Most freelance platforms should be happy with ~20 hours/week of consistent work. One freelancer that mainly works with us at that volume had enough stability through Gun.io contracts alone to get a mortgage, which was a pretty big coup for us.
I'd also add a recommendation to spend at least a third of the time you spend doing billable work in building up your own pipeline — regardless of whether you're using a freelance service like us or not.
Hi there - I'm the CEO of Gun.io. Shoot me an email at teja[at]gun.io. Our average rates on platform are 10x higher than that. In fact, that's why we started the business.
I don't think this is terrible news for entrepreneurs. It forces more operating discipline in the earlier stages. And, I believe we could do with more discipline as an ecosystem. As long as there's growth capital around once the business _is_ prepared to scale, we're all good.
No doubt, the best freelance gigs are the result of close, pre-existing relationships. Easier said than done tho if you're just getting your start.
Try using the sites mentioned within the thread - pickcrew, gun.io, etc. - these sites generally have higher-priced contracts and more interesting work than the classic variants.
Use these sites at first to discover what work you like and build long-terms relationships with a few key clients.
1. Remember that the comms overhead with freelance work can be really lumpy and unpredictable. Programming is the fun part - the phone calls and emails can get painful really quickly
2. Avoid hourly pricing whenever possible. Do value-based pricing. Just trust me on this one.
> my clients just contact me to small short projects, I want it to change
What type of work are you looking for? Part of the problem is you're using freelance sites that have tiny gigs and force you to work within their platform.
I don't want to be a shill, but I can't help it: my friends and I run https://gun.io - we vet freelance clients on your behalf (to have budgets above $10k~ and be serious, etc). After you're introduced, you're free to work w/ that person forever, however you think is best.
Nice post. While I abuse caffeine, I manage to limit alcohol to a drink or so every few months.
My completely unscientific take: I feel noticeably grouchier ever since I've started doing this, but the physical benefits have been pronounced in terms of better performance, recovery, and appearance.
This appears to be an older post, but I think what the original author meant was that hard work alone isn't a sufficient condition for success (I'd argue it is a necessary one, though).
The real answer is there probably isn't a sufficient condition for success, but hard work in pursuit of your own goals (rather a manager's) increases the likelihood of a positive outcome.
Still, I'd have gone a step further. 'Career' is such a false construction. Go do fun shit and get really good at it. Maybe I'm naively optimistic, but if you're really good at something, it's pretty easy to get paid (a lot) for it.
I dunno man. If you looked at the recent TechCrunch/VC exit data, your chances of 'exiting' with a VC funded startup are actually pretty bad. And that's what VC-funded startups are ultimately designed to do. I'd argue that if your goal is financial success, bootstrapping is actually better as a tactic purely on a financial basis!
The key thing though as you mentioned is you either gotta have a lot of personal cushion, or you gotta be willing to relocate to a fairly cheap area to temporarily lower your burn...like Nashville ;).
not to nitpick, but there are other, dare I say, more important variables that you gotta consider as well - workout intensity being the main one.
there's no 'correct' intensity - just like there's no 'correct' frequency - just depends on the athlete's goals.
what's clear tho, is at the edges of performance, there are gonna be trade-offs between highly frequent and highly intense training - unless you're a pro athlete, of course
for the large majority of peeps, i guess this distinction doesn't really matter, but since hn is about optimizing at the edges, i figured i'd mention!
Most freelance platforms should be happy with ~20 hours/week of consistent work. One freelancer that mainly works with us at that volume had enough stability through Gun.io contracts alone to get a mortgage, which was a pretty big coup for us.
Feel free to shoot me a line at teja at gun.io.