[Progress/accountability thread] Digital product - web app (supported by freelancing and part time jobs in the meantime)

[Michal__]

I am making this thread to hold myself accountable and so that other users can see what I am doing. And to get suggestions.

Documenting what works and what doesn´t.

Currently I am developing a digital product with React, Node.js and MongoDB. I already know enough PHP and JS. Still gotta learn.

The current idea might be useful to a small amount of people. The thing is that it will be very easy to ADJUST accordingly!

Regarding freelancing - I do not like it. At all. I can get clients easily, the work sucks though. Will have to push through and when I get some savings I plan to delegate.

Regarding part time jobs - I don´t need one yet. Might need next month though.

I will be on vacation 12. 8. - 15. 8 so do not expect an update.

When I post what I charge for my freelancing services please keep in mind that I live in a country where you can live comfortably for 1k a month. Maybe even better than you would live with the average US salary in the states . For that reason it might be a good idea to leverage Upwork instead of getting all my clients from local websites.

Today I worked on a task by a client - a simple python app. Took me about 3 hours total. For an average days wage (about 50USD).

I am also negotiating a task to translate a website from CZ -> EN. Currently I am asking for 150USD for about 5 - 10 hours of work (the minimal hourly wage in my country is under 5USD!)

My 3A plan is make the app -> market it a not-so-big pool of people for a high price (I target a niche where they should all have enough money) ->if it doesn´t work out -> target a larger pool of people by modifying the app (creating a subapp from it ) slightly and lowering the price. The app can also become a very important part of my business system. -> potentially expand to more niches. -> if need to - my new(future) React skills can be used to get a better job to support my business.

There are not many other solutions to what my app solves. The few viable are either marketed to large institutions or too expensive. It is not an easy task though!

Soft confirmations of my product idea:
- my friend is trying to create a digital product that would really benefit from my app
- people want someone to build a similiar (but less meta ) app on the website where I get my clients once in a while
- a bit of asking around

I also wrote the almost-only competition an e-mail for collaboration (the real purpose of the email was to find out how well are they doing) and they were a bit too eager to collaborate. Which might not be a good sign. I do not know - might have to to a bit more digging to find out whether my idea is viable.

I have also cold emailed a few business about getting a job. That might work out. The reason why I am doing that is so I can take a break from freelancing. Potentionally.

Long term freelancing activities I do:
- well paid copywriting
- english subtitles for local MMA corporation
- filling a clients website with content (shit pay, I actually have only done that once and have not touched it since - should be able to work on that again if I need to)

I sometimes have terrible issues with procrastination on clients work and get into pretty bad mental states (I am working to solve that, so if you want to comment on that issue comment on the procrastination mainly, please - the mental health part is too private to discuss here and I am working on that).

 

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[FreakyThomas]

Hi and welcome on the forum!
Your plan seems great.
Can I ask where you're from? Czech republic I guess ? I didn't know the salaries were this low there, it's crazy!
How is your mental health a threat? Do you identity potential difficulties ahead regarding this issue and how to you plan to prevent or go around them ?
Enjoy your holidays!

 

[Michal__]

Hi and welcome on the forum!
Your plan seems great.
Can I ask where you're from? Czech republic I guess ? I didn't know the salaries were this low there, it's crazy!
How is your mental health a threat? Do you identity potential difficulties ahead regarding this issue and how to you plan to prevent or go around them ?
Enjoy your holidays!

Hi.
Yes, I am from Czech Republic. The salary thing is very interesting - many people commute to Germany or Switzerland everyday for a few hours and can make 3x our average salary just by working in McDonalds.
It is a goldmine for remote workers. There is a lot of paperwork associated with that though - when I get an order from a different country I have to file a monthly tax report instead of yearly.

I won´t go into details about my mental health here. You can PM me though.

 

[FreakyThomas]

Sure, I understand !
Keep us posted on how your app development is going ! If you can, start with an MVP so you can get more validation before spending too much time on it!

 

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[Michal__]

Update:
Freelancing:

• got a new client (web modifications + long term maintaince/error solving,
• doing a paid test article (3 pages) for a freelancing client (much better paid than the last one! - even writing 4 pages a day would be enough to make a living),
• my main copywriting client will be giving me only 1/3 of the work he used to because his business is not doing well ,
• tons of potential english translations that I can work on but have been too lazy to do - might offer my brother to do it for 2/3 of the price (I think me having to handle it, communicate with the client, bear responsibility, him not having to have a business license is well worth 1/3 of the hourly rate with)
• more potential negotiations I dont remember

TLDR: not doing well revenue-wise, but tons of new prospects, battling with laziness, have to try delegation

The website where I get most of my clients from has been a bit dry in the past week.
The CONTROL principle in action. Last year a second website where I used to get clients dried off completely.
Although I still think that this dry run is temporary and it will return to normal in a few days. Still gotta gain more control of where my clients come from.

