I have been a fan of Formula 1 since the 1980s.

Yesterday, I was reading Formula 1 drivers’ histories and it struck me as a good source of inspiration when creating your freelance profile. They say that a driver is as good as his last race. However, this is not true. It’s the history and the fact that someone is still in the game that makes the difference.

There’s also a good F1 iPad app for timing which I’ve been using.

’86-’87 we lived in a nice neighborhood in NJ. When I wasn’t in school, riding my BMX or skateboarding I was mostly in the basement programming my crappy adventure game which I still haven’t finished. The problem was that back then I really didn’t know anyone other than my brother who also programmed, so I was left to my own ideas and tools.

(We did have a copy of the source code of NetHack on an obscure floppy and we managed to compile it and look at the source code. However, it was way too advanced for a twelve year old kid at the time.)

Working alone with only your own ideas can result in dry ideas and you’re not able to advance much. This is why I love freelancing. You get to connect with people and their ideas, and work together in creating something special. Perfect job for the life long learner.

Plumbers are not supposed to be in the mainstream. Instead, they are supposed to be able to fix any old water pipe when an emergency arises and they’re happy with that. Pipes are their thing.

A good plumber will have everything in order, billing, tools, clear communication, clean overalls, easy to find and a prompt local service. He’s not looking for construction site work and longer term contracts. He doesn’t dream of doing the plumbing for a skyscraper (which would kill him eventually). Instead, he focuses on creating a distributed local service with fast response and fast completion. There’s a lot of pipes to be fixed and it’s much easier to keep clients happy that way.

Water heating contractors on the other hand participate in public bids of construction projects. They do everything to lower their price, keep the cost of labor and material low. These are the guys who look for longer lasting contracts and dream of doing the pipes for the new local school, mall and movie theater. They have to keep current with rules and regulations, the latest construction technology, etc. There’s always the risk that a bigger company comes in and takes every project from under their noses and leaves all mid-size contractors shoveling dirt.

It’s much easier to be a plumber than a heating contractor. Plumbers are probably happier people. Unless they pretend to be heating contractors.

Often, while we have been busy, work scatters, papers scatter. How do we keep track of our work and display it properly?

I heard of a successful playwright who once, sitting in his chair, took a look down on the floor. Among the piles of paper he found a manuscript that he had written down some years ago. He picked up the papers from under the foot of his chair and took a long look at them. To his surprise it was already complete! The play not only felt great but also ready for production! The show was taken up by a theater group. It was directed, practiced and performed across different continents, and it became a success.

In our discussion, we are interested in the difference between the target audience and his fans, colleagues and admirers.

For his true fans, the play was that play which was found on the floor, under his chair, in his messy work room. For his peers, actors, directors, the interesting part of his work was the text and how ingenuously it was put together. For the audience (culture people, critics, etc.) his work consists of the plays and books he writes.

Let’s break down the profile:

1) The play was under his chair forgotten for years, his room was messy with piles of paper on the floor -- sounds like a story or legend, certainly true!

2) The manuscript -- something available to his peers, true fans and actors, hard to get to, a book between two covers

3) The play -- the actual work, displayed publicly at the theater

Freelance analogy: It’s clear that number three is the first thing a prospective customer should see, a lot of number threes. What about one and two?

Exercise: How would you display and put together 1, 2, and 3 on a web page or freelance portal?

Freelance checklist for hardheads.

You’ve allocated time for concentrating on freelancing, i.e., mentally you’ve decided to leap (hardheads are good at this once they get the momentum going).

You’ve studied your best options for marketing your services: profile on the web, service manual (iPad/quality binder), personal web page, email, freelance portals, certifications, tests.

You’ve scoped your current area of expertise and possibly planned where it might go in the next few years (awareness of the market for skills in need).

You’ve decided to give this a try and not bail out unexpectedly (a real bailout is different, it’s planned and calculated, not a sudden reaction).

You’ve created a workplace for yourself (home office), computer, printer, camera, microphone, chair, etc.

