Comments on: Mistakes I Made as a Freelance Web Developer and How To Avoid Them

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:52:10 +0000

Well, every human being makes mistakes. I am also a developer and have been in the situation of charging too less, but managed to get rid of that stuff. I still have the problem with taking breaks too often, though.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:43:30 +0000

2 years later and I have now read your post, very valuable information thanks!

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:51:05 +0000

Good luck then Jenny! Some of these habits/mistakes are hard to break!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:08:16 +0000

omg I do #4 and never get anything done. lol. i should stop.

By: Ditch

Ditch — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:03:52 +0000

Definitely good advice. I find that time management is possibly one of my biggest issues. Especially when you work from home, it gets hard to separate work from life.

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:32:29 +0000

@Pete – I am very honored! Thanks very much!

By: Pete White

Pete White — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:24:51 +0000

I stumbled on this article as my ‘one last stumble’ lol

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:59:52 +0000

@Mats – I experience this problem too! It was difficult, at first, for my family (particularly my young son) to understand that I was working when in my office at home. All my son knows is that I ‘press buttons’ all day. In a technical role/writing role, concentration is very important, at least for me, as my brain is normally several steps of my fingers so losing my train of thought is very costly.
I have resorted to locking my office door now. It’s tough, but I had to do it!
Great comment Mats – thanks!

By: Mats Hellman

Mats Hellman — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:53:15 +0000

#4 I think is something anyone working from home should think about. I sometimes do some work from home due to various reasons and when I do I’ve noticed the same habits you do.
Another thing is that when working from home, try to get parents/friends etc to understand that you are actually working. Just because your at home you can’t go for a walk, or go shopping etc. That has proven to be the most difficult thing to do.

By: Drew Douglass

Drew Douglass — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:20:34 +0000

@Tom-

Glad to hear it works out well for you, thats awesome

I guess I just find that I end up doing so much work when I do family projects that I actually end up losing a lot of what would have been good income and big clients. I dont mind helping, but I usually get stuck helping much more than I wanted to and it can get in the way of my “Real Work”.

But hey, if it works for you, then more power to you.

Best of luck,

Drew

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:34:29 +0000

@Simon:

I’m a high school student that makes a bit of money on the side by making websites. I don’t have the resources (or the talent) to advertise my skills at large, so my clients are typically parents of my good friends (which counts as friends). I’ve done at least 3 websites for parents and have yet to have a problem with them. It may take a bit more work to balance between the client and friend mode, but I’ve found that it’s quite doable.

-Tom

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:25:44 +0000

@Tom – have you personally built a site for your friends or family? How did it go?

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:48:29 +0000

Hello. Thanks to Drew for the insightful and helpful article. Even though I disagree with the “Don’t do sites for family/friends” thing, the article here has given me a lot of good advice.

Thanks,
Tom

By: Drew Douglass

Drew Douglass — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:42:40 +0000

@Asif-
Thanks very much for your comment and kind words, I found it was really helpful for me to write this as it helped me notice a lot of my flaws. Best of luck to you with your future business.

Regards,

Drew

By: Asif Shah

Asif Shah — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:16:13 +0000

Drew I liked this article because you have said it how it is. Being independent is tough I expect, I have not been independent myself but I do want to start my own business one day. So your advice is good for the future.

By: Drew Douglass

Drew Douglass — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:22:54 +0000

@Michael-Thanks a lot for your input. Your 25% payment term is a smart one, I use a similar setup myself for billing.

@Sam-Im really glad the article was helpful to you, thanks for your comment.

Regards,

Drew

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:12:42 +0000

Drew, great info, thank you for your honesty concerning your mistakes. It helps to have first hand information from someone who has walked the talk. Your sage advice will be of much help concerning fees from clients.

Sam

By: Michael Cruse

Michael Cruse — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:23:14 +0000

Good advice that everyone who freelances should read. I agree with your comment about contracts. They are critical and should include client responsibilities.

I tried to get 25% payment upfront and had scheduled milestone payments through out any project. This way if the client did not pay timely, I stopped working on their project. This was clearly spelled out in the contract.

When I was first starting out in my IT career, I took too many deals in the shorts and got very aggressive about billing and collecting for services I performed.

By: Drew Douglass

Drew Douglass — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:44:07 +0000

@Brian and Simon-

I couldn’t agree more, family is a very touchy subject that really depends on the situation. I would lean towards avoiding family projects personally.

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:59:57 +0000

@Brian – I guess this depends on what friends and family, but I do know where you are coming from. When business goes well, it goes very well, but when business has issues it becomes very, very tricky and can damage much more than a bit of revenue. I have experience here with a good friend – a project started to go south and I was letting him down, and it did damage our friendship irrecoverably What is your experience Brian?

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:11:56 +0000

Good advice, one thing I would add is to avoid doing business with family or friends.

By: Drew Douglass

Drew Douglass — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:23:43 +0000

@Simon-I may have seen it come on once or twice

@Joe-Thanks for your kind words, I’m really gld you enjoyed the article. I’ve been lucky when it comes to payment issues. I have had a few problems, which were mostly my fault for not being completely clear in the stated contract about the length and/or extra charges during the project.

One thing I will advise, is to work out a basic contract that covers you in every way you can think of. Then, when you have a client, sit down and think of everything that could go wrong and figure out a way to put that into writing. Nothing substitutes and dismisses arguments and misunderstandings like a well defined contract.

That said, I have had a few people just run off and never pay. In situations like that I have to decide if it is worth my time and energy to pursue the cash owed to me.

Have you had some bad experiences with clients and payments? If so, please do share so I may try and learn from them

Regards,

Drew

By: Joe Lau

Joe Lau — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:28:24 +0000

Hi to you Drew, this is a nice article and I think you are very frank and honest about your expereinces, and I am glad to read about them. You have given some useful advice which I will use myself. Question for you Drew: have you had any payment issues from your clients and what do you do about it?

By: simonstapleton

simonstapleton — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:16:44 +0000

@Drew – you watch Oprah?