DEV Community

Cover image for Beginner’s Guide to Freelancing
Lucas Lima do Nascimento
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Posted on

Beginner’s Guide to Freelancing

1. Introduction

https://media2.giphy.com/media/7GkvffN8RiThRLXDSP/giphy.gif?cid=7941fdc6jkqpn6c7ctkh725p0echmou2ujrpnyazxcnow4h3&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Hello there!

If you’re reading this, I assume that: you’re beginning to freelance (or want to) or you’re just looking for some tips in the process itself. Currently, I’m sitting at 6+ years of freelancing, and the intent of this article is to try to guide you through the different learnings I gained throughout those years.

Honestly, I can’t complain about the things I gained throughout those years — I started mostly for the experience (but, I’m not gonna lie that the extra cash always felt great) and I ended up with a bunch of different learnings besides sole experience: From developing a bunch of different ideas to communicating better with customers and even learning things I didn’t had an opportunity to put in practice.

These for me, are the greatest selling points for freelancing.

2. Getting Started: Customers

Literally the description the average customer is going to give you about what they want

Literally the description the average customer is going to give you about what they want

First of all, we have to learn a little bit about customers. Here, we have 3 important topics to cover:

  • Finding and Securing
  • Negotiating
  • Legal stuff

Finding and Securing Clients

Let’s start by going over the first one: Finding and Securing Clients. This can actually be pretty hard — when I started freelancing I didn’t have a clue on where to actually find a customer, so, I started going into websites like Workana and Fiverr.

Did it work? No. Not only did I never get a client from those types of websites, but, to be honest with you here, that type of website always made me feel that the work I was doing creating software was cheap and disposable. To be fair, there are a bunch of developers out there who actually make money on this, so, maybe, it was only a misfortune on my end.

After that, I started to go through my friends to see if anyone knew someone who was looking for a developer, and in less than 2 days I had my first customer asking for a website, not a direct friend, but a friend of a friend. After finishing the work with this first client, he felt that the work was really good and spread the word — ever since I’ve never been without a freelance gig.

Here’s my first tip for you then: Don’t ignore mouth-to-mouth and organic reach. It’s tremendously powerful and can get you a long way! Ask your network and soon enough, people will start finding you. Don’t have a network? Start to build one (here’s a reference for you to start and you can try those websites while that isn’t ready).

A second tip? Don't necessarily accept your client's idea. They think they'd like an app, but maybe, the person would be better suited with a web application. You're the specialist, use your expertise (or reach out to others to better determine this) what is the best course here.

Negotiating

https://media0.giphy.com/media/xT1Ra159XCvq33VvqM/giphy.gif?cid=7941fdc621npdwvr7ffzgspmxdyjhnjgwtp4jvh0yr5zxc44&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

It finally happened, you found a client and they want software from you! Congrats! Now we jump to the second part which is negotiating. This is a crucial skill for you to gain as a software engineer (if you’d like to learn more, you can find more content about communication here).

Every single deadline you’re going to have is impacted by the capacity of negotiation of yourself and the people above you, in a corporate world.

Usually, when you talk to a client, they want a budget idea from you as quickly as possible — and here’s where things go bad, software time is HARD to estimate, so, if you rush things out here, there are only two possible outcomes: you overbudget it, and the client won’t like it or you underbudget it and you’re going to work for free.

Besides budget, they also want to know dates and time ideas, because they don’t have a clue if their project is going to take a week or a year and the cycle repeats, only two possible outcomes, or you’re going to cut short, having to work way more than intended or you’re going to put too much time for the client to be comfortable with.

Your job here is one: simply calm the heck out of this other anxious person you’re dealing with. They want to know things, and they want to know them fast, you just have to remind them that this is an engineering process and you’ll have to make some refinements before coming to the budgets and dates with precision.

Sometimes, you’ll find some clients that are especially anxious about wanting to know things, here, if you have done some freelancing before, you can try to eyeball a range to make them more calm. If you’ve never made freelancing and you feel that this client is this edge case, ask someone with freelancing experience how much you should charge and they’ll help you out.

Legal Stuff

Here’s a good thing if your customer is acquainted with you in some manner: you’re probably not going to go deep into the legal stuff! But, honestly, at least some contractual idea is generally necessary — everyone is great at demanding stuff, but not everyone is great at paying for the stuff they demand. Haven’t made a contract and your money didn’t arrive? Well, that’s bad — at least you learned something. The funniest implementation of a solution to this problem in my opinion is this one:

kleampa/not-paid: Client did not pay? Add opacity to the body tag and decrease it every day until their site completely fades away (github.com).