You’ve read a couple of books on freelancing, entrepreneurship and follow blogs or sites about it. In other words: you’re keeping current with things.

You’ve got your feet wet in a couple of projects.

You’re not wasting your time on the internet.

Your goal and attitude is to do great work for your clients (i.e., not just weasel around) and you expect the same from your clients.

You continually refine your skills, messaging, profile, blog, etc., and are mentally prepared to make things better.

(all of the above): You’re doing it.

An important factor in time management is the guy in charge, technically not you as the provider.

Your personal time management might be in order (more or less), but if the buyer (or someone else on the team for that matter) lacks most of the multitude of important factors, and seemingly isn’t committed to making the project happen, why should you waste time on it?

Save the miracle work for someone that’s worth it.

Dealing with people is a two way street.

At first, in one way or another, we deal with culture. “Oh, she’s from that continent.” or “She’s from the north-east.” or “She’s a …” We excuse the other person because she’s from a culture we don’t understand.

After a while, sooner or later, we forget the culture barrier and you are marked as that person, regardless of your origins.

Both images are crude and in a sense false, however, you are responsible for creating that image.

I thought about a freelancer/entrepreneur’s opportunity of serving local customers and the advantages that come with locality. They are huge. I haven’t served local customers in years, but here’s what I would do if I did.

1) Get out of your office. Visit customers, even if it’s slightly farther away. This is a huge advantage over the guy overseas. (I wouldn’t even be afraid to invest in a car, bike or monthly transportation costs.)

2) Carry sample work with you. Showing the stuff one-to-one, again, is completely different from all the rumba that’s involved with creating your website and your portfolio online, and getting noticed.

3) Make the online presence more local. It has to include something about where you live, the city, the village, the block or neighborhood.

4) Be accessible. Get a business card. Give out pens. Serve coffee. Call your customers. Be active in the community. Write something for the local paper.

5) Network locally. Get to know the people in your area, even if it’s a few.

6) Sending out the occasional paper mail or Christmas card wouldn’t hurt.

7) Focus and make a difference. Become part of it (even, some healthy local pride wouldn’t hurt)!.

The practical jewerly salesman leads the customer through the most expensive models first (like, if you are looking for a bracelet for your wife) until you arrive at models that fit your price range.

Then, there is another kind of salesman that looks at you and leads you directly to the models of your price range. “I believe I have what you’re looking for.” The salesman’s recommendation not only saved time but it felt like a favor. “This one is going to work” (for you).

According to the Jack of all trades Wikipedia entry, the aphorism didn’t always have a negative tone to it. However, to quote the entry:
"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one.
When you look at freelance providers today, you see providers or contractors with such a wide skill-set, that you cannot help but wonder. The reasoning in the freelancer’s mind is that the wider you display your skill-set, the better chances you will get in search results. There is also a certain honesty to it because software developers do know how to setup almost anything–if you give them a few days, that is.

The reality is that there are guys who specialize and who can setup the same thing in an hour, that is, they don’t have to spend a day checking references and then another day figuring out the architecture.

It is pretty easy to specialize, especially in software development, so I keep wondering why some freelance providers are still embracing the Jack of all trades-business model.

My advice to beginning freelance providers is to strengthen your signal to noise ratio. Have a wide skill-set but specialize in something, and show that something in your service description and nothing else.

I’ve written about this earlier.

You come to a point where you see a job that fits your skills. However, there are a dozen (or several dozen) other providers making a bid on the same job. If there’s any public information available about the lowest and highest bid, you’ll often see that the lowest is way below what you are going to be able to work for. After all, you have your own expenses. You might be coming out of working life where you actually had a decent pay. What now?

