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Freelancing and side-projects on Rails
The document reflects on the benefits of using Rails for freelancing, emphasizing its suitability for side projects and remote work. It discusses personal experiences, tools, and resources for staying current in the field, along with lessons learned and strategies for increasing rates. Additional topics for discussion include client management, productivity, and business aspects like marketing and contracts.
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Freelancing and side-projects on Rails
- 1. Freelancing on Rails: a year in review John McCaffrey @j_mccaffrey railsperformance.blogspot.com
- 2.
- 4.
- 5. Rails is perfectfor side-projects
- 6. Rails is perfectfor side-projects • Part of its dna from the beginning
- 7. Rails is perfectfor side-projects • Part of its dna from the beginning • Developers are comfortable coding end-to- end
- 8. Rails is perfectfor side-projects • Part of its dna from the beginning • Developers are comfortable coding end-to- end • Tool stack lends itself to remote work
- 9. Rails is perfectfor side-projects • Part of its dna from the beginning • Developers are comfortable coding end-to- end • Tool stack lends itself to remote work • Agile/iterative, focused on small tasks
- 10. My setup* * figureout your own thing
- 11. My setup* • 2-10hrsper week * figure out your own thing
- 12. My setup* • 2-10hrsper week • remote development * figure out your own thing
- 13. My setup* • 2-10hrsper week • remote development • bill as 1099 * figure out your own thing
- 14. My setup* • 2-10hrsper week • remote development • bill as 1099 • initial rate = (salary / 2080) * 1.5 * figure out your own thing
- 15. My setup* • 2-10hrsper week • remote development • bill as 1099 • initial rate = (salary / 2080) * 1.5 • more than one project * figure out your own thing
- 16.
- 17. Why work more? •Focus on stuff that I like • Reports, PDF generation • Performance tuning • Design/Scope management • 3rd party integration
- 18. Skillz • Hosting, server,database • Deployment, monitoring • Testing, QA • Sales and business models
- 19.
- 20. Staying current • ruby5,railscasts, learnivore, nettuts
- 21. Staying current • ruby5,railscasts, learnivore, nettuts • Rails Rumble, ruby-toolbox, rubygems.org
- 22. Staying current • ruby5,railscasts, learnivore, nettuts • Rails Rumble, ruby-toolbox, rubygems.org • ChicagoRuby, WindyCityRails, RailsConf
- 23. Staying current • ruby5,railscasts, learnivore, nettuts • Rails Rumble, ruby-toolbox, rubygems.org • ChicagoRuby, WindyCityRails, RailsConf • Rails 3-way, railstutorial.org, railsforzombies
- 24. Staying current • ruby5,railscasts, learnivore, nettuts • Rails Rumble, ruby-toolbox, rubygems.org • ChicagoRuby, WindyCityRails, RailsConf • Rails 3-way, railstutorial.org, railsforzombies • Network of friends
- 25. Tools • Freshbooks, paypal,google apps, blogger • Teamviewer, skype, google chat, campfire • github, heroku, engineyard, assembla • Macbook, rvm, screen, Rubymine, vmware
- 26.
- 27. Goodyear • learned aton • boosted my confidence • met amazing people • since raised my rate 20%
- 28.
