Your portfolio can take many forms: public websites you have built, mobile apps, conference talks, and even screenshots and screencasts of things you have worked on. 

Open source work is a third angle: having a track record of contributing to relevant software projects indicates technical skills and the ability to collaborate.

3. Do you have people skills? 

Are you easy to get along with? Do people enjoy working with you? 

Think of two craftspeople who have the same expertise. One is slightly more skilled than the other but also harder to work with. Most clients will prefer to hire a person who is more enjoyable to work with, even if they are slightly less skilled than the other person.

Clients are also more likely to recommend you to others if they like working with you.

4. Do you have a network in the industry? 

Many of us get most of our work as referrals from old contacts. 

There are ways to find clients even if you don’t have a network already: you can cold call/email companies in your area, get in touch with consulting agencies that have too much work on their hands, or you can register with contract brokers, or you can apply for projects via online freelancing sites.

The problem with these approaches is that you are starting cold, competing on even ground with other developers. On freelancing sites like Toptal, you’re competing with the whole world!

If you instead get referred directly to the client via people who know and trust you, you’ll have a significant advantage:

Trust.

5. Do you have a buffer saved up? 

An initial emergency fund is a good idea: a bit of runway means you have time to find that first client. You’ll also be more relaxed around potential clients when you’re not desperate for money.

Even if you find a suitable project on day one, it can take a while before the first invoice comes in. You need to have enough cash to tide you over until then.

So, save up a few months of runway before you jump: 3-6 months of expenses can be a good number, but you should adjust to fit your risk tolerance. If you have a family, you may want a bigger buffer.

How many did you get?

How did it go? Do you feel more or less ready now?

Remember that you don’t need to have every angle covered to be successful. Some developers jump to freelancing very early in their careers. Many of us do great without a portfolio or a long streak of public Github commits.

And please don’t judge yourself too harshly. You don’t have to be a superstar rocket scientist to find clients; you just have to be competent enough to be valuable!

“When I start working for clients, what should my rate be?”: easily one of the most common questions I see from developers thinking about making the jump. 

I stressed out over this myself in the beginning. “Please tell me there is a standard algorithm to figure this out!”

I’ve seen a bunch of different answers. Some are less helpful than others—“Just charge the maximum amount the market is willing to pay!”

It would be best if you approached this from multiple angles. Let’s look at how you can explore (and play with) your hourly rate.

A few key numbers to begin with

Minimum salary: Figure out what your minimum annual wage is. What would you need just to cover your average expenses? Map this back into an hourly rate: your absolute minimum floor. You will then at least know you should refuse anything that comes in below this number (unless you’re genuinely desperate).

Cover your current level: This one’s helpful if you’re still a salaried employee with a comfortable lifestyle. If you start for yourself, what rate would you need to charge to match your current salary?

Aspirational salary: If your primary motivation is to earn more than you currently do with your employer, figure out the target salary that would make contracting or consulting worth it for you.

Research the local rate range. Find other freelancers, contractors, and consultants in your local area—it’s a good idea to network with peers for mutual support, referrals, and advice. Try to get some data on what others in your area are charging. You are looking for realistic lower and higher bounds and median or average rates. Disregard extreme outliers in either direction. Find the rate range you are likely able to hit for your first contract.

Converting a target salary into an hourly rate

Here’s a simplified paper napkin calculation to convert a salary into the required hourly rate—for a long-term, full-time contract. 

Take the target annual salary, divide by 10-12 (months worked per year), divide by 4 (weeks per month), divide by 35 (average hours invoiced per week, taking a few hours away for overhead/margin). Then multiply with 1.5 to cover company expenses, taxes, insurance, and other overhead. 

Do you want to pay yourself 100,000 USD per year? (100,000 / 11 / 4 / 35)*1.5 => roughly 100 USD per hour

However, I encourage you to be more precise. Local and personal circumstances can shift the numbers significantly. Let’s drill down:

Overheads and expenses. When you work for yourself, you are a corporation with one employee. Corporations can have very different overheads depending on your region. 

Health insurance will likely be a costly, annoying factor if you’re in the United States. Then there’s employment tax and retirement savings. You probably also want liability insurance, a few software subscriptions, a decent laptop every few years, and some occasional help from an accountant. Maybe you need to pay for access to a good coworking space. 

How much client work will you do? Consider how much you want to work on average each day, each week, for how many months a year. 

Forty hours of invoiceable work every week year-round may be unrealistic. How much actual invoiceable work will you do on average? How much time will you spend networking, skill-building, and side projects? Do you have a family to take care of?

Once you get a better grip on these numbers, you can be more precise than our initial calculation. I recommend you use a spreadsheet to play with the variables.

Using your hourly rate as a tool

Your hourly rate is not one static number after you get started, either. You can use it actively as a tool in multiple ways.

Crank up to filter out less exciting leads. Let’s say there’s a project that uses technology you don’t like. Or maybe they ask for many on-site hours, possibly with awkward commuting. Make it worth it for you: ask for a higher rate for these.

Adjust down if the project is worth it. If a client sounds particularly interesting or strategic, lower your rate if needed. Maybe it’s a worthy government project for a cause that interests you. Or perhaps the project is an excellent way to build your credibility in a new technology? (Think of it as a kind of penetration pricing.)

Adjust to demand. Sometimes, the whole tech sector is down in your area: when there are fewer leads, you may need to lower your standard rate. When the market is up, everyone needs helping hands: charge more.

What do you want in life?

“Aren’t you complicating things? I want to charge as much as possible!”

If I wanted to maximize my salary, I would have become an Oracle or SAP consultant. No disrespect to people working in those platforms and sectors—it’s just not my jam! 

The main reason I started working for myself was to control more variables in my working life rather than having an employer do it for me.

Employers can get cranky if you hit them with: “After this project, I’m off to recharge and hack on a side project for a few weeks. Later!” I also wanted the ability to tweak these variables whenever I wanted—without switching employers or asking a middle manager for permission. 

I optimize for the following:

1. Will I look forward to work on most Mondays?

2. Do I have enough margins in my daily life?    

I could crank up my hours and optimize exclusively for higher-paying contracts, but that wouldn’t fit my personality or family life. Your goals may be very different!

Think it through carefully. What is each variable worth to you?

Then, tune your numbers accordingly. Your minimum or target hourly rate follows from that.