[Israel.pm] Thoughts about Whether to Become Independant

[Uri Bruck]

Shlomi Fish wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> This is a new essay I wrote a few days ago, as a way to brainstorm an idea I'm 
> having. It's written from my personal perspective but has implications for 
> many other tech workers. Please read it if you have the time and nerve. Flame 
> away!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 	Shlomi Fish
> 
> =============================
> 
> It used to be commonly accepted that one has to find a permanent full-time
> (or possibly half-time) job where he works for a salary. Yet, recently I came
> to know many people who are already freelancers and work as consultants or
> contractors. In this essay I'm trying to brainstorm with myself about whether
> I should become one too, but of course, other people may wish to consider it.
> 
> -----------
> 
> Carla Schroder has written an excellent essay encouraging female programmers 
> to
> become freelancers:
> 
> http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/47357/index.html
> 
> Despite the fact that it is directed towards females, it makes a good read
> by men too, and what she says there is pretty much gender-neutral. Another
> factor that caused me to need to reconsider working as a salaried employee is
> Paul Graham's recent "Startup"-themed articles:
> 
> http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html
> http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html
> http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html
> http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html
> 
> Now in one of them Graham says that running a startup is hard, and one of
> the students that took it said something like "I imagined it would be hard,
> but I didn't think it would be that hard.". And here's the problem - I cannot
> handle pressure too well:
> 
> http://mirror.hamakor.org.il/archives/discussions/06-2006/3376.html
> (link in Hebrew).
> 
> So I'd rather not start a startup. But often what Paul Graham says is just
> negative aspects of working as a regular employee, rather than
> supporting starting your own startup.
> 
> This got me thinking that maybe I should try to make my living as a
> consultant, contractor and/or trainer or private teacher rather than work as
> a full time employee.
> 
> Here are some good and bad points (in no particular order) about such a 
> change:
> 
> 1. I'll have to do my own accounting, taxes, etc.
> -------------------------------------------------
> 
> Being a salaried employee has an advantage of not having to worry about taxes,
> because the company has an accountant that takes care of that. Being
> a freelancer means one will have to manage his own taxes, by reporting to
> an external accountant.
You need to get a short tutorial from an accountant once so you know how 
not to make a mess of things, and then spend some time with him once a 
year for the annual report. Whatever you pay him is deductible expense.
> 
> I find taking a care of my finances a bit intimidating at the moment (most
> probably due to the reputation it got in the media), but I guess I can learn
> how to do it. Many people are doing it, some of them not very intelligent,
> and there's always GnuCash for help.
> 
> 2. I can do what I choose
> -------------------------
> 
> Being a full time employee means that I have to work on one certain project
> that doesn't seem to end, day after day. 
It also means you don't need to spend time on marketing yourself, which 
is part of what a freelancer does.

You need to set yourself goals. What's your desired income? How many 
hours do you think you should work for this income?
If you can get enough work to meet these goals, and if you can do that 
work in the time you set for yourself, then you do what you choose.
Also keep in mind that as a freelancer you do not get paid vacation. 
Every single client believes that his project is the most important 
project you have.
You recently posted a long letter about job interviews, if you plan to 
subcontract work, then many individual projects will start with a mini 
job interview.
You will also need to spend time that you will not get directly 
compensated for, accounting, marketing.

> As someone once told me this "causes
> the mind to run in circles.". Naturally, I still have after hours and the
> weekend to do things I prefer to do (like working on open source software,
> essays, my web sites, etc.)
> 
> However, it's still not too much, and I often feel guilty for not working on
> the work's project more. While I'm very happy with my current workplace (see
> http://shlomif.livejournal.com/9563.html for instance), I find that I dislike
> monotonous work.
> 
> I used to like working between the times I was a high school student and the
> time I started studying in the Technion. However, back then, I was much less
> experienced and as a result constantly learnt many new things. During and
> after the Technion I became heavily interested and involved in the Free
> and Open Source Software world, which also proved to be very exciting. At most
> days, I used to do a lot of different things, while still being able to
> get a lot done.
> 
> Thus, right now a permanent job seems a bit like some kind of slavery. 
Wage slavery is one's default condition in a capitalist society. It is 
the condition where one must hire out his own labor merely to be able to 
be able to survive.
> Yes,
> it is interesting, but I feel that I'd rather not commit to doing the same
> thing every day for 8 hours.
> 
> Being a freelancer has the advantage of working on several different things,
> and often on areas that I'm interested on in general and in the moment. I can
> set up a good price, choose only projects that I know will not take too long,
There are some advantages to long duration projects. You secure work for 
a certain duration and spend less time marketing. Having regular or 
semi-regular clients is a good thing.