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Side story:

I remember as a child my mother tried to put me to music class. We entered a building, walked through a corridor and finally we came to this door. On the other side of the door was a room full of children, the other students of the music class. Everyone had some sort of an instrument in their hands. Everything was so noisy and chaotic that I couldn’t step through the door. My mother tried to push me through but something, some strange force, just wouldn’t let me go through that door. It felt like a Luis Bunuel movie. My feet didn’t move and I never went there.
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So what about making bids? The truth is that you don’t need to pay any attention to what is the highest, lowest or the average bid at the moment. It is just a useless distraction. Instead, make your own calculations how much work it’s going to be, multiply that by your hourly rate and perhaps double that or put in some extra, just in case. Bam! Send it and forget about it. If there’s an answer, it is another story (I’ll write about that later).

Ignore the noise (well over 50% of it is noise) and concentrate on perfecting your craft.

I was asked by an English friend to create a portfolio page.

Last time I created a web site for someone else was in 2007 so before diving in I thought I’d create a quick freelance portfolio of my own. Here it is.

Here’s a simple recipe for freelancers:

1) Take one project at a time, big or small

2) Make a realistic estimate, plan and presentation, and present them to the client

2.1) Make sure you understand the contract terms, especially termination, handovers etc.

2.2) Assume good will

3) Push back the project start date until everything is clear (takes several emails and meetings)

4) Start and have a blast

x) If something starts to suck, communicate this immediately

x) If it still sucks, i.e., no adjustment was made by the client, don’t waste your time to terminate the contract (you simply cannot afford to waste time) If the situation continually starts to suck, i.e., the client is a trickster or whatever nut, just terminate

5) Don’t promise anything just deliver

5.1) New ideas are OK but it doesn’t mean that they are part of the scope. New ideas go to a new scope, which you can present occasionally to extend the project (which means more work and pay for you)

5.2) Don’t report, muse.

5.3) Don’t use text chat.

6) Bill modifications by the hour

Finally,

7) Bake all of the above in an oven at a mild temperature

7.1) Bake a lot and make better bread

8) Take breaks!

I have written about clients to avoid earlier on this blog here.

Add this to the list:

A client that cancels the project just before Christmas, requests a handover, then claims the game doesn’t work or something is missing because they don’t understand how the system works and finally threatens to sue you.

This also when I refer to the HELL YEAH philosophy.

Clients: please get a capable backup programmer before initiating a handover.

The question that often arises when something new appears is “what does it replace”? Even though we are talking about technology it sounds like a boxing match – or the classic comparison of fighting styles: will a Karateka beat a Kung-fu master?

I’m much more interested in knowing what I can do with something when that something new is emerging. Is there something there for me, my friends and my prospective clients? When we talk about usability or human interaction with technology a small thing can make a big difference. Just how the thing feels makes a difference, like a refresh rate, overall responsiveness, the layout, performance under the hood or over the wire, accuracy of the timers, how it pushes out color and text, sounds, etc; all that constitutes to the overall “aura” of the technology. However, we won’t know much about it if we don’t sit down in front of it and use it (create something with it).

While I consider myself an iPad programmer today, I’m testing other things like JavaScript and HTML5, both of which I have now programmed for about 30 days and blogged about it. I must confess I never got the Ajax stuff and didn’t actually understand why people were talking about it so much. For a long time, to me, it meant those (slightly annoying) animated toolbars. However, this morning I did some research and after the last 30 days of playing around with Javascript and HTML5 canvas, things connected and I now understand fully the benefits of these asynchronous technologies.

However, it’s a long way still before I will have the confidence to take on a client project in this area if ever. Meanwhile, I’m doing stuff just for myself and friends, having fun with it for about half an hour every morning, after which I put on my iPad cap, (underwear) and overalls for the rest of the day and concentrate fully on my client project.

One important thing is to make a clear distinction between what is part of the product / assets that you have developed for the client and what are your own tools. If you let a client use your tools or modify a tool to suit the solution he might claim it his own.

Some clients go for a contract that tries to say that everything that is developed in context of the project is considered their intellectual material. They might try to tell you that your development framework or tools are already well developed and they might as well continue to use them (without charge) because you as the developer will also benefit from the framework in the future.

This is, of course, bogus.

