Time differences

For starters, let’s say you’re in San Francisco and your work hours are 9~5. There is a 12.5 hour difference between you and your developer if you were to outsource. This is ignoring the fact that many freelance workers can work obscure hours, including myself. However, more often than not, you will find that nearly all of your communication with an outsourced developer will be via asynchronous communication, which can be extremely problematic when tackling projects of higher complexity. It also means that any urgent issues will take at least 24 hours to resolve (if you’re asleep and your SaaS comes back online, it’s not completely the same as you seeing it come online and getting a chance to make sure everything is in order).

Cultural differences

Before I continue, I’d like to point out that I have worked with freelancers in India and China both directly (hired by myself), and indirectly (hired by my clients). Not everyone is aware that there are significant cultural differences between North America and India. One of the most notable ones I like to use as an example is that developers in India tend to be “yes (wo)men”.

There are many times where project requirements can be vague, the developer may be having issues, but these things will not be clarified/communicated with the client. Throughout the project, you will often get the impression that everything is sailing smoothly, and it won’t be until the project is coming to a wrap, or when you get a demo of the project at regular intervals (you should be asking for this) that find you out a lot of things may not have turned out as you expected/imagined. Of course this varies from person to person and happens in North America too, and I’m not sure why this seems to be more prevalent in freelancers from India. Perhaps it’s because they consider asking questions and bringing up technical challenges a sign of incompetence.

Communication challenges

This is actually not as big of an issue if you can find a developer with a good grasp of the English language. Though most freelancers in India are knowledgeable of English to some degree, more often than not, the challenges with communication begin to surface as you get into more detailed parts of the project. This, combined with the 2 points above, make it very difficult to move a project along and adapt to changes smoothly/efficiently.

Maintenance and code quality

Okay, this one is highly subjective and really happens within North America too. Often times, you will find that the code delivered by an outsourced developer works. Maybe you find a few bugs, and they get fixed. Great, right? The challenge is not actually getting everything to work. A huge issue that clients don’t consider when choosing to outsource is code maintainability. You might say, “I don’t understand code, and I don’t write code, so why should I care?”. Really, you should care a lot. Many times, instead of working with the client through technical challenges and pointing out that the deadline may be too rushed, outsourced developers will come up with “hacks”, and many of these combined end up making the product extremely brittle and prone to breakage. Breakage aside, any developer who has to work on this product further down the line will have to battle themselves whether to retroactively clean up those “hacks” and risk breaking things that appear to be working, or just building on top of the technical debt that has already been accrued. As the technical debt builds up, you will find changes taking more time, and (seemingly randomly) breaking other unrelated parts of the product. A quick hack can cause many headaches and become very expensive in the (near) future.

Cost

By and far the number one reason to justify outsourcing overseas is the cost savings. Many small business owners who are not technical and have not had prior experience outsourcing projects overseas are not aware of the risks and headaches that come with outsourcing. It’s not uncommon to have someone contact you about estimating a project and having them scoff at your rate then talk about how they can hire someone in India for $5 an hour (to be fair, these kind of clients are on my never-ever list too). And to get a good developer in India, even $5 is too low.

However, as mentioned in one of my previous posts, the math doesn’t usually work out the same way you’d expect it to. On one hand, the developer from India might quote you 700 hours at $5, which ends up at $3500. Someone local may charge you $150 an hour, but only bills 30 hours, which ends up only being $1000 more than the alternative. This is a bit of an extreme example, but it also disregards the savings from avoiding the issues related to outsourcing overseas. This discrepancy in hours billed may be caused by a different skill level, or they may simply be billing dishonestly (which can occur anywhere). Hourly rate is not a good indicator of value provided. This is the reason why some of my clients are charged based on blocks of time (think day/week basis). In fact, the working relationship between client and freelancer is also incredibly important. Someone who has worked with your company for an extended period of time likely has a better understanding of your business and is able to provide solutions that are tailored specifically towards your business needs. From personal experience, there have been times where I would propose a different solution, one that would make me less money, but would ultimately be a better choice for the client.

