Comment by exelius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by exelius | Hacker News Reader

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're not a freelancer, you're a contract developer. I make a lot of money off of guys like you, because I have relationships with the guys who ultimately hire you. They're willing to pay me $120/hr for a developer because they trust me to fix things if they get fucked up. I pay a staffing firm $90/hr, and the staffing firm pays you $65/hr. You get fucked over because you're playing the wrong game; clients don't pick up the phone and call you because you do good work, they pick up the phone and call you because they remember who you are and like you.

If you were really a "freelancer" or "consultant" instead of a contract developer, you would have these relationships yourself. You would be able to convince your clients to cut out the middleman and pay you $100/hr instead of paying me $120/hr. But first, you have to build that trust with the people ultimately paying for your services. This generally means upping your game with respect to salesmanship, which isn't something you can "hack". It also means turning down opportunities that may pay well, but don't offer any opportunity for building relationships.

Again, that's the thread that's missing here: personal relationships. Get to know your clients, understand what needs they have, and make them like you enough as a person that they think "Hey, I need a developer. I wonder if ryannevius is available?" You and your friend had a hard time starting an agency because you don't have a pool of potential clients because you don't have that symbolic rolodex of people you can call. You're selling professional services, and professional services are sold through person-to-person relationships.

The tone of this comment sounds a little aggressive, but, in my experience, the following is the truest advice:

> clients don't pick up the phone and call you because you do good work, they pick up the phone and call you because they remember who you are and like you

People want to work with people they like (and to like them they first need to meet them).

They'd rather work with people they like, that do good work, than people they like that do bad work, but given the choice, they will pick people they know and like, that are mediocre, over "superstars" that they don't know and/or don't like.

Which means

- if you don't have direct access to the final ("real") customer, you're mostly wasting your time

- extra hours spent turning out stellar work would be a 1000 times more productive/useful getting to know your clients on a personal basis

- relationships with "customers" will only last as long as the people you're interacting with stay at the company; when people change companies, it's sometimes more effective to follow them to their new home than try to build a new relationship with the new team at the old company

- intermediaries are vampires; do not go near them. They fear light: expose them and they will flee.

Good luck.

I didn't mean to come off as aggressive :) But the reality is that there is way more money in knowing people than in doing work. The sooner in your career you can make the transition from being someone who creates value by doing work to someone who creates value by knowing people, the happier you will be and the more control you will have over your destiny.

I think knowing people is a component, but I wouldn't generalize. It works for you, but I disagree that it's a rule.

My aunt knows a sh*tload of people but doesn't get any jobs.

I'm a freelancer and deal directly with the client whom—admittedly—hire me because they like me BUT, I can also get the job done.

I like to think of myself as someone who takes pride in their craftsmanship (whatever the craft may be); I'd imagine many developers feel similarly. As such, this advice stings. But it really has the ring of one of life's "hard truths", and so thanks for being direct (in both of your comments).

It shouldn't sting! Doing a good job is the first step in building a relationship, so you should absolutely work hard and take pride in your work. I'm only able to leverage my relationships to make easy money because my clients trust the quality of my work (and I ensure the quality of the people who are hired through me). Doing good work builds trust, but unfortunately many people stop at that.

I'd recommend reading The Trusted Advisor [1]. It was originally written with management consultants in mind, but it is a good guideline in general for how to walk the line between personal and work relationships. Basically, you should look at your clients as you would a friend: be their friend, know their problems, and help them with those problems. Become invested in them and their success, and they will invest in you. Business is ultimately about people, but I feel many technical workers focus on the technology and get screwed over as a result.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Trusted-Advisor-David-Maister/dp/0...

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll be sure to check it out.

But the reality is that there is way more money in knowing people than in doing work.

There is truth in this, in that knowing people is a prerequisite for getting to the higher tiers of income. If you don't know people to get good gigs, you will inevitably have to go via one or more intermediaries who do, and they will all take a cut. How much of a cut depends on your business skills, not your technical skills.

A related but distinct issue is that clients who hire via agency-style intermediaries tend to have a ceiling on how much they are willing to pay, much as employers do. Even if the quality of your work would fit above that ceiling, it will be almost impossible to break through as someone else's hired help or as one freelancer among many on an agency's books.

On the other hand, once you have a few good contacts in your personal network and a worthwhile professional reputation as an independent, the "new business" side of things can almost start to take care of itself. Then if you're also good at getting the job done, you can either make significantly more as an individual consultant or start to build your own business and probably one way or another become some sort of intermediary yourself, and either way you'll have a lot more options than someone who talks a good talk but doesn't have the technical skills to walk the walk.

>> It also means turning down opportunities that may pay well, but don't offer any opportunity for building relationships.

Spot on. This is the hard truth.

My experience has been similar this week. I was in a situation to decide between Opportunity (with Higher rate) vs Opportunity (Building relationship). Glad I chose the second option.

Exelius, I don't see the contact info in your profile. Is there a way to contact? My email is in my profile.

>But the reality is that there is way more money in knowing people than in doing work.

Unless, you know, you enjoy doing the actual work more than being essentially a manager/middleman.

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