The tools, code snippets, patterns, everything I have I’ve developed since the days I started programming the Spectravideo 328 are still in use. And I continue to build my tools everyday, in conjunction with my practice, in client projects and my own projects.

I use dozens of tools every day, I develop my own tools, I buy tools and I modify tools. For example, for my recent HTML5 series I use the development environment provided by Keith Peters (Thanks Keith!), which I’ve developed further myself. Can any contract make Keith’s DE become your intellectual property? I doubt that.

Texture packer develops their tool further with frequent updates. Does my texture packer license become yours if I create a tool during our project where it becomes an integral part? I doubt that.

During my projects I also develop business solutions (check out the Solutions category of this blog on the right hand side). I give clients the opportunity to use these solutions and I integrate my tools into these solutions, first out of good will and second to speed up the project and last maybe even have some fun and get more people involved in the development until the final product launch. The solutions are my assets. If you want them to become your assets you have to pay for them.

Take a carpenter that arrives at your site. He has a toolbox. You let him do what you hired him for. Once he is finished he takes the tools with him. Right?

The question is: do you let him finish and thank him, or do you take a tool out of his box that you really liked and claim it your own?

If you do then you are a nut.

Most buyers still don’t seem to have an idea of the size and commitment that a game or a multimedia project implies.

While the “I want an iPhone app..."-craze is clearly going down (which I welcome), I’m still not seeing sane well planned ideas with sane budgets that would make me respond with a HELL YEAH!

Freelance portals consider job proposals a warm lead. The term is related to cold calling (which can be intimidating) where you just pick up the phone and start calling businesses to offer your services.

Preparing a bid for a job proposal (which can also be intimidating even if the lead is warm) is not as hard because you can take your time and the client is already partially interested.

Here are a couple of suggestions on how to prepare your bids:

Write - a lot. As you write your writing will start to carry a voice. People will always prefer to deal with someone with a voice.

Try not to present yourself as competent for the sake of appearing competent. Sooner or later it will backfire. Anyway, your profile should already be addressing that.

Be interested more than interesting. If you’re not sincerely interested don’t waste your time faking it.

Avoid compromises. Do not bid low. We’re all tired of decades of compromise. Rather, go for the [your favorite drug] rush and bid high.

Get on the same frequency already in the first one or two messages. If it’s not working then just forget about it and move on.

Find out who the client is. Really find out. Take every measure in finding out what she wants and how she wants it. If you are not happy with that then just move on.

Don’t boast. Instead, make the client feel warm under your expertise. Make her feel like she’s in good capable hands.(Again your profile should support this.)

Find the right words. Read a lot and get to know your area better. Subscribe to blogs and RSS feeds. Get to know the latest. Digest information and become a confident expert ready to answer any question not only from someone else’s point of view but also from your own.

Assume good will.

Finally, be truthful and don’t lie. Foul tactics will backfire sooner or later. Why not invest for the long run?

I keep thinking about the Joshua Bell article from time to time.

What happened was that a world class violinist was disguised as a street musician and was placed in a metro station, during rush hour, to experiment what kind of an effect it would have. How would people react to his playing? Would they notice? How much did he make during the hour? Could he have done any better?

Some of the questions are:

Whether you are good or not: will anyone notice?

Will anyone care?

What are the expectations?

What is the outcome?

How will you analyze and adjust?

How will you know if it was perfect already?

Moving away from your home country in the search for better weather, different people and different opportunities can be a big deal. It requires a partially calculated leap of faith.

Still, you can do it gradually. People from most European countries, for example, can get a temporary tourist visa in many countries. While you settle down you can renew the visa (once every half year in most places) until you might apply for the permanent visa.

While you might have to live on savings for a year or two, portals like Elance offer a possibility to do freelance work from any remote location. Of course, there’s also the opportunity to get local work.

Moving abroad you’ll often find a completely new culture. This can be a huge inspiration especially for people who find themselves stuck in the rigid society of their own country.