It’s important for you to get some sense into your country's regulations for taxes and informal jobs like this too. You don’t have to dig deep initially, but just learn a little bit about how things work and which taxes if any you should pay for.

3. Project Management and Engineering

https://media1.giphy.com/media/gQm37vKLwkUVjOvVmp/giphy.gif?cid=7941fdc6f9hhprin3ago5fzqxpvkvbcaeooimygscgg2dxr6&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Now that we've covered the basics of finding clients and handling the business side of freelancing, let's dive into the core of what makes a successful freelance software engineer: effective project management and engineering practices. As a freelancer, you're not just responsible for writing code; you're also in charge of managing the entire project lifecycle. This includes several key aspects:

  • Understanding and defining project requirements
  • Creating accurate time and cost estimations
  • Breaking down projects into manageable tasks
  • Using project management tools and methodologies
  • Show the progress weekly or recurrently

Usually, while in university, we have a whole 6-month discipline to learn about software engineering processes and how to do precisely that. Don’t have 6 months? Here’s the small version:

  1. Divide the whole project into a set of major milestones
  2. Break those milestones into features to make those milestones possible
  3. Go deep into those features and learn what your client wants
  4. Try to estimate those features in hours/days of work
  5. If you have some experienced people nearby, ask them to make revisions in your estimations considering YOUR skill level

PLEASE, plan things out. A recent study found that projects that had requirements clear before development started were 97% more likely to succeed than those that didn’t.

Engineer Reference

After estimating the features, add some extra time for the chaos of the world, bugs, or revisions. This practice helps manage client expectations and ensures you have room to deliver high-quality work — this is the goal since this is what is going to propel your organic reach.

Remember: it's always better to under-promise and over-deliver. Not the other way around.

4. I made a tool to help: Founders Kit

Founders Kit

Throughout the years of freelancing, I tried a bunch of different tools to help me actually organize my process. It took a lot of trial and error only to realize that no tool perfectly fit my needs — in some cases, they were too complex, bringing tons of functionalities that I didn’t use, in others, they didn’t have some essential stuff.

The great part of this is that I’m an engineer! So, throughout the past month, I worked hard to create a solution to help manage the business side of this. It’s called Founders Kit and I’d love it if you could help us on Product Hunt and check it out ;D

5. Conclusion

https://media1.giphy.com/media/VFMIvNlKndpf2gO5Xp/giphy.gif?cid=7941fdc6susv7t2js3spr3lrn9qf558a61mp3y2v33loioim&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Hey! You made it to the end. I hope that you have started to realize how freelancing in software engineering can be a rewarding and challenging career path, which can earn you some extra money and grant you some really cool experiences.

By following the guidelines outlined in this guide - from finding and securing clients, to negotiating effectively, managing projects, and utilizing tools like Founders Kit - you'll be well-equipped to start your freelancing journey.

Top comments (75)

Collapse
 
zeedu_dev profile image
Eduardo Zepeda

Hello, In your opinion, what's the best way to deal with third party costs, for example the hosting costs or storage (S3) with clients, do you charge a monthly fee and take care of it, or do you ask them to create an account and ask for the tokens?

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @zeedu_dev! Thanks for the comment and really great questions!

Honestly, my take on this is that these will highly depend on the expected resource consumption of each project. If you receive a project that could take a lot of resources over the long run, I usually prefer to have them create the accounts, since that puts them in control of financial cases. That generally comes with the hassle of asking them for tokens, keys, and all the other things, so, I usually evaluate this really early in the planning stage.

If you're doing a small website, with low resource consumption and/or think the client doesn't have a lot of technical ability, charging a monthly fee or a straight-up one-time payment to cover these costs can work, but make sure to clearly outline the terms in your contract (e.g., what happens if the costs exceed the estimate, when and how you’ll review fees, etc.) -- to be fair, most of the freelance jobs I did to this day never crossed the expected threshold, but, you never know.

Collapse
 
williams-oliver profile image
Oliver Williams

I agree with @llxd that it depends on each project. You may want to also take into consideration another aspect - what are you actually selling to your client?

So far I've encountered the following scenarios:

(A) Being a technical expert advising client on solutions.
(B) Developing a one-off solution specific to that client they consider to be theirs.
(C) Developing a solution to a common business problem where client doesn't have a considerably sized budget.

