I'm in the position of inheriting a number of small (between 5 to 20 hr) jobs which largely involve providing fixes and changes to existing systems on a contract basis. I've never done the self-contracting thing before - all my previous wages were set by the customer / employer. How do I decide how much to charge? I don't want to under-...
After about 3 years of working a 9-5 at a couple companies, I've found myself unemployed. My current location doesn't seem to have many opportunities that interest me, so I'm considering working from home doing contract work. I've started to send out some resumes to postings I've seen on boards like jobs.rubynow.com and similar web-site...
I'm just starting out on a freelance project after several years as an employee. Currently, I'm negotiating a short contract with my first customer, and its proving to be quite difficult. Edit: I have not started any work for them yet, we are still negotiating a contract. The main problem is simply this - the client is rarely availabl...
In a few days I'll be meeting with the owner and a few others of a small business. At this meeting, I'll be discussing their website, specifically how I would plan to improve it. I have already had a few discussions with employees at this company, so I have a good idea about what they like/dislike about the site now, as well as a few k...
I have been using consultant, contractor, and freelancer interchangeably. I just started working for myself and have been wondering about how to market myself and which term to use. Am I a consultant, contractor, or freelancer? Or maybe I am all three of those. If so, which should I call myself? I have no idea but consultant just ...
How do I go about explaining that I am a "Web Application Developer" and not a "Web Site Designer" to prospective clients - without talking myself out of the project?! Often I am approached to "design a web site" for someone where it turns out to be more of a "brochureware" presentation site and less of a real web application. While I...
I think a lot of people here have done some contract development. Just as there is a proper way to behave as a contract developer there is a proper way to behave as a development client. What are some of the client faux pas that you have encountered? ...
Peter Stevens has a great summary of different agile contract models on his blog. I've decided that I like one of them the best (Time and Materials with Variable Scope and Cost Ceiling) for a project I'm initiating, but I can't find a sample contract or template for such a contract. Anyone know where I could find something like that? ...
I'm very new to software contracting; this is my first project. I've just built a point-of-sale software system for a client, and neither of us put a lot of work into the contract. I wrote that the software was "jointly owned" with exclusive license for use given to the client. The client is using it at one store and is very pleased with...
I'm looking for a good WPF/XAML designer to do some contract work, but I don't know where to find one. Where's the best place to find good XAML designers for hire? ...
I'm a salaried computer programmer, and I make a pretty good living at it. I've been thinking of supplementing my income by handling a few part-time, paid consulting opportunities. I'm worried, though, that tinkering on the side might burn me out, that it might affect my work, or that it might get me in trouble at work if they find out a...
I have been doing consulting for a customer at a low hourly rate with the purpose of building a long term business relationship. The work consisted in learning, maintaining and modifying a big code base. Part of the reason I charged a low rate was to amortize over time the cost of learning the code. I have been working for this customer...
A company has me developing software on a contract basis. The software is for a client of the company. The project had been split into phases, with the client paying a portion of the total after the satisfactory completion of each phase. The software will be hosted by the company for the client (as a service) after the completion of the ...
First of all, this is not exactly a direct programming question, but you guys seem to be the best ones to ask. I'm a freelance software developer. I'd like to put together a publicly viewable portfolio of projects that I have worked on for clients, or a client list or something similar. Just something to display or describe my work on a...
Hey, Does anyone have any input on the legal or ethical considerations involved with showing examples of my code to potential clients? It seems a bit shady to share code other clients paid for. What's the best approach? To scrub out any sensitive or identifying information? Is this something commonly done? Thanks! Edit: A client has ...
Is there a good site to use where I can find odd jobs for programming? I am talking about a bit of HTML here, some C# there - small apps and so on. "Nugget work", if you will! Edit: Made it a community wiki because I don't feel there will be one super-right answer, there might be a bunch of good options suggested ...
I’m having some terrible experiences trying to outsource development to people on websites such as ODesk and RentACoder. Small green-field apps seem generally ok (shoddy work is generally limited in impact), but it always turns to disaster when trying to get people to work with existing codebases. I’ve had a guy rated in the top 100 on...
Where do you go to find high-quality outside development help? Alternately, if you are a high-quality independent developer, where do you go find projects to work on? I own a software and IT consulting and development company, and occasionally we get requests for projects that would require more resources than my team has to spare. My o...
If I have set up a business as a sole proprietorship, registered as doing software development, can I "sell" my services(much like a mechanic) where I bill the client a total plus tax, as opposed to being a contractor/consultant and them paying me an hourly wage? I do all work at my own office, but sometimes that requires remotely main...
Hello SO, The nature of our business often has 2-3 remote developers working on a single project (mostly Rails), and each one currently has carte blanche access to source so they can checkout, run, and develop locally. The problem is any one of them could ship the whole base out the back door. Overseas legal action seems futile. I'm ...