Tips for when you’re doing the work from home.

1. Put a sign on your door that says: “Working”. Brief other people in the house of your daily schedule.

2. Make it a habit of taking daily walks (in the morning and evening for example). Working from home you might end up not going out at all.

3. Forget about invitations to projects and stop looking for more work. You have to finish this one first - fast!

4. Keep your desk tidy. Switch the mouse hand occasionally.

5. (practical tip) If you have a wooden floor put a rubber/plastic mat or some kind of protector under your seat. Your chair will wear out the varnish in about a year.

6. Listen to music. If you’re writing or programming instrumental music or music in a foreign language might be better.

7. Remember to eat! Put an alarm for lunch breaks. Go out to have breakfast and lunch! Eat healthy.

8. Show up. At times you’re sick or there’s a lot of distractions (baby sick, mother visiting, construction going on in the building, broken fridge, broken computer, fire in the house!). In any case, show up and advance as much as you can.

9. Relax and enjoy! Now you’re there. You have been working so hard to get to this point. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished!

10. Double as fast means twice the salary. Did you ever think about that?

Fishermen use certain lures to send a visual signal to a fish that eventually takes the bait.

In freelancing the client too is someone who is searching for the right signals.

How hard is it to create a focused, polished profile?

For example, all computer programmers can do this and that (I’m sure this applies to writing, designing and administrative tasks.) We have all done the courses and the workshops. Programmers know how to tweak stuff on the client side, the server side, in the UI and in protocols, even on different platforms and in various programming languages.

Here’s why just being able to do isn’t enough: if you’re not exactly up to date on a certain area of technology, i.e., you haven’t worked on it yesterday, you won’t be fast enough. It might take you a few days to check your references and give the client an answer. Meanwhile, the guy who’s specializing, who worked on it yesterday, in the area can give the answer even before its asked. Can you see the difference?

Things lead to other things which lead to the next thing which again leads to the next thing and finally you get paid, the faster the better. It is exponential.

Trim the fat.

[Year after year, my father keeps telling me about my grandfather, who was a craftsman skilled in wood and metal, saying that the most important thing was to be able to give the estimate right away. In this light, it seems to make sense.]

It took a successful Indian company half a year to create their profile on Elance. They settled down very carefully. They did all the tests, created their profile, their service descriptions, their payment options, the scope of their services. They looked at what skills were needed and what were the trends.

Surely this is easier to do for an individual that for a team of 10-100? The individual has the ability to move faster than a team, to switch to a different category (e.g., from Flash to HTML5/Javascript) quickly while for a team it takes a while to reorganize and reassess their skills.

Still, the individual must also exercise inertia on his own part. Don’t bounce around or try to do everything. If you don’t you’ll end up doing small fast projects for pennies instead of bigger well thought out projects for a decent monthly pay.

Build, strengthen, polish and cherish your profile.

I had a couple of interesting conversations with people defining themselves as representing a country that is considered a third world country.

I understood their message like this:”In your country the boss works harder than anyone but in our country nobody does any work until the boss is around. Then, when he’s around everyone works hard until he goes away.”

Let’s assume this is true. Let’s also assume that this is a freelance project where we have a buyer and a provider. They both share the third world mentality regardless of their geographic location.

Who’s in charge of the quality?

On one hand, the provider is in charge because he wants to deliver the project fast, get good ratings, get paid and proceed to the next project.

On the other hand, the buyer is in charge. His boss or the buyer himself needs to get returns on what he has invested. Therefore, from the beginning he’s looking to cut costs. But at the same time he hopes he can get something out of this. Perhaps it is one project among many. His challenge is to find the right person to do the needed thing within the given budget.

Is either one of these enough or is there something missing?

Recently, there have been arrests in Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo involving credit and bank card frauds. The guys have installed card readers in various locations, on the street and even inside banks.

Recently, two of my cards were hacked and I lost around two thousand dollars.

While I got some of the money back from one bank (with the other I’m still in the process) I’m thinking about these guys. If you’re that clever why is it so hard to direct all that effort to something sustainable?