I'm sure others will chime in with other scenarios, but this is just what I can remember from top of my head.

For cases A and B, I normally make sure that everything is in the client's name and control. This allows me to easily walk away when project is done and the client will not be in a position later on where they are held hostage to me and my availability regardless of the actual cost. That includes domain names, SSL certificates, copyright notices, cloud infrastructure, source control, etc. (Plus, domain names and SSL certificates not in your client's name may take away some of the site's credibility.)

For scenario C, sometimes it helps to evaluate whether or not what you're building can turn into some Software-as-a-Service (Saas), fully managed and hosted by you (or your self-owned one man corporation). The infrastructure cost can be spread across multiple future clients and/or you can just convince yourself that your out-of-pocket costs will just be part of your future company's success story. Don't be afraid to dream big!

Hope I at least stretched your imagination!

Thread Thread
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Perfectly said, @williams-oliver and welcome to dev.to!

Looking forward to read more from you and thanks for the comment!

Thread Thread
 
zeedu_dev profile image
Eduardo Zepeda

Holy crap! to be honest I wasn't expecting such detailed and well structured response, it was perfectly written and clear. Thank you so much, I really appreciate the time you took to write it and the knowledge that you're sharing with us here. I send you a huge hug from México!

Collapse
 
zeedu_dev profile image
Eduardo Zepeda

Hey Lucas, Thank you so much for sharing your perspective and your advice. It's super useful to learn from the different ways of handling things. Lots of takeaways in your reply. Hugs from México!

Thread Thread
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

So nice to hear words from all those different places! Thanks a lot for the comments and feel free to leave any other questions you have! Hugs from Brazil! 🚀

Collapse
 
leob profile image
leob • Edited

Good article ...

While I agree that Fiverr and the like are probably cr*p, I think there's still potential in more "serious" platforms like Upwork or (a lesser known one which I've come across) Gun.io (don't let the funny name fool you, it has nothing to do with weapons).

As always "it depends", and while I agree that finding customers "all by yourself" (not via a platform) is generally the best and nicest way, it might not always be feasible, or it might just take too much time (been there, done that) - these platforms were built for a reason ...

Collapse
 
yoadev profile image
Younes

The only time i tried Upwork. I took some time to answer throughly to the potential client and in the end, a couple hours later there was between 20 and 50 other applications so it is really demotivating. I don't feel like giving the time people deserve for nothing in the end.

Never heard about gun.io, will have a look who knows 👀

Collapse
 
leob profile image
leob • Edited

Yeah the number of applications on a given job is generally insane, I agree that that's really demotivating - I think that's ALSO a problem for the people who are hiring - who wants to wade through 50-plus applications? I think that's a problem which Upwork should look at - maybe they should cap the number of applications at 20 or 30 or something, I mean, 50 doesn't make sense ...

And those applications can't all be brilliant, on the contrary - I'm seeing a lot of run-of-the mill, low-quality, copy and paste stuff out there ... I think that's where you can make a difference when you're really good, or better than average - try to stand out from the crowd, by presenting yourself in a way that projects a bit more "quality" ... there are also tools which Upwork offers which you can use in order to make yourself "stand out".

What I do like about Upwork is that their platform is very mature and polished - their website and app are excellent, it's a joy to use.

But generally it just requires determination (and a modicum of luck) to "hit the jackpot".

P.S. Gun.io aims more at the high end of the market, and it's way less "massive" in terms of number of jobs and applicants - you might like it better ...

Thread Thread
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Awesome comment, @leob!

BTW, 100% agreed that there is a TON of copy and paste/generic problem solvers out there and it's a super valid space for good devs to make a difference! Nice one!

Thread Thread
 
leob profile image
leob

Thanks! Yes, copy/paste "heroes" and "cowboy coders" aplenty, but an area where I think you can really make a difference as a dev is communication - asking the right questions, getting to the bottom of the issues, solving the "right" problems ... that's always where I felt you can stand out from the crowd.

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @leob! Thanks a lot for that comment!

Personally, I've never heard of those two you mentioned -- to be fair, I lost most of my interest in those platforms after my bad experience with Fiverr, but, I'll be sure to put that on the list to give a check!