> work on different things as time goes by. I can also say "No." if something
> does not interest me or I have a bad feeling about the company.
> 
> 3. I would need good contacts and publicity
> -------------------------------------------
> 
> Audrey Tang, a very famous Perl hacker (see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Tang ) who now makes her living as
> a consultant, told me on IRC that as a consultant "The first year is always
> tough.". Before I joined my current workplace, my parents supported me (and
> I'm still living there - [Footnote: LiveAtHome]), and I also made some money
> off some programming gigs. Not enough to support myself without my parents,
> but I still made some.
> 
> I advertised my availability as a person for hire:
> 
> http://www.shlomifish.org/work/hire-me/
> 
> And received some interest, but nothing final. I received some interest also
> after I started working.
> 
> I already have some reputation among several Israeli and International
> circles, and with some work I can build more and become more well known.
> It is possible my web-site and other online resources currently have some
> usability or SEO problems that prevent me from being noticed. (For once,
> most of my site is in English, including the hire me page).
> 
> I guess everyone can get contacts, especially in today's Internetworked
> world. If I commit to be a freelancer for a long time (which I didn't so
> far, just was looking for a job), I might get lucky.

Contacts are good. But you also need to actively market yourself.
> 
> 4. More time to do the things I like:
> -------------------------------------
> 
> There are many things I like to do in my free time. See my homepage for
> a tentative list - http://www.shlomifish.org/ . Working as a freelancer will
> enable me to have more time to do the things I like.
> 
> In fact, while working on voluntary or independent projects is a burden when
> working as a full-time employee, it is a big advantage as a freelancer. That's
> because that way one gains newer insights about programming and the world,
> and also makes one gain some reputation.
> 
> Another point are various ideas I have for projects, that are both
> open-source, and have a good commercial value. After a full day or week
> of work, I'm too tired to do anything remotely commercial, but if I'm on my
> own, I believe I'll be more willing to try.
> And I also have a selfish interest
> in developing such solutions, because they may mean more revenue, and also
> may bring more consulting opportunities for me.
> 
> 5. I can see the world:
> -----------------------
> 
> A final note is that being a consultant, contractor and trainer means that
> I have greater opportunities to see the world: from conferences to
> offers abroad. A freelancer I know often has to travel abroad (on the
> expense of his clients) to give training courses, because his clients
> cannot find a better one.
I don't think most people do that.
> 
> I'd really like to visit different places, at least sometimes. I often feel
> that staying in one place is too boring. I also would like to go to
> conferences, even such that are not directly related to my specific job.
> 
> Conclusion:
> -----------
> 
> After I finished writing it, it seems that the advantages outweigh the
> disadvantages, which are very small. Obviously, I may be missing some things.
> Some people who read it are probably already freelancers, and most others
> probably interacted with them, and so may know things second hand.
> 
> Some people think that it may sometimes be too immature for someone to become
> a freelancer. But it's hard for me to tell whether this is the case for me.
> 
> Thoughts, anyone?
The first rule of wing walking : Don't let go of you've got until you've 
got hold of something else.
It's not always possible to follow that rule. Starting a company may 
take more than a full time job. Prodiving consultancy and developments 
services is something that you can do part time. If you can make move 
gradually it might be better.
You may need to do this in addition to your full time regular job at first.
I don't know your current job requirements, but you did write that you 
do it partly offsite. If your offsite commitment is to a number of hours 
rather than specific hours than you can use some of the "normal" working 
hours for contacting people.

The first step in becoming first employed is getting your first client. 
If you can get a regular client, even better.

Good Luck!

> 
> ----------
> 
> [LiveAtHome] - Note to American and other international readers: in Israel
> there is much less a taboo against children living in their parents' house
> even after graduation from college. I am not the only one in my age that
> lives in his parents' house.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Shlomi Fish      shlomif at iglu.org.il
> Homepage:        http://www.shlomifish.org/
> 
> Chuck Norris wrote a complete Perl 6 implementation in a day but then
> destroyed all evidence with his bare hands, so no one will know his secrets.
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-- 
Thanks,
Uri
http://translation.israel.net