I have worked as an independent consultant on and off and it wasn't until recently that I started to host client applications. It's extra income, builds some loyalty and leads to additional paid work. However, if something goes down you are responsible to ensure it comes back up. At times clients assume that it was a bug in your work and don't want to pay.
This is a nightmare when the pipeline is complex and deployments have to be on a specific cloud provider. I've started to migrate clients onto their own setup as I prefer focusing my time on building applications and getting clients up and running on their own system versus playing devops.
I had answered a few questions related to freelancing on my #AMA that you might find useful.
Hey there! I'm a Software Engineer with a passion for helping others, which I do via YouTube usually. Feel free to reach out with business inquiries or if you'd just like to talk shop. Happy coding!
Thanks for the response, Nick! That makes sense, if I were to take on freelancing I had planned to start out targeting small business owners, particularly restaurant owners.
I don't think there would be too many complex scenarios I'd have to fix since the sites would be fairly simple in nature and providing longer term support would bring extra income, loyalty, and possibly more paid work as you said. Then again, I'm wondering if it's worth it as you mentioned because I also would prefer spending time building the websites/apps instead of maintaining them. I guess if my projects in the beginning are not too complex then having that residual income and keeping in communication with past clients (which probably leads to more word-of-mouth business), then it wouldn't be a bad idea. On the flip side of that maybe I would be better off spending that time working on new client projects as they'd be more profitable. Decisions, decisions.
Read through your AMA, a lot of great tips on there!
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I have worked as an independent consultant on and off and it wasn't until recently that I started to host client applications. It's extra income, builds some loyalty and leads to additional paid work. However, if something goes down you are responsible to ensure it comes back up. At times clients assume that it was a bug in your work and don't want to pay.
This is a nightmare when the pipeline is complex and deployments have to be on a specific cloud provider. I've started to migrate clients onto their own setup as I prefer focusing my time on building applications and getting clients up and running on their own system versus playing devops.
I had answered a few questions related to freelancing on my #AMA that you might find useful.
Thanks for the response, Nick! That makes sense, if I were to take on freelancing I had planned to start out targeting small business owners, particularly restaurant owners.
I don't think there would be too many complex scenarios I'd have to fix since the sites would be fairly simple in nature and providing longer term support would bring extra income, loyalty, and possibly more paid work as you said. Then again, I'm wondering if it's worth it as you mentioned because I also would prefer spending time building the websites/apps instead of maintaining them. I guess if my projects in the beginning are not too complex then having that residual income and keeping in communication with past clients (which probably leads to more word-of-mouth business), then it wouldn't be a bad idea. On the flip side of that maybe I would be better off spending that time working on new client projects as they'd be more profitable. Decisions, decisions.
Read through your AMA, a lot of great tips on there!