And totally agree, these platforms were built for a reason and you never know when you're going to need them hahah, so, I'll surely keep them on my radar! Thanks a lot for that resource 🚀

Collapse
 
leob profile image
leob • Edited

Thanks! ... well, Gun.io is a platform which probably virtually nobody has ever heard of (I'm exaggerating a bit ... but only a little bit), but Upwork is, well, it's like the "500 pound gorilla" in the "freelancing platforms space" :)

But ultimately they're just "tools", they're a means to an end - for me it worked, but that doesn't prove anything, I think there was also a huge amount of luck involved - "being in the right place at the right time" ;-)

Collapse
 
martinbaun profile image
Martin Baun

Keep up the good work. Love when these topics come to the forefront on Dev.

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Thanks for the kind words @martinbaun! 🚀

Collapse
 
chideracode profile image
Chidera Humphrey

Nice read, Lucas

I like how you structured the article, including things that no one talks about: legal stuff.

But I have a question:

Is there demand for custom code websites? If yes, how do find the people that need them?

I ask because, a majority of the most successful freelancer web developers are WordPress or Shopify developers.

Thanks again.
Chidera

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @chideracode! Glad to have you here and great question!

To be fair with you, there is going to be a hude demand for solutions in which WordPress and Shopify are going to fit for possible scenarios.

But, in the real life, your customer generally will want just that, a solution -- not a specific technology for that solution. So, if they want a blog, of course, you can use WordPress and solve that problem easily, but, you can also do some pretty cool designs on Figma, make that into React code and add Strapi as CMS -- they're both equally fitting solutions, with the added benefit that the later one is way more unique than the other.

So, yes, there's a lot of demand for custom stuff, and me personally, I've had a few clients that even demanded for me not to use WordPress because of X or Y problem they had in the past with that solution.

Glad to have you here and hope I adressed you question ;)

Collapse
 
chideracode profile image
Chidera Humphrey

Thanks for your detailed response, Lucas.

And clients that need custom code websites often tend to be the ones that pay top dollar, right?

Thread Thread
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento • Edited

You're welcome, @chideracode!

And although this is not always necessarily true, generally, when you offer a custom solution, clients are more willing to spend more! This is a great analogy on that too, if you'd like more on that.

Thanks a lot and see you around ;)

Collapse
 
clink50 profile image
Clink50

Hello! Thanks for the great article! I’ve always wanted to do freelance work where I would write a custom solution, but where I get discouraged and eventually stop is the design. I can look at a Figma design and code that solution no problem, but I can’t design a website from nothing because I just don’t have that design-oriented mind. Do you have any advice on how to get over this? I imagine lots of customers will come to you with no idea of what the end solution will look like and are looking at you for creating something that looks really good.

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @clink50! Thanks for the comment!

And yes, a lot of customers are going to come to you with 0 design related stuff. For me, that's not such a big of a problem because I do have a degree in graphic design, but I can try to give a quick summary (and maybe even a future more in-depth article) about the process I go through.

When I was designing my first few solutions, two problems were the most impactful and recurrent:

  • I didn't had inspiration to create the design, so, I wasn't able to start, just staring at the blank Figma
  • Sometimes, I didn't know how to do certain thing to accomplish the desired result

So, the thing I'm going to say from now on, are my personal takes on how you can solve those two impactful problems. If they're not the cause feel free to elucidate more!

For the first one, lack of inspiration for me is usually solved by a few things:

  1. Creating a moodboard and drawing inspiration from other similar resources, I generally search on Dribbble.
  2. If the client doesn't even have a brand, that's 100% design, so, if you're not comfortable with that, maybe it's time to reach for someone to do that part
  3. If the client has a brand, start with the low fidelity prototype, so, create the general idea and pages to make all the features that you thought early on the planning phase a reality
  4. After doing the low fidelity prototype, go through it with the client, putting comments on what should be fixed
  5. From the low fidelity, create the high fidelity prototype. Use the same brand guideline as the brand itself and follow the 60-30-10 rule (60% primary color, 30% secondary, 10% highlight) that you're going to be fine.

For the second one, you can use the way to learn things you have acquired with programming to learn other stuff too! So go YouTube, forums, etc -- you know how to search for things, that's our specialty. If you don't have a structured guide on that, feel free to check this article I wrote about self-learning.

Collapse
 
nobertobrown profile image
Norberth

Here are other sites for inspiration i found useful
behance & figma community

Collapse
 
odiiego profile image
Diego Paula

Que conteúdo maravilhoso! Parabéns!

