I'm a self taught developer in who started as a freelancer at $10/hr and now easily earn $90k/yr

[WiseGirl]

I went from programming simple Wordpress templates and freelancing for $10/hr to working for a large enterprise as a Ruby on Rails developer with a decent salary and $100/hr side gigs which I routinely turn down so I can work on fast lane projects.

The stability and decent consistent income lets me work on those fast lane projects from a place of comfort. That being said, I'd love to share what I've learned along the way for anyone who's interested. I absolutely love to share and teach, so feel free to ask away.

I'm kind of in the same boat. Taught myself development, started out waaay too cheap, now I'm up to $125/hr+ and making a nice six figures yearly, BUT... I'm at this point where I feel like I can't make a lot more unless I start making some changes. I don't want to expand (don't want to manage people), and I can only work so many hours a day. Gotta get some sleep! haha Maybe I need to change my clientele or project focus. Do you feel like you've hit a wall, or how do you see yourself moving forward?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[garyfritz]

- Read about OO patterns, clean code, and do free work for a more experienced dev if possible just to learn from them, Pair Programming is AMAZING if you have a good partner

We didn't call it that "way back when," but I did a lot of Pair Programming back in the 70's, developing games that were waaay ahead of the curve. (At that time the hot arcade game was Pong. When I was in college my buddy and I wrote a 30-player realtime graphical spacewar game, just for fun.) Working with a good partner really is a great way to brainstorm ideas and sanity-check your work.

After hardcore programming for about 7 years (low-level OS stuff), I ended up going off into training, field support, management, etc. It's been decades since I did anything more than short scripts &etc. I've avoided a lot of wasted time by not learning 10 different languages that I never needed, but I would kinda like to get my chops back. I've been doing high-end technical training for 6 years and making very good money at it, and now I'm getting into Linux training. I haven't done much with Linux in years and I need to build up some skills there. Rails would be fun, but probably Docker, Ansible, etc would be more applicable for what I need first.

But the training gig is part-time and I'd like to spin up some side work. Would you say Rails is still the place to be, or are there other rising areas that you would recommend for somebody starting fresh?

Taught myself development, started out waaay too cheap, now I'm up to $125/hr+ and making a nice six figures yearly,

Nice. That's about where I am on my training work. If I could add some of that level of work into my open time, that would make things pretty smooth. What development are you doing for $125/hr?

 

[GoGetter24]

I'm up to $125/hr+ and making a nice six figures yearly, BUT...

Can we AMA you too?
How you got to command that rate, how you identified/discovered a specialty that would pay off like that...

 

[WiseGirl]

Haha Sorry. I don't want to hijack OP's thread.

Nice. That's about where I am on my training work. If I could add some of that level of work into my open time, that would make things pretty smooth. What development are you doing for $125/hr?

I'm doing web dev. Mostly websites, ecommerce, some small apps, custom WordPress plugins. (Though I am working on React Native now, and trying to get into some mobile stuff too! Super fun!)

Can we AMA you too?
How you got to command that rate, how you identified/discovered a specialty that would pay off like that...

It seems like everyone around here (southern California) charges no less than $100, so I just started asking for it. I have had potential clients say that they can't afford me, but for every one that walks away, there's someone that WILL pay my rate. (I've also had people turn me down and then come back later to have me fix someone else's work! haha) Downtime is very rare. I get a lot of referrals, and it seems like people will pay whatever I ask if a friend/colleague personally recommended me. I also do a lot of work for marketing agencies — they tend to be my fav clients because I don't have to deal with so much project management stuff.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GoGetter24]

there's someone that WILL pay my rate

Are there any patterns? What's a typical client (big business, small business etc)

It seems like everyone around here (southern California) charges no less than $100

Ah, I hear too that half must be spent on rent

 

[WiseGirl]

Are there any patterns? What's a typical client (big business, small business etc)

Haha It's all over the place. Everything. Startups, small businesses in every industry, a funeral home, home builders, big manufacturers, even a few things for bigger brands like Harley-Davidson and Carmax! My favorite clients are a few small marketing agencies that I've had ongoing relationships with. I was lucky that I worked at an agency myself for a while before I went solo and made some really great connections that have turned into a never-ending chain of referrals. I keep thinking I want to pick a niche, but I can't decide, and all the random stuff just keeps coming in. I'm just rolling with it for now. I've been 100% freelance for over 5 years and it has been beyond my expectations.

