Freelancing and Open Source

The Independent Software Developer

Peat [email protected]

@peat

http://i26r.com/

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

mailto:[email protected]


http://i26r.com

http://i26r.com

Orientation

• Introductions!

• Freelancing and Open Source

• Marketing and Sales

• The Bottom Line


Who am I, and what the heck am I doing

here?


Who are you?


Employment vs Freelancing

• Employee: employer owns copyrights and inventions, even during “down time” and outside of the work place.

• Freelancer: you explicitly control the boundaries of what your clients own.


Employment vs Freelancing

• Employee: limited free time outside of employment activities to contribute to open source projects.

• Freelancer: optimize contracts and schedule to provide time and resources for open source hacking.


What is a Freelancer?

• You are offering your talent for solving a particular type of problem to lots of people ... in exchange for money.

• You are responsible for how your software gets built, and for the quality of your work.


Freelancing Pros

• Flexible Schedule

• Flexible Location

• Flexible Projects

• Flexible Flexibile Flexible Flexible Flexible

• “Flexible” starts to look and sound a bit funny, doesn’t it?


Freelancing Cons

• rot13(“VEF”)

• No guaranteed income.

• Distinct lack of cultural appreciation for misanthropic behavior.

• Most clients don’t “get” the open source world.


Separation of Concerns

• Concerns about money are satisfied by landing contracts with clients.

• Concerns about open source are satisfied by building time into your schedule to contribute to open source.


Legal Entanglements

• Most contracts are “work for hire.”

• Contract should specifically say that you will disclose all pre-existing licenses.

• The (L)GPL discussion will be exciting. Get it out of the way up front.


The (L)GPL Argument

• You don’t pay for the software, unlike Windows, Oracle, Photoshop, etc.

• You can fix fundamental problems yourself, unlike Windows, Oracle, Photoshop, etc.

• The easy trade for getting amazing free tools that are user serviceable: if you fix something, you give it back to everyone else.


Dirty Words

• Marketing: understanding who wants what.

• Selling: turning someone into a client.

• Marketing + Selling = LARPing in a suit.


Showing Up is Half the

BattleTuesday, May 3, 2011

Marketing

• Who’s using your technology? Go to user groups and mailing lists to find out.

• Are they hiring freelancers? Just ask.

• Can they pay enough to make it worth your while? Just ask.

• No? Can you try another technology?


Selling

• Communicate at the person’s level

• Establish that you are trustworthy

• Engage with their goals and interests

• Show that you can help them

• Give them an easy choice


Communicating on Their Level

• Reflection

• Reinforcement


UPLEVEL INTERDEPARTMENT

SYNERGY!!!


SCALABLE RESTFUL WEB SERVICES!!!


Reinforce Their Goals

• I’d love to hear more about ...

• Is this a good example of ... ?

• What can I do to make this kick ass?

• Can you tell me more about your business?


EstablishTrust

• Offer a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

• Bring one to your first meeting.

• Take (light) notes during the meeting.


Establish Interest

• Take people out for coffee, and pay for it.

• After each conversation, take five minutes to search Google for related information.

• Explicitly say you’re interested, and ask about “next steps”


Show Them You Can Help

• Ideal situation: show off a previous client who you solved the same sorts of problems for, step your prospect through the solution.

• Backup situation: work through a problem by asking questions, offering solutions, and responding positively to mistakes.


Make It An Easy Choice

• You’ve established that you’re interested, talented, and motivated.

• Time and money are the hard limits for a project: give them a timeline and cost.


Finding Your Rate

• You are the seller: you need to make sure your costs are covered to ensure that you are able to do the things you want to do.

• Client is the buyer: they have specific problems to solve, with an interest in doing it as effectively as possible within their budget and timeline.


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

Income x (1 + Tax Rate) / Billing Ratio / Working Hours


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

$50,000 x (1 + 0.3) / 0.7 / 1500 = $61.90 per hour


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

$50,000 x (1 + 0.3) / 0.7 / 1500 = $61.90 per hour


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

$50,000 x (1 + 0.3) / 0.7 / 1500 = $61.90 per hour


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

$50,000 x (1 + 0.3) / 0.7 / 1500 = $61.90 per hour


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

$50,000 x (1 + 0.3) / 0.7 / 1500 = $61.90 per hour


Cost Based Rate

• Income

• Tax Rate

• Billing Ratio

• Working Hours

$50,000 x (1 + 0.3) / 0.7 / 1500 = $61.90 per hour


Gut Check Estimates• Establishes timeline, and it’s a communication

tool for sorting out features.

• Consider: understanding, planning, coding, releasing, supporting.

• Gut number is the low end.

• Confidence as 0.1 (extremely low) to 1.0 (extraordinarily easy).

• Low / Confidence = High


The Easy Choice• Clients need a project completed by a certain

date, within a certain amount of money.

• Convert time estimates to weeks or iterations to get a delivery date. Hours are a difficult unit to negotiate over.

• Multiply high estimate by cost based rate to get the price of the contract.

• Negotiate on confidence score.


Recap

• Freelancing gives you more power over intellectual property and time management.

• Think about marketing and sales in roleplaying terms.

• Understand how much you need to make.

• Negotiate on your “confidence” basis.

• Showing up is half the battle!


Thank you!

Peat [email protected]

@peat

http://i26r.com/




http://i26r.com

http://i26r.com

Freelancing and Open Source

Technology

rate income x

open source marketing

open source projects

guaranteed income

open source hacking

open source world

x fundamental problems

limited free time