Eu tenho muita vontade de começar no trabalho freelance mas sou extremamente inseguro com minhas habilidades. Vc tem mais dicas a respeito?
Talvez seja uma boa ideia pra um futuro post, a base técnica necessária para começar bem como freelancer. Adoraria ler sobre isso na sua escrita direto ao ponto bem voltada a prática.

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Falaa Diego! Pô, super feliz de ver um brasileiro aqui e muitoo obrigado pelos elogios ;)

Te dando um overview do meu caso, freelance foi a minha primeira experiência com programação real, sem ser projeto de aprendizado e foi essencial pra minhas contratações no futuro.

Na minha visão aqui, o que me ajudou muito a perder parte dessa insegurança no início foi ter algum dev experiente pra me ajudar nas etapas do freela -- então, quando eu orçava, ela revia os valores e me questionava quanto à porque em alguns casos, mesma coisa pra código e outros aspectos.

Isso fez com que eu sempre tivesse a segurança de que, se eu explodisse tudo sem querer, essa dev ia conseguir tocar o freela e entregar, sem deixar o cliente na mão. Nunca aconteceu, entretanto, e no final do primeiro freela, eu descobri que já estava em um nível legal de desenvolvedor sem saber.

Então acho que é isso, se você está bem no começo da jornada, vale chamar algum dev mais experiente pra te ajudar e resolver em conjunto -- além disso, é um networking excelente.

Se você já não está no super começo e quer tentar se aventurar sozinho, manda bala! A grande característica dos desenvolvedores é resolver o problema e no final, seu cliente não vai ligar se seu código tiver gambiarras pra funcionar.

Collapse
 
odiiego profile image
Diego Paula

Cara, ontem indo trabalhar fui ao seu perfil achar mais coisa para ler e acabei no “Creating a personal brand: How to sell yourself as a developer” no primeiro parágrafo percebi que já tinha lido o texto na semana passada e até favoritado no Chrome, é que naquele momento não percebi que vc era brasileiro, curti mto como vc consegue imprimir sua personalidade mesmo em inglês.

Quanto aos freelas. Boto muita fé que consigo fazer uns projetos legais, mas tenho esse receio em dar o primeiro passo, estou cursando ADS na Fatec SP(estou tendo meu primeiro semestre de Engenharia de software e me identifiquei muito com esse tópico no texto kk), acredito que a exp dos freelas me destacaria para as vaguinhas de Jr. e ainda me garantiria uma renda extra.

Planejo ler seus posts novamente, e pesquisar mais a respeito. Vou estabelecer a meta de me preparar para isso até o final do semestre. Tenho em mente alguns projetos que posso executar como voluntário para ganhar confiança.

Continue com seu trabalho! Está ótimo! Muito obrigado pelo seu tempo.

Thread Thread
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Boa demais, mano! Super feliz que meus textos tenham te impactado positivamente e te inspirado num geral 🚀

Com certeza estabelecer metas pra isso parece ser um ótimo caminho! Espero que você adore o curso de Engenharia de Software hahaha, foi uma das disciplinas que mais me motivou a produzir software profissionalmente -- abraços ao professor Alexandre Cardoso, por isso🫂

E sobre os freelas, com certeza vão te dar uma experiência bem valiosa pra vagas! Tem uma diferença enorme entre falar pra um recrutador que você já fez algum curso XYZ sobre desenvolvimento vs. criar uma solução pra um cliente real. O segundo realmente traz um peso muito maior ao teu conhecimento e é super visto com bons olhos!

Valeu demais pelos elogios e vamos nessa! 🚀

Collapse
 
chandra_pantachhetri profile image
Chandra Panta Chhetri

Oh wow you have done freelancing for 6+ years. Congrats! I have a lot of respect for freelancers because I understand the amount of work that goes into making websites, from planning requirements to designing to coding.

I would love to get your advice on the following questions

1) What's your high level process? More specifically, I am referring to the design & coding process.
2) Do you have a specific stack you use or does it vary based on the requirements? If it varies, what factors do you consider when deciding?
3) How long does it take you on average for a client? How many hours do you work a day? Often times I hear freelancers saying they work 4-5, I find it hard to believe as making custom websites take a lot of time.
4) What factors do you consider when deciding on the price?

Thank you!

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @chandra_pantachhetri! Great questions and thanks for the compliments haha

Now, let's go for the questions:

1) Generally, what I do in terms of design & coding goes in the lines of:

  • Get requirements
  • Create a low-fidelity prototype in Figma (or a high-fidelity prototype if it's something really small) and validate it with the client -- This usually is a iterative process of create, validate, refine and validate again
  • After validation is complete, start coding it!

