Front-end Developer: Moving from 9-5 to Freelancing?

[VicFountain]

I've been working 9-5 as a front-end dev for 2 months but I'm already sick of it. I think what I'm sick of is the fact that my company doesn't allow for remote working more than 1-2 days a week, plus the commute/staying in a cubicle. My company is in the financial sector so anything you could think of corporate enslavement, I experience it every day. The salary is decent. Way better than what I'd have made in my country. Plus, I dropped out of university in May and have no degree. But I have a portfolio and real-life projects and that's how I got hired.

But still, I feel like I should be moving away from this job and start working my a$$ off to make money freelancing. Is freelancing still a thing in your opinion or are Indian developers saturating the market with their 4$ an hour work? I think a distinction should also be made. Freelancing can be done both locally and online. What I'm talking about is online freelancing, not local freelancing (cold calling local companies, for instance).

 

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[inabox1]

It is absolutely an option. Indian devs spamming out cheap sites aren't even competition. People know that if they want a site, they can go to Fiverr, UpWork, or do it via Wix or Squarespace.

What we sell is results by providing real businesses with a hassle-free, no-BS approach that helps solve a business' problems in a real way.

It is absolutely possible.

 

[Martin Z]

I've been working 9-5 as a front-end dev for 2 months but I'm already sick of it. I think what I'm sick of is the fact that my company doesn't allow for remote working more than 1-2 days a week, plus the commute/staying in a cubicle. My company is in the financial sector so anything you could think of corporate enslavement, I experience it every day. The salary is decent. Way better than what I'd have made in my country. Plus, I dropped out of university in May and have no degree. But I have a portfolio and real-life projects and that's how I got hired.

But still, I feel like I should be moving away from this job and start working my a$$ off to make money freelancing. Is freelancing still a thing in your opinion or are Indian developers saturating the market with their 4$ an hour work? I think a distinction should also be made. Freelancing can be done both locally and online. What I'm talking about is online freelancing, not local freelancing (cold calling local companies, for instance).

Yes you can, but you need to approach it from a different angle. I don't think I'm as good as you in terms of web development yet(I've been teaching myself web development for about 5-6 months now).

Let me tell you about my experience.
I had sort of the same problem as you, but it was with my Instagram agency that I've been running for over a year now. In the beginning, I was targeting guys who could not afford my services. Groups like car washes(or valets in the UK), hair salons, massage parlors, and regular-small businesses. The problem with it was that these guys could barely afford any marketing for more than $500-$1000(90-95% of them) and we were charging $3,000 per month to start with. Most small business owners are barely scraping by with their 10-12 hour store days. So when they need some cheap-a$$ digital work, guess where do they go? Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer etc. Where you're competing with tens if not hundreds of thousands of people just like you for a tiny piece of the cake.

IN MY EXPERIENCE, the big problem with these sites is the perception aspect. Potential employers look for the best freelancers in their field for the absolute lowest cost. A very very small percentage of freelancers (maybe < 1%) are able to make a significant income from those websites. Because those services are commoditized there and customers are only looking for the lowest price. Can you make some small side-cash from them? Yeah. But I bet you're better than that. You're a member of this group for a reason, you're looking to have something that can potentially change your life forever, and not to barely scrape by and compete for $10 hour jobs with some Indians(no offense to Indians). Now don't get me wrong, if you're an employer who's looking to outsource boring parts of your business part time, then it makes sense to hire these guys as it'll be a win-win for both parties. You'll save money and they'll make a good income as $10-$15 an hour is a very good hourly salary in these 3rd world countries.

But if you're a business owner who's looking for high quality jobs, then I would stay away from them. Target potential customers who HAVE the money to pay you what you're worth.

And let's be honest, just because they know how to do some simple HTML stuff on Wordpress does not qualify them as full stack developers at all as you probably know. I mean there's a small connection there but it's a different ball game.

You need to be a Lamborghini in a world full of Toyotas in your space. Or you need to position yourself as one. There are so many people out there who are extremely good at what they do but suck at marketing, or they don't position themselves as experts hence they only attract low quality clients who are pain in the a$$. I've noticed that when you sell something more high ticket($3,000 and up), people are a lot better, they know what they want and respect you. Expensive customers > cheap customers.

You can start with your social circle. Ask business owners in your circle if they need any websites, and offer them 25% discounts for 1st time offers.
E.g Ask your friends on social media, and if you're able to sign a lead from their work, then give them a 25-33% commission if they give you clients (only if you sign them).