Okay, but when should I outsource overseas?

As someone working mostly in North America, my opinion is definitely biased. But while I have seen first hand the many issues that come up with hiring someone overseas, I do believe there are instances where it can make sense for your business. Projects that are smaller in scale and more isolated from the critical parts of your business, which have clear requirements specifications, may be a good choice for overseas labor from a cost perspective. The issues listed above may still apply, but having a smaller project, along with clear requirements specifications will go a long way towards helping mitigate/lessen the impact of the those issues. Depending on your budget, it may be your only option.

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They have problems or goals for their business and they want me to use my skills and experience to tackle those problems. Since they are paying for my time and trust that I will help make them successful, my opinions and suggestions are taken seriously. They may not always agree with these suggestions, but that’s good because it moves us forward and allows us to further test and analyze these ideas, quantitatively.

However, being used to this kind of process makes things very different in other areas of my life. I regularly visit developer communities online to see what’s going on and seek out interesting questions people have. And after all this time, I’ve found most of the people who go online looking for “suggestions/advice” really aren’t looking for suggestions.

They are looking for their views to be accepted and validated; most of them are not willing to accept differing views and will continue to ask and amass a ton of opinions until they find one that matches their own. Of course there are people who are genuinely looking for someone else’s perspective and take it into heart. Only, on the internet, there is no insight into whether or not someone has really gone back and followed through with your advice.

It’s a world vastly different from what I’m used to as a consultant, and one that frustrates me greatly. It doesn’t frustrate me because random strangers on the internet aren’t listening to me, it frustrates me because as an introvert, I listen far far more than I speak. And it becomes very clear that many people do not know how to truly “listen”.

A couple years ago, when I was in the middle of my last co-op term, my co-op instructor from BCIT visited me at SAP. He brought up that my co-op report was one of the most well written he’d seen (probably because no one who writes these reports actually cares about them), asked me if I ever considered becoming an instructor, and that he thought I would do well as an instructor. I didn’t really give him an answer because he was an instructor himself, but the answer is pretty much no; I did not ever consider becoming an instructor and I don’t think I have a desire to become one. Regardless, we were chatting happily, and he asked if I was returning to school after my co-op term. I said no because I decided to put school on hold as I had a couple full-time offers.

He then asked me if I had any suggestions for the department’s co-op program. I said not really, but he insisted, so I thought, “why not?” and told him my biggest issue with the co-op program at BCIT (as nicely as I could). I suggested that maybe, just maybe, it would be nice if we had more job postings in general, and with more reputable companies (as opposed to mostly small local shops). The fact was places like UBC and SFU had job postings in the hundreds, ranging from large corporations to small shops, while BCIT had less than 30, with half of the postings littered by EA (Electronic Arts), which was known for not hiring from BCIT. He instantly flared up and went off about how he’s been putting in so much effort to get postings for students and how I’m ungrateful for the awesome opportunities provided to me.

This came somewhat as a shock to me. I’d expected him to be upset because it was in a way, questioning his competence; but not to this extent, and it was certainly not my intent. After all, he insisted that I give him suggestions. It became apparent to me that he probably wasn’t really asking for suggestions, he simply wanted acknowledgment that he was doing a great job. Bit of a round-about way of asking for validation if I might say so myself.

This experience, along with a couple others, is the reason why when I ask for feedback, I ask for 1 thing the person likes about my work, and 2~3 things they don’t. It’s also the reason I will hesitate when being asked for feedback. Most people are conditioned and prepared to give positive feedback. It’s quite simple logic that if you have nothing to gain, there’s no point in saying something that may cause someone to be upset with you. Encouraging and acknowledging the possibility that you do not, in fact, know best gives people more room to present to you their raw, unfiltered perception of your product/work. Limiting the feedback to a small list allows you to identify the most important points and areas you need to work on.