This is a great approach because all the refactors are generally done in the designing phase, meaning that you won't have to re-do something because the client changed his mind (since he also agreed with the prototype).

2) I don't have a specific stack, but I do have some choices that I'm more familiar with (and thus, are more frequently chosen). I think here, the whole point is to go with something you know that can solve the problem and you're also familiar (at least a little) with.

3) This varies a lot on the scope of the project, so it's kind of hard to measure. But, to be honest, I think I never did a project that was less than a month, for example. In terms of hours, I generally take something around 3~5 hours when working on freelancing (and yes, that takes a lot of time hahaha, but the point here is, if you keep your client in the process, he's not going to mind if it takes time -- the problem occurs when you keep him out of the process).

4) Infrastructure, complexity and hourly rate are the top 3 factor to take in consideration, I think.

You're welcome! Feel free to leave any other doubts ;)

Collapse
 
chandra_pantachhetri profile image
Chandra Panta Chhetri

Thank you for taking the time to reply :)

1) I more or less have the same process - Requirements -> Wireframe -> Design -> Code. Great minds think alike!
3) Oh wow, less than a month. That gives me a bit of relief because I was under the impression that clients expected everything to be done in 1-2 weeks. You make a great point about keeping your client in the process.

Collapse
 
bmetsmith profile image
Brooke Metoxen-Smith

Thriving Technologist YouTuber suggested The Scrum Guidebook before one of my first freelancing projects and it helped tremendously. Organizing your self and the skills you use in a log to leave with the company was another thing I did as a professional courtesy. Really stand by your guns and be secure in the role as independent. I recommend keeping the freelancing roles hush to remain independent as a developer for as far as possible. Obviously citing ethics standard rule to enjoy!
I enjoyed your post, informative and concise!
Thank you!

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Awesome comment, @bmetsmith!

That part you mentioned to leave a log of the skills and tech used really resonated with me and it's surely an awesome practice! I usually do that as well, but forgot to mention.

And great reference there too, Scrum Guidebook seems like a great read, although, I haven't read that myself.

Thanks for the comment and see you around!

Collapse
 
anmolbaranwal profile image
Anmol Baranwal

Awesome read, Lucas 👏
I can see that you've put in a lot of effort. I never thought you would mention the client did not pay snippet lol. Websites like Upwork are very saturated in my opinion, because there are just too many people. The best way might be to build or showcase in public and someone might end up getting clients.

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Thanks a lot, @anmolbaranwal! That snippet always has me laughing, so, I couldn't leave it behind hahahaha.

And awesome tip too! Building in public can certainly be a way to showcase things and attract clients! Nice one! 🚀

Collapse
 
yosh_tandiary_4a80cac52c7 profile image
Yosh Tandiary

Hi @llxd , thanks for the comprehensive article. Can you share your insight on how to manage project budget ? Since this sometimes take times like 3 to 6 months, how you put into legal when can you received your payments?

Second, if you have to include some additional manpower, say you need 1 Frontend developer to help as well, how you calculate the budget?

Thanks

Collapse
 
llxd profile image
Lucas Lima do Nascimento

Hey @yosh_tandiary_4a80cac52c7! Thanks for the comment and excellent questions!

So, for the first part, I've usually did 50/50 -- 50% of the value is paid upfront, to cover initial development costs and to guarantee that, if the person doesn't pay you the rest and everything goes wrong, you received at least 50% of the agreed value. The other 50%, is paid at the end, when the solution is delivered. This can be sometimes a little agressive for really big budget freelances, since 50% of a lot is a lot, but, you can break down the percentages in more payments to help on that as needed.

For the second part, it's important that you plan features and time estimations together. The usual way I do that is: I estimate the time needed for each task and then I send the spreadsheet of estimations to the other developer, who is going to fill out their part of the work in terms of time.

After you receive it back, give it a quick look to see if the person did not overestimate or underestimated something (they can do that as well), sum the time, put your hourly rate in, and you're good to go.

For dividing stuff up, I've usually did 50/50 too, since the values of front-end and back-end stuff generally turn out to be close. But, in case that doesn't happen, you can pay accordingly to the percentage of the total value and that's perfect as well.

Some comments may only be visible to logged-in visitors. Sign in to view all comments.