 

[VicFountain]

Yes you can, but you need to approach it from a different angle. I don't think I'm as good as you in terms of web development yet(I've been teaching myself web development for about 5-6 months now).

Let me tell you about my experience.
I had sort of the same problem as you, but it was with my Instagram agency that I've been running for over a year now. In the beginning, I was targeting guys who could not afford my services. Groups like car washes(or valets in the UK), hair salons, massage parlors, and regular-small businesses. The problem with it was that these guys could barely afford any marketing for more than $500-$1000(90-95% of them) and we were charging $3,000 per month to start with. Most small business owners are barely scraping by with their 10-12 hour store days. So when they need some cheap-a$$ digital work, guess where do they go? Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer etc. Where you're competing with tens if not hundreds of thousands of people just like you for a tiny piece of the cake.

IN MY EXPERIENCE, the big problem with these sites is the perception aspect. Potential employers look for the best freelancers in their field for the absolute lowest cost. A very very small percentage of freelancers (maybe < 1%) are able to make a significant income from those websites. Because those services are commoditized there and customers are only looking for the lowest price. Can you make some small side-cash from them? Yeah. But I bet you're better than that. You're a member of this group for a reason, you're looking to have something that can potentially change your life forever, and not to barely scrape by and compete for $10 hour jobs with some Indians(no offense to Indians). Now don't get me wrong, if you're an employer who's looking to outsource boring parts of your business part time, then it makes sense to hire these guys as it'll be a win-win for both parties. You'll save money and they'll make a good income as $10-$15 an hour is a very good hourly salary in these 3rd world countries.

But if you're a business owner who's looking for high quality jobs, then I would stay away from them. Target potential customers who HAVE the money to pay you what you're worth.

And let's be honest, just because they know how to do some simple HTML stuff on Wordpress does not qualify them as full stack developers at all as you probably know. I mean there's a small connection there but it's a different ball game.

You need to be a Lamborghini in a world full of Toyotas in your space. Or you need to position yourself as one. There are so many people out there who are extremely good at what they do but suck at marketing, or they don't position themselves as experts hence they only attract low quality clients who are pain in the a$$. I've noticed that when you sell something more high ticket($3,000 and up), people are a lot better, they know what they want and respect you. Expensive customers > cheap customers.

You can start with your social circle. Ask business owners in your circle if they need any websites, and offer them 25% discounts for 1st time offers.
E.g Ask your friends on social media, and if you're able to sign a lead from their work, then give them a 25-33% commission if they give you clients (only if you sign them).

The majority of this forum focuses on informative web design from what I see.

What I do is more web development for web apps (SPAs), using frameworks like React or Vue, plus back-end development with REST/GraphQL APIs.

I think making websites for companies isn't real added value in 2021(22). There are just so many people offering websites to companies and frankly unless you're offering some advantage and business/back-end logic, it's hard to differentiate yourself from other people who want to make a quick buck just by learning HTML/CSS/WordPress.

But there's definitely a way to add more value, as I said. I know a barber shop in my country with a website full of bugs. You basically can't make an order from their website cause their form is broken. That's something most people who money chase would not be able to fix because it requires more knowledge than just putting some copy on a h1 tag. To fix that kind of form you'd need to be a REAL problem solver, aka, why is the form not being triggered? Is a request being sent to the server? If so, is the response status ok or is there a server error? Is the button even submitting the form? This is what I call being a web developer. What I often see on this forum is more of a money chase attitude towards making websites but it's just my opinion and I hope not to offend anyone.

 

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[Martin Z]

The majority of this forum focuses on informative web design from what I see.

What I do is more web development for web apps (SPAs), using frameworks like React or Vue, plus back-end development with REST/GraphQL APIs.

I think making websites for companies isn't real added value in 2021(22). There are just so many people offering websites to companies and frankly unless you're offering some advantage and business/back-end logic, it's hard to differentiate yourself from other people who want to make a quick buck just by learning HTML/CSS/WordPress.

But there's definitely a way to add more value, as I said. I know a barber shop in my country with a website full of bugs. You basically can't make an order from their website cause their form is broken. That's something most people who money chase would not be able to fix because it requires more knowledge than just putting some copy on a h1 tag. To fix that kind of form you'd need to be a REAL problem solver, aka, why is the form not being triggered? Is a request being sent to the server? If so, is the response status ok or is there a server error? Is the button even submitting the form? This is what I call being a web developer. What I often see on this forum is more of a money chase attitude towards making websites but it's just my opinion and I hope not to offend anyone.