Ah, I hear too that half must be spent on rent

It varies a lot! I was really lucky to find a pretty cheap house a few miles from the beach! You might pay more for everything, but the tradeoffs are good — perfect weather almost all year, and being near ocean, mountains, desert... it's amazing. I used to live in Minnesota, and got really depressed in the winter. It's better here.

 

[adiakritos]

Haha Sorry. I don't want to hijack OP's thread.

Share freely! By all means! I don't see it as a hijack - I see it as a perfect transition for others to share and add value with different perspectives. This thread is turning out better than I thought it would!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[adiakritos]

I'm kind of in the same boat. Taught myself development, started out waaay too cheap, now I'm up to $125/hr+ and making a nice six figures yearly, BUT... I'm at this point where I feel like I can't make a lot more unless I start making some changes. I don't want to expand (don't want to manage people), and I can only work so many hours a day. Gotta get some sleep! haha Maybe I need to change my clientele or project focus. Do you feel like you've hit a wall, or how do you see yourself moving forward?

Yeah, I definitely feel you on that. My plan is to work my day job to get the steady income, and with my free time I work on fast lane projects. Generally speaking, I want to build many small businesses, like SaaS products for example, and grow them as much as possible. I've seen these SEO tools that people pay $7/mo for that seem relatively easy to build. I'm currently working on a project I've seen earn someone else $10k/mo. So that's where I'm starting. I'm also keeping a list of ideas to work on afterward. But I don't work on just 'ideas', I try to find things that are already doing well for someone else so I can put a spin on it, find their weaknesses and build on them..etc I don't like the lean startup approach where people get involved with testing brand new ideas that are unproven. I'm trying to make $100k/mo after taxes without needing to manage too many people, not necessarily create a mover and shaker with the highest tech or create something totally brand new. I don't mind being the dude that earns passive income through by owning a portfolio of businesses like a car wash, a sandwich shop, a parking lot, an apartment building with 6 units all rented out...etc as an analogy.

 

[adiakritos]

@WiseGirl

As far as Rails goes, it’s sorta fading it seems in terms of popularity. I still love it and it’s my go to for everything because it’s what I can develop with the fastest. The more I use it the faster I get. And if you go deep with it like building each of its parts from scratch you can become like a Rails wizard. I’m not a Rail wizard.. but it’s tempting to go down that rabbit hole!

My next tool of choice may very well he Elixir on Phoenix. It’s got a Rails-like syntax with speed close to Go. It’s still young but it has a strong fan base and it’s growing. That and more React. I love React!

 

[garyfritz]

Rails is still the big dog (Glassdoor lists about 15000 Rails jobs, vs. about 300-400 for Elixir) but it's very interesting to hear that Rails may be fading. I took a quick look at Elixir, and I think it would take some learning and mindshifts to pick that up. I think the closest thing to functional programming that I've ever used was LISP and Prolog, back in the 80's. I'll have to dig up some significant examples to get a feel for how the immutable approach works. Thanks for the pointer!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[adiakritos]

I'm starting that mastermind group I mentioned before.

Right now it's me and one other member who has experience building some businesses and has had successes that let him travel without having to work for a while. In other words he was able to build a totally automated business profitably. We've already had an initial meeting together and the dynamic was simply electric.

We're already fired up with the idea of growing a solid group, so if you're interested read about it on this fast lane thread.

SaaS Mastermind Group - Striving to $100k/mo