- 29. Thanks! @rayhightower, @chaddow, @avdi, @seacreature,@jasonpearl, @rbates, @windycityrails, @railsconf, @wayneeseguin, @scottmarlowe John McCaffrey @j_mccaffrey railsperformance.blogspot.com Bof talk at 8pm table 4
- 30. Additional topics • Managingclients • Managing time (being productive) • Tools for the job • Business stuff (marketing, contracts, sales) • Resources and inspiration
Editor's Notes
- #2 How I got started, not necessarily advice for you.\nQuick show of hands:\nHow many people have ever had a side-project, that you got paid for?\n\nHow many still have one that you occasionally help out on?\n\n\n
- #3 taking pictures at the @bluebox party\n
- #4 taking a picture of some of the schwag\nincluding a ticket for the scores gentleman’s club\n
- #5 the guy next to me says \n“throw some money in there, show em how we roll”\nWe laugh, we drink, we talk about PDF generation in Rails\n\nCould I help with a little clean up? just take a look\nwe exchange info, and 3 weeks later I’m committing to his project\nand have worked around 2-5hrs on his project each week since.\n
- #6 \n
- #7 \n
- #8 \n
- #9 \n
- #10 1099 let’s me get some tax advantages on things I spend money on anyway\n\nDon’t take this as legal or tax advice. I’ve only been doing this for a year...odds are, I’ll need to make changes to my setup\n\nSince the first project, I’ve been asked to ‘help out’ on 6 different projects\n\n
- #11 1099 let’s me get some tax advantages on things I spend money on anyway\n\nDon’t take this as legal or tax advice. I’ve only been doing this for a year...odds are, I’ll need to make changes to my setup\n\nSince the first project, I’ve been asked to ‘help out’ on 6 different projects\n\n
- #12 1099 let’s me get some tax advantages on things I spend money on anyway\n\nDon’t take this as legal or tax advice. I’ve only been doing this for a year...odds are, I’ll need to make changes to my setup\n\nSince the first project, I’ve been asked to ‘help out’ on 6 different projects\n\n
- #13 1099 let’s me get some tax advantages on things I spend money on anyway\n\nDon’t take this as legal or tax advice. I’ve only been doing this for a year...odds are, I’ll need to make changes to my setup\n\nSince the first project, I’ve been asked to ‘help out’ on 6 different projects\n\n
- #14 1099 let’s me get some tax advantages on things I spend money on anyway\n\nDon’t take this as legal or tax advice. I’ve only been doing this for a year...odds are, I’ll need to make changes to my setup\n\nSince the first project, I’ve been asked to ‘help out’ on 6 different projects\n\n
- #15 why would you possibly want to work another 2-10hrs a week?\n\nfocus on areas of expertise, things that are interesting to me\n\nstuff I would have been doing to stay current anyway\nlike getting paid to write a blog post\n\n
- #16 \nworking with different versions of ruby, rails, database\nno longer know just one tool\nengineyard, heroku, slicehost, and self-hosted\nunderstand the basic need, and different tools for the job\n\n
- #17 Now that I’ve seen a direct relationship between my knowledge, speed, and the rate that I can charge, I invest more in my knowledge\n\nI feel that I need to be better and faster than the last guy\n\nI’m not the expert, I just know where to find the info\nkeep an eye on stackoverflow, linkedin, elance, odesk\n
- #18 Now that I’ve seen a direct relationship between my knowledge, speed, and the rate that I can charge, I invest more in my knowledge\n\nI feel that I need to be better and faster than the last guy\n\nI’m not the expert, I just know where to find the info\nkeep an eye on stackoverflow, linkedin, elance, odesk\n
- #19 Now that I’ve seen a direct relationship between my knowledge, speed, and the rate that I can charge, I invest more in my knowledge\n\nI feel that I need to be better and faster than the last guy\n\nI’m not the expert, I just know where to find the info\nkeep an eye on stackoverflow, linkedin, elance, odesk\n
- #20 Now that I’ve seen a direct relationship between my knowledge, speed, and the rate that I can charge, I invest more in my knowledge\n\nI feel that I need to be better and faster than the last guy\n\nI’m not the expert, I just know where to find the info\nkeep an eye on stackoverflow, linkedin, elance, odesk\n
- #21 Now that I’ve seen a direct relationship between my knowledge, speed, and the rate that I can charge, I invest more in my knowledge\n\nI feel that I need to be better and faster than the last guy\n\nI’m not the expert, I just know where to find the info\nkeep an eye on stackoverflow, linkedin, elance, odesk\n
- #22 in the process of managing these side projects, I’ve become more efficient in my 9-5, and have brought new ideas in\n
- #23 raising my rate has allowed me to\n plan a vacation\n buy an enormous swingset for my kids\ngive back to the ruby community\n\n
- #24 I had told myself that after I got some money through a side project, I could buy a new camera, but I got my kids a swingset instead\n
- #25 If people are interested, maybe we can do a birds of a feather on freelancing and side projects\n
- #26 wealthy freelancer book\n