How do you find freelance work?
Author
I have been doing some freelance work for a US company for several months as well as my day-job(they are looking for more people, PM me if you're interested, I won't discuss it in this thread).
I'm considering becoming a full-time freelancer in the future, but I don't want to work with just one client. I wondered how I would go about finding people who might want to hire me? I mean most companies won't post on getacoder.com...
I'd say without at least 4 or 5 regular customers, the risk of closing the month without any income is quite high. Clients might not always have enough work for you - that's why they hire a freelancer in the first place - or even drop the relationship completely for whatever reason. You need a stable basis before you take off otherwise you'll find yourself having sleepless nights over the rent. I've been there.
How it's mostly done is to get a job somewhere and eventually steal a couple of solid clients there. I can tell you that small scale advertising and wild aquisition will mostly yield unreliable, demanding and cheap-ass customers, so don't hope for too much in that.
Your current situation is fine, just keep the job and try to extend on the freelance work you do for that company. Get to know other companies they work with, switch jobs, attend meetings, get involved with the business. Somewhere down the line that spark will ignite.
On a side note, in my country it's even illegal to have a business with only 1 client; you're considered to be an employee of the company you work for. But we have too many stupid tax rules anyway.
Hopefully this is somewhat helpful. Good luck with your endeavours.
How it's mostly done is to get a job somewhere and eventually steal a couple of solid clients there. I can tell you that small scale advertising and wild aquisition will mostly yield unreliable, demanding and cheap-ass customers, so don't hope for too much in that.
Your current situation is fine, just keep the job and try to extend on the freelance work you do for that company. Get to know other companies they work with, switch jobs, attend meetings, get involved with the business. Somewhere down the line that spark will ignite.
On a side note, in my country it's even illegal to have a business with only 1 client; you're considered to be an employee of the company you work for. But we have too many stupid tax rules anyway.
Hopefully this is somewhat helpful. Good luck with your endeavours.
Author
Hmm. Well I've never worked for any company which uses freelancers, so I can't make contacts through work.
I was hoping to hear that companies post "job ads" when they have contract work. Once you've worked somewhere then of course you have a chance to get more work there, but it's getting the contacts in the first place.
The one company I do freelance work for has a LOT going which means I could realistically make a good salary off them (they have 10s-100s of people doing stuff), but I need at least a few fall-back options in case things go wrong there.
I was hoping to hear that companies post "job ads" when they have contract work. Once you've worked somewhere then of course you have a chance to get more work there, but it's getting the contacts in the first place.
The one company I do freelance work for has a LOT going which means I could realistically make a good salary off them (they have 10s-100s of people doing stuff), but I need at least a few fall-back options in case things go wrong there.
Quote:Original post by d000hg
I have been doing some freelance work for a US company for several months as well as my day-job(they are looking for more people, PM me if you're interested, I won't discuss it in this thread).
I'm considering becoming a full-time freelancer in the future, but I don't want to work with just one client. I wondered how I would go about finding people who might want to hire me? I mean most companies won't post on getacoder.com...
I don't know if this answers your question, but have you read May's issue of Game Developer magazine? It had an article about freelancing.
Good Luck,
- John
EDIT: Whoops, after glancing at the article again, it was focused on game designers, but perhaps the article is still applicable.
Honestly, I try to avoid work as much as possible by charging high fees ($60/hour) but for some reason, I am getting overloaded with work. I'm trying to have a free summer and focus on school but work has a way of finding me.
If you're trying to freelance, your best friend is social networking. I tell everyone what I do and how much I charge as part of casual & informal conversation. It seems everyone needs access to talented IT professionals...
I really think I should consider charging more so I get better sticker-shock effect (but within reason... not $1,000,000/hour to reinstall an OS). If you want to do freelance, you need to have sales and people skills as well as IT skills and business skills.
If you're trying to freelance, your best friend is social networking. I tell everyone what I do and how much I charge as part of casual & informal conversation. It seems everyone needs access to talented IT professionals...
I really think I should consider charging more so I get better sticker-shock effect (but within reason... not $1,000,000/hour to reinstall an OS). If you want to do freelance, you need to have sales and people skills as well as IT skills and business skills.
Quote:Original post by slayeminThat hourly fee is pretty low for a programmer. I was charging that as a freelance graphic designer. I'd expect a programmer to at least be in the US$80-120/hour range, but then again, this is games and not enterprise software.
Honestly, I try to avoid work as much as possible by charging high fees ($60/hour) but for some reason, I am getting overloaded with work.
Author
Well I wasn't thinking I would be able to get any freelancing work in games, but that would be even cooler!
I guess I'd be in the $60-120 range although it would depend on the type and length of each piece of work. If anyone knows of someone who often uses freelancers you could PM me, if asking this doesn't break some forum rule? I assumed maybe there might be agencies who link up companies and freelancers, but nobody mentioned any.
I guess I'd be in the $60-120 range although it would depend on the type and length of each piece of work. If anyone knows of someone who often uses freelancers you could PM me, if asking this doesn't break some forum rule? I assumed maybe there might be agencies who link up companies and freelancers, but nobody mentioned any.
Quote:Original post by slayeminI am getting overloaded with work.Don't suppose you'd share who you do work for? Or is it mainly tech-support/IT stuff?
Quote:Original post by AdraeusQuote:Original post by slayeminThat hourly fee is pretty low for a programmer. I was charging that as a freelance graphic designer. I'd expect a programmer to at least be in the US$80-120/hour range, but then again, this is games and not enterprise software.
Honestly, I try to avoid work as much as possible by charging high fees ($60/hour) but for some reason, I am getting overloaded with work.
I think that is about right. They pay about 70 Euros per hour for me I think. And there's a middle man in the whole picture who is making money off my work. I work on a contractor basis. If you're not familiar with that concept think of it like a "rent-a-coder"-company.
Author
Quote:Original post by StructuralAnd there's a middle man in the whole picture who is making money off my work.Is he the one that finds work for you to do, so you don't have to look for work yourself? Could you explain a bit more, this sounds useful.
Quote:Original post by d000hgQuote:Original post by StructuralAnd there's a middle man in the whole picture who is making money off my work.Is he the one that finds work for you to do, so you don't have to look for work yourself? Could you explain a bit more, this sounds useful.
This is probably NOT the thing you are looking for, as I don't earn a penny more (even less even) than the guy hired directly by a company.
Basically the company I work for hires a tonne of coders, project managers, consultants, etc etc. They have these people on their payroll.
Now, another company comes to them and tell them they want to have like, 10 coders for a project of six months. So, these 10 coders move to the customer's site, do their project, and after those six months they are assigned to another project, possibly for another customer.
The contracting company pays me my average wage, but when they put me in another company to do my job, they charge the other company like $$$ euros per hour. Of course, my contracting company caries the risk of not being able to hire me to other companies, or me getting ill... but they make good money off me, and I'm (kind of) guaranteed to have a job even when the market collapses.
In Dutch we call this "Detachering", and the English term I heard often is "contractors" or "on contract basis".
Now, a colleague of mine had some luck getting hired on freelance basis in a pretty stable job. His original contractor went tits up, and the company he was working in at that very moment asked him if he wouldn't stay and work on freelance basis for them, having the benefits of an insane income AND a stable job.
And that what it takes I guess, some luck.
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