Is it even possible to withdraw that much money to sustain yourself in the long run? I’m under the impression that you can’t withdraw more than a thousand Reals at a time (which at the moment equals about $635). I haven’t done the math but it seems that you would have to do a lot of withdrawals to sustain yourself for, say, half a year.

Also, if you’re more than one guy you have to divide the money. As far as I see it you’re not left with that much. It could be tens of thousands but how long does that last? - Not long.

I know it’s probably fun and exciting. I was interested in hacking when I was around 16 years old. I had some friends who gave me a hacked Unix account at the university.

Still, if you get caught the penalties for hacking ATMs in Brazil can go up to 10 years of prison so it’s a risky business. After that, what do you do with your career?

Why not take a different kind of a risk (where the stakes are actually higher)?

Why not risk everything and become an entrepreneur or a freelancer?

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Getting your freelance profile together can be like creating a big jigsaw puzzle and solving it at the same time.

There is the advantage of choice. You can choose your pieces. In other words you can create the kind of profile that best reflects you, your skills and what you do.

By creating a polished, directed and specialized profile you filter out the clients that aren’t that interested in what you do. You filter out potential problems and you filter out the noise.

By scoping you send a strong signal to the clients that are interested in you from the beginning.

One of the things beginning freelancers might fall short on is managing client expectations. This is again a version for hard heads.

How 110% becomes 10% when it could have been 90%:

Starting with the first proposal you tend to promise a little bit more in the hope that the client will pick you as the provider for the job. In essence, you promise a short delivery time and a low price tag. Be prepared to be taken advantage of.

During the project your number one priority is trying to please and soothe the client with what you communicate not what you deliver. Every client mail makes your heart jump (in a bad way). Explanations follow one after the other.

When the project is at its final stages you will end up tinkering the final deliverable together. You’re not sure whether this is part of the scope or not but it seems there are new features coming in.

At the end (if there ever is an end) you’re both way past the deadline and your own budget. You gave 110% but nobody’s happy.

How 90% becomes 110%:

From the beginning your posture is professional.

You are honestly interested in the client’s idea but you want to figure out the way you’ll get the idea realized (If you’re not interested then forget about it). You want to make sure the client is serious.

Make sure you have everything from the clients side: the plan, mockups, use cases. Whether there are any dependencies (e.g., assets coming in from another provider) you plan accordingly. This can take dozens of mails and a couple of online meetings.

Every piece of information is important.

Those with imagination can take it like you’re investigating a murder. There are details and risks. Make sure you note everything down and discuss it. It’s a case you’re working on!

Gradually the project plan takes form [not only on paper but in your mind]. When you start to believe the project is doable you send a mail stating that you’re starting to get the idea. Sign the statement of work (an informal contract), and plan the milestones and the delivery dates.

Put back the project start date until you think you understand everything, double check everything, make sure you have everything you need. Take a few days off before starting.

Don’t talk about the future, talk about the past and the present.

Each mail you send during the project is short and states how you have progressed. If you have a question send it immediately. Never talk about next steps (this is important). Avoid chit chat, especially in text chats.

Deliver with style:

When you’re finished don’t rush telling the client immediately. Instead, take a day off. Look at the thing again and make sure its ready. It doesn’t matter if you’re a few days past the deadline. You already have the thing done. Maybe the client will even send you a mail. Then you respond with the deliverable.

When you deliver milestones or the final product don’t talk about its good points or bad points. Just state what’s included. Leave the judgement entirely to the client.

When the client is happy deliver the extra 10%.

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6th of October 2004 was the day I decided to resign from my job at Nokia Research Center. I had worked there for seven years. The first years were great. The company was getting success worldwide and this reflected in the overall mood of the staff. Our research department was small in the beginning. I came in and started out working in a cubicle area. These cubicles were well planned. They had a sliding door and thicker walls with acoustic materials. The door had a lock and you were given a key. Inside the cubicle, you had to stand up high to look over the walls. In general, the atmosphere was dynamic. New things were happening. People were ready to improvise when the need arose.

