from Hacker News

Ask HN: How was your experience moving from fulltime job to being self employed

by mraza007 on 9/5/24, 4:10 AM with 11 comments

• by gregjor on 9/5/24, 10:08 AM

  Reframe a bit. Self employment describes running a business that employs you. It’s does not describe an identity, something you can “be.” I know that seems pedantic but experience tells me that language matters. Think in terms of what you do rather than what you are to keep it actionable.

  I got laid off (company went bust) back in 2009 and started freelancing. I got some referrals from friends and just kept going. I found plenty of work, mostly word of mouth and with long-term relationships with customers.

  I never had much trouble finding customers. I focus on solving business problems. I prefer working on legacy code (which more often means “abandoned” rather than “old”). I don’t specialize in any particular stack or technology, I figure out how to fix things.

  I used to get quite a bit of overflow work from software dev shops and design/marketing agencies. They either need work or they have done the prospecting and give an intro. If I had to start over that’s where I would start.

  In 2014 I signed up with an agency to represent me. They do marketing, legal, customer service, invoicing, payment. I have found that worth their percentage because they built a premium brand that benefits me.

  I have some articles about freelancing on my web site, link in profile.

• by bruce511 on 9/5/24, 5:39 AM

  When you're an employee the work comes to you. Your job is to execute the work. You get paid.

  When you are self-employed you have to go find the work. Your short, and long, term success will be 100% based on your ability to do this task. Fail here and you fail. Period.

  Now you get to execute the work. The specification will be light on detail. It's likely underfunded. Your customer will keep moving the goalposts and will resist funding changes to match. Your short, and long, term success will be 100% based on your ability to do this task. Fail here and you fail. Period.

  Once the work is complete you will then spend significant time and effort getting paid. Some customers won't pay. Your short, and long, term success will be 100% based on your ability to do this task. Fail here and you fail. Period.

  You also get to do all those tasks you considered beneath you as an engineer. Like Support, Documentation, Accounts. Taxes. Making coffee. Answering the phone. Cleaning up. All of which are basically unpaid.

  On the upside this process will teach you about business. Marketing. Invoicing. Quoting. Payment schedules. Support. Documentation. And, yes, accounting. You'll discover that only a fraction of your time is "working" (aka coding).

  If nothing else, if you fail, it'll make you a much better employee, better able to understand what everyone (non coders) do, and why they matter. Your appreciation of marketing and sales folk will soar. You'll see the receptionist, cleaner, coffee maker with a new set of eyes.

  Being self-employed is rewarding. But it isn't about coding - it's about everything else.

• by mbrain on 9/5/24, 10:08 PM

  Its amazing so far! I'm unemployable, I don't like commiting to a company, working in the same project for longer than 6 months, maximum is like 12 months if its a good one. I like working and collaborating with people but I hate all the corporate BS, team buildings, scrum meetings, meetings to set other meetings. And I hate working for 40 hours.

  I started my career as a freelancer, then had to take a fulltime job to move countries and get permanent residency, switched back to freelancing 2 years ago. Now I'm working around 20-30 hours per week and make 2x than my first full-time job.

  My fulltime jobs were "very flexible" and fully remote after the covid but I always had to be online at specific times or had to pretend that I'm online. Now I'm super flexible, I can work 4 hours in the morning and enjoy rest of the day off, or work 3 days and take rest of the days off and I don't have to report to anyone about these.

  I'm fine even if I don't have a job for 6 months or so, I travel a lot with a campervan. I don't have any debt or kids. I've been always lucky with getting clients somehow. So I guess thats a luxury.

  TLDR; I love it but finding a stable stream of clients might be stressful.

• by KingOfCoders on 9/5/24, 4:56 AM

  Rough.