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Happy May!
For those of us who are in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is around the corner. For me, this summer marks my one year anniversary of becoming a parent. As you can imagine, my life has changed a lot in the past year. The biggest change is how I prioritize my time. The majority of my nights and weekends are spent with my family. Iâm able to do this because Iâm incredibly fortunate to have lots of help (both paid and unpaid), and as I evaluate new opportunities I prioritize freedom and flexibility.
But, when I was in my early 20s and someone told me to prioritize freedom and flexibility, Iâd cringe and think, âYes but how?â
Over the past fifteen years, Iâve asked this question to people Iâve met. Through trial and error, Iâve learned to incorporate or tweak parts of their how to fit my needs. As a result, Iâve learned there is more than one how, and to be wary of those who claim there is only one!
One approach we explored earlier this year was building a Company of One. Paul Jarvis and I explored how he went from being a freelancer and providing a service to scaling his business to create products. In the Build episode, we shared some of the common themes. If you missed the episode, you can check it out here.
This month, I want to rewind and explore the first part, becoming a freelancer.
Freelancing is one approach to gaining more freedom and flexibility. And while itâs easy to glamorize being your own boss, it can take time (many years) to get a business off the ground.
You have to figure out how to market yourself, manage clients, price your service, and still have enough hours left in the day to do the work!
All of these tasks can leave you feeling overwhelmed. To help you think about the transition, gain some perspective, and most importantly, work through the overwhelm, Iâve invited Gregg Goldner, who is a freelance developer and President of Two Sun Traders, LLC to share his experience.
Whether you are a freelancer, want to be one, or are just curious, Iâd highly recommend tuning into this weekâs episode to learn the following from Gregg:
- Why Gregg wanted more flexibility in his life and chose to transition from being a music teacher to a software developer
- How he made the transition to becoming a software developer
- The skills he learned from having been a school teacher and how they applied to software
- The experience that led Gregg to choose to be freelancer instead of a startup founder
- How he initially priced himself, then changed his pricing over time
- The importance of honing your craft
- How he interviews clients and picks projects
âPutting on every single hat and then realizing I donât like half those hats. Wouldnât it be great if I didnât have to do those things? What are my strengths and weaknesses, and how can I find people who have different strengths and weaknesses?ââââGregg Goldner, President of Two Sun Traders, LLC
Prefer to listen to the episode?
Listen on iTunes here or listen on Stitcher here.
In the episode, Gregg mentions a number of resources, here are links to them:
- The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition: Essays On Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
- Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
- Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler
- Code Complete by Steve McConnell
- iOS Development Tutorials by Ray Wenderlich
- A weekly video series on Swift programming
- A hands-on guide to learning Swift
- Subscription learning platforms Packt and Lynda.com
Build is brought to you by Femgineer an education company dedicated to helping techies build companies, products, and level-up in their careers
How To Get Started As A Freelance Software Developer was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.