Jobs:
got invited to a few programming interviews (full time and part time), one banking position, one web maintaince position (20hr weekly) and one shit-job (20hr weekly).

The shit job might actually be the responsible choice not to tax my brain too much.
Programming jobs can be draining and banking too (I would still take them, if I pass the interview/s)

Honestly I have no idea why I am getting so many interviews when I dropped out of my bachelors degree in the second year. (I sent out like 10 CVs, half of them invited me to interview)
Probably because I listed my business experience too ;-). Shows that people care about what you can do for them, not your degree.

Still have not heard back from the web maintaince position. He told me he is gonna call back. Maybe I asked too high of a price .

Fastlane:
Not much.

1 video on YT yesterday. Reviving a channel with 250 subscribers . The channel will be used for a) finding out whether my digital (sub)product is viable b) selling either the product and/or related services.

Might lead to me not having to do much programming and adjust to a different business model.

 

[Absar]

Update:
Freelancing:

• got a new client (web modifications + long term maintaince/error solving,
• doing a paid test article (3 pages) for a freelancing client (much better paid than the last one! - even writing 4 pages a day would be enough to make a living),
• my main copywriting client will be giving me only 1/3 of the work he used to because his business is not doing well ,
• tons of potential english translations that I can work on but have been too lazy to do - might offer my brother to do it for 2/3 of the price (I think me having to handle it, communicate with the client, bear responsibility, him not having to have a business license is well worth 1/3 of the hourly rate with)
• more potential negotiations I dont remember

TLDR: not doing well revenue-wise, but tons of new prospects, battling with laziness, have to try delegation

The website where I get most of my clients from has been a bit dry in the past week.
The CONTROL principle in action. Last year a second website where I used to get clients dried off completely.
Although I still think that this dry run is temporary and it will return to normal in a few days. Still gotta gain more control of where my clients come from.

Jobs:
got invited to a few programming interviews (full time and part time), one banking position, one web maintaince position (20hr weekly) and one shit-job (20hr weekly).

The shit job might actually be the responsible choice not to tax my brain too much.
Programming jobs can be draining and banking too (I would still take them, if I pass the interview/s)

Honestly I have no idea why I am getting so many interviews when I dropped out of my bachelors degree in the second year. (I sent out like 10 CVs, half of them invited me to interview)
Probably because I listed my business experience too ;-). Shows that people care about what you can do for them, not your degree.

Still have not heard back from the web maintaince position. He told me he is gonna call back. Maybe I asked too high of a price .

Fastlane:
Not much.

1 video on YT yesterday. Reviving a channel with 250 subscribers . The channel will be used for a) finding out whether my digital (sub)product is viable b) selling either the product and/or related services.

Might lead to me not having to do much programming and adjust to a different business model.

Hi. Would you mind sharing how you get your freelancing clients? From freelancing sites or approaching business directly or some other way? Thanks!

 

[Michal__]

Hi. Would you mind sharing how you get your freelancing clients? From freelancing sites or approaching business directly or some other way? Thanks!

A Czech freelancing site. Most of them, anyway.

 

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[Michal__]

Got a web dev full time position. (test task -> contract work "full time" after I complete it -> actual full time after a month)
Might receive more offers (one of them would be very highly paid if it worked out - German company) because I did well in other interviews.

Will be finally able to drop some freelance clients to focus on a digital product business.

Can work from home. The test task does not seem too hard . Work days will likely be less that 8 hours.

Will have to choose between clients so the work load is not too high. I do not have enough money saved up to delegate.

 

[Michal__]

Main job: web dev, small company - has the typical downsides of working in a small web dev company, badly chosen tasks by management etc.
But hey, I just do my 8 hours and then I am out. So it is ok. Will see how it develops - how they adjust to choosing tasks based on technical difficulty etc.

Freelancing: starting to delegate (2 semi-competent people), since doing services outside of my 8 hour shift is a shit business model. But managing people is a job too.
So I have something scaleable.

Product: I will probably go with something different that the product I had in mind.