I know a few companies where this is baked directly into their recruiting process. They will ask a candidate to try their product, and come up with areas where the product could improve. While I think this is a great idea, it doesn’t happen nearly enough. If all you want to hear is boilerplate “courtesy feedback”, don’t waste anyone’s time at all. Clients pay consultants to find inefficiencies, areas to improve on, and markets to expand to. So if you’re lucky enough to have someone willing to give you feedback, take the time and put them at ease. Make them feel comfortable enough to point out flaws. Embrace contention. And if they really only have positive feedback, don’t settle for “it’s awesome!”/”it’s great!”/”I love it!”. Be ready to ask why. Ask what makes this this piece of work awesome/great. Ask to be challenged.

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“Where do you find clients (or how do I start finding my first clients)?”

The majority of my clients come from referrals. Previous clients usually have connections who are in similar fields of work, or are starting new businesses. If their experience with you has been good, they will not hesitate to refer you. This is why establishing a good relationship with my clients has been a big focus in my work.

If you are just starting out and do not have previous clients to work as referrals, start by letting people know you are looking for freelance work. I generally do not like taking close friends/family as clients, but these are the people most willing to vouch for you as a person and a professional if you do not have existing clients. Also focus on contributing to communities where your (target) client base will be. Be present in these communities, actively provide suggestions and feedback, and have your work or information easily accessible if they would like to contact you. Reach out to businesses and entrepreneurs with insightful feedback that will help their business. All of this relies on you to have a strong existing skill set, so if you are not confident with your skills, work on establishing them first!

“How do I compete with offshore workers, like people in India who charge $5~$15/hour?”

This is a very common worry among newcomers. The truth is, depending on where you are, you already have a huge advantage over cheap, offshore labor. Major businesses will want to be able to communicate and work with you during business hours. They don’t want to have to deal with language and cultural barriers that often come up dealing with offshore labor. That’s something that cannot be fixed when it comes to offshore hiring.

Also, you will often hear complaints about the low quality of work delivered from offshore workers. There are many talented people, even in places like India, China, etc, but more often then not, clients do not get anything near the quality they expect. The cost of living may be lower offshore, but often the low hourly rates come with a cost. It may take 20 hours for them to do what you do in 1 hour, which means the client has to spend $100 just to get 1 hour of work done. In addition, the offshore clients may be inexperienced, they may be delivering low quality work, and they may be billing work dishonestly (which could happen anywhere, really). On top of all that, it’s generally expected that when you hire someone offshore, you give them specifications and they do exactly that. Miss any details, or run into any problems, and they will bring in hacky solutions, so they don’t need to ask clients questions over a 12 hour timezone difference.

How do you differentiate yourself from offshore workers and command a higher rate? Easy. Take advantage of the existing differences between yourself and someone offshore. You don’t have a 12 hour timezone difference, you can provide instant feedback and lower turnaround times. But that’s not what will bring in the big money. Focus on why you are being hired. Does this client just want a new website for the sake of having one, or is there a need they are trying to fulfill? Do they really just want a new billing system? Or do they want to save the additional costs they are paying by using a 3rd party solution? Do they want to lower the turnaround time between transactions? Do they want to bring in more customers to their business? Often times, clients will think they want one thing, but if you dig deeper, you will find a bigger need. Explain how you will resolve this need, and what impact your solution will bring to the business. Focus on the value being provided to the client, not how many lines of code you are writing, or how many memory leaks you fixed. Businesses care about reputation and money. Until you can recognize the value you bring to the business, you are an expense. An expense easily mitigated by hiring someone else offshore.

“How much should I charge?”