Yep, I agree. Just because you know basic HTML or you buy a Wordpress theme for $10.99 doesn't make you a developer. It does make it harder to standout as the entry levels are very low. You can take any 15 year old kid out of the street and he can call himself a website designer. It does stagnate the entry barriers, so you'll be facing a lot of competition for a tuna. However, that kid is not going to solve fullstack problems(like in your example with the buttons not submitting information, promises, processing payments and handling data in the backend), that problem solving ability is a lot more advanced and it's out of the league for a random Joe.

That being said, developing applications is different than creating basic websites. So that could be your opportunity if you're still into it. You'll also be able to charge premium prices more easily as you're niched down(you're not just a developer, but you're a web developer for real-life applications), especially around blockchain and financial services as these are just booming.

I think it's crazy that many small business owners still don't have a website in today's age.

 

[VicFountain]

Yep, I agree. Just because you know basic HTML or you buy a Wordpress theme for $10.99 doesn't make you a developer. It does make it harder to standout as the entry levels are very low. You can take any 15 year old kid out of the street and he can call himself a website designer. It does stagnate the entry barriers, so you'll be facing a lot of competition for a tuna. However, that kid is not going to solve fullstack problems(like in your example with the buttons not submitting information, promises, processing payments and handling data in the backend), that problem solving ability is a lot more advanced and it's out of the league for a random Joe.

That being said, developing applications is different than creating basic websites. So that could be your opportunity if you're still into it. You'll also be able to charge premium prices more easily as you're niched down(you're not just a developer, but you're a web developer for real-life applications), especially around blockchain and financial services as these are just booming.

I think it's crazy that many small business owners still don't have a website in today's age.

I see this all the time. People fall for the shortcut that does not exist. Web development is not easy and it's not a get rich quick strategy.

If you are not willing to code everyday for 10 hours multiplied for 14+ months, don't even bother. That's how long it took me to get good at it. The process is real.

The reward? Having a highly marketable skill. I always wanted to learn to code because once you cross the bridge, you have the power. Both in jobs and in business. Most people walk through the bridge for a few steps and then go back because they can't see the other side.

What made me push through was the memory of me being ditched by my ex business partner who was the technical founder while I knew 0 about coding. And so I was left alone and had to quit my business because I had no coding ability and no money. Having control of your project is crucial.

 

[Martin Z]

I see this all the time. People fall for the shortcut that does not exist. Web development is not easy and it's not a get rich quick strategy.

If you are not willing to code everyday for 10 hours multiplied for 14+ months, don't even bother. That's how long it took me to get good at it. The process is real.

The reward? Having a highly marketable skill. I always wanted to learn to code because once you cross the bridge, you have the power. Both in jobs and in business. Most people walk through the bridge for a few steps and then go back because they can't see the other side.

What made me push through was the memory of me being ditched by my ex business partner who was the technical founder while I knew 0 about coding. And so I was left alone and had to quit my business because I had no coding ability and no money. Having control of your project is crucial.

Yep. It's probably the best skill to have if you're into technology as the opportunities are endless and it's only going to grow.

I see this all the time. People fall for the shortcut that does not exist. Web development is not easy and it's not a get rich quick strategy.

If you are not willing to code everyday for 10 hours multiplied for 14+ months, don't even bother. That's how long it took me to get good at it. The process is real.

The reward? Having a highly marketable skill. I always wanted to learn to code because once you cross the bridge, you have the power. Both in jobs and in business. Most people walk through the bridge for a few steps and then go back because they can't see the other side.

What made me push through was the memory of me being ditched by my ex business partner who was the technical founder while I knew 0 about coding. And so I was left alone and had to quit my business because I had no coding ability and no money. Having control of your project is crucial.

And that's the strength for us developers. The entry barriers are very high and it takes a long time to get good at software development. Most average Joes who want to attempt learning it will quit after a week or two because they'll say: "Nah, this stuff is hard". I just did a quick google search on the total amount of developers, and the number is around 25-27 million as of now, so that's equivalent to around 0.3125% of the population. And I can guess that < 10 % of them are actually really good at what they do and are digging it so that brings the median even lower.

I think MJ said it in his first book that the internet is the best way to make an amazing business today. As it satisfies all the CENTS commandments easily.

When you're a good programmer, it's like selling shovels when everybody is digging for gold(like what you have in the stock market now with crypto and stuff, or whatever is trendy with get rich easy schemes). You bring value to computers which exist on their own and I definitely don't see that changing for at least 25-30 years.

 

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