How much you should charge is dependent on a few factors. What are your costs for doing this work? Is the client expecting you to be available outside of reasonable hours? How much expertise do you have with this work, and would your expertise bring additional value to the client? Similar to my response for the previous question, how much value is your work bringing? If doing this project will bring the client $400k in additional revenue, it’s certainly logical for you to charge a higher rate, especially if the client can’t earn as much hiring someone else. Also keep in mind that you should almost always be charging more as a freelancer than you make at your typical day job. The reason being that as a freelancer, you do not have any benefits; no bonuses, no stock options, no healthcare coverage, no perks, no vacation days, no sick days, nothing. The time it takes for you to go to the washroom is (probably) money wasted. As a freelancer, you market yourself. For free. You discuss projects with potential clients. For free (sometimes). You pay for any books, conferences, training, tools you need to advance your skills. Every aspect that is taken care of for you in a typical day job is now your responsibility. Taking these differences into account, most freelancers will charge between 80% to 150% more than their day job. Some freelancers will charge more when they find out a client is difficult to deal with, or the project is not something they particularly enjoy. Some will raise their rates if they constantly get more projects than they have time for. I do not do this, but hey it’s your business, charge what you like.

“What is the schedule like?”

As a freelancer, you will have a lot more flexibility than any job you could take. This is what attracts many people to do freelance work full-time in the first place. Don’t feel like working today? Sure. Want a 3 month vacation in Australia? Been there, done that. Want to read during the day and do work at 4 in the morning? Why not? You are your own boss (of course, you still need to show your client respect and be a team player if you work with their employees), set your own schedule, do what you want, just stay accountable to your clients and keep them informed. You will hear some freelancers go through “dry spells” where they can go weeks or months without any work. Given the nature of running your own business, this is normal, and there can be many reasons for that. Their rate may be so high and they only serve a certain niche of clients. Maybe they don’t have a lot of clients to begin with. There may not be much demand if what they do is “seasonal”. They may have pissed off all their clients (ouch…?). There might not be any clear reason, maybe they just don’t have any work right now. Being a freelancer, it’s important to recognize that this may happen to you. You might even have a car accident and can’t do any work at all. Anticipate large influxes of work, or none at all; if you’re able to manage that, you will be fine.

“How do you deal with unreasonable or difficult clients?”

I’m sure we’ve all run into difficult people. Since you are not a salaried employee, whether you work with this client is your choice. You should be able to pull out of a project if need be (you do have a contract right?). Maybe they have too many unreasonable demands. Maybe they’re calling you at 4 in the morning (again, contract?). Maybe the scope of the project keeps increasing and you are not being paid to account for that (need I say it again? Scope should be in your contract and if the scope increases, you can talk it over with your client). I generally get some information regarding the client’s expectations, the project, the people working on it, the timeline, and any processes they may have. You should be able to fairly accurately gauge how working with the client is going to turn out before you sign a contract. If I sense that the client has unrealistic expectations and they are unable to discuss the expectations with me civilly, then this is an early warning sign. There are many other warning signs I look for, but in terms of a difficult client, they generally appear in the form of attitude, behavior, and expectations. I will respectfully let them know that I don’t think we are a good fit for each other, and move on. No amount of money should be able to buy your happiness and dignity (hopefully).

“Do I really need a contract?”

I don’t think I am alone when I say you should always have a contract with the client in place. A contract is a nice, legally binding agreement detailing the people involved, the scope of the project, any timelines, payment terms/costs, non-disclosure clauses, termination of work, and how to deal with unexpected issues that arise. Unless you are a student and are making websites for $500, and don’t really care about getting paid, you need a contract (even if you are, you should get one). Don’t just write it up yourself, hire a lawyer (yes, they can be expensive, but not having a contract will cost you much more). A good contract will save you many headaches down the road, including clients refusing to pay, scope creep, intellectual property rights on deliverables, terminating contracts, etc. There’s a good talk by Mike Monteiro, Co-founder of Mule Design called “F*ck you. Pay Me.” about the importance of having a good contract in place.

Hopefully that clears up some common questions about doing freelance work. If you have any questions about freelancing, feel free to reach out to me.

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