Upon Nokia’s success we were moved to a larger building. This time we had our own rooms. In the center there was a wide open space which was called “the lab”. You could set up anything there for yourself. You just had to ask someone and then go ahead and setup your prototype or whatever it was you were working on. At this time I was in my final years at the university. After finishing up at a lab at the university I would continue at work.

Normally, after graduation you would get your own project. This was what I was waiting for and dreamed about. I saw people a year ahead of me getting their own project and I was waiting for my turn. However, just around my graduation there were sudden organizational changes. People were surprised and puzzled. Even the heads of the labs didn’t know what was going on. From now on there would be no more projects but programs and “tasks” inside programs. For me that meant that I wouldn’t be able to have my own project.

So I entered into a kind of floating mode. There was a sort of program matrix that you get to “freely” swim in. You could take tasks from different programs and contribute in different ways. I didn’t like it because your work became hidden and in the end it ended up on someone else’s slides (without your name on it). However, just like anyone else, I tried to cope but it wasn’t easy.

One day, there was a message that we would be put into cubicles again. Unlike the professional cubicles we had earlier, these were completely improvised. They were basically made up of shelves that were lying around in the lab areas. Sitting down you could see everyone else. There were wires and panels everywhere. There was no door, every cubicle was of a different shape. Others were smaller others larger. There was a loud fan in the middle. That was really it for me. I couldn’t concentrate anymore.

Already a couple of engineers had quit. There wasn’t much respect nor trust anymore. The matrix organization became yet more difficult to navigate. I didn’t really know what task or program or what I was working in and I really didn’t care anymore. Asking for any kind of resources to setup something was behind a rock. Only getting an internet connection without a firewall for testing stuff took weeks. Work was made impossible but still you were expected to perform. The heads of the labs (or units or whatever they were called in the end) weren’t doing their job. Somehow, it seemed that even their work had been made impossible. I tried to take this up in various meetings. However, nobody was listening in the end, so I decided to quit.

This was in 2004 and later I heard that it got even worse. There were a number or organizational changes every year. The funny thing was that despite projects and programs being cancelled our yoga club (which was unofficial) managed to survive. I heard they were still going to the basement or library or any other free space every week to do breathing exercises and asanas up until 2009. However, today I’m not aware if the Research Center even exists anymore. The news I’m hearing don’t sound very optimistic. Most of the people I knew from that era have all quit.

Quitting was a difficult decision and I didn’t get much support from anyone. But in the end I made it and looking back after six years of doing stuff on my own it really couldn’t have gone in any other way. So I’m glad I did it. Just one decision, one of the most important I ever had to make, and to think of all the doors it has opened.

Choosing your career is an awkward business. Already in school you have to make choices. You’re expected to take the route you have chosen.

Imagine your ideal buyer.

Take someone who specializes in freelance game development. Her ideal client is someone who not only understands the programming part of games but also the other areas of the business, like designing and game publishing. When working for a client like this she can concentrate on just being the code guy and do the work.

However, if she gets a client who can’t handle the other areas she promises that she’ll take care of those in order to win the job. She calls her fellow providers to see if they’re available.

As you see, this is a lot riskier. Maybe the client also needs help with releasing the game. So in the end you’re more involved, you have more responsibility and you’re taking more heat whether the project is a success or not. Communication, messages, online meetings, touching base, making sure everyone understands the same thing and so on. It already becomes something what an entrepreneur does.

Now, at times it’s easier to sell your team. It sounds better for some reason. It resonates with some buyers. Teams are interesting.

However, team projects normally tend to have low budgets. Why? Because they are mediated projects. Someone somewhere has had an idea on the back of his head and now is looking for a team to implement it. There’s no hurry so he can auction the providers like he wants and the price goes down.

On the surface, the price on any auction site is defined by the other prices of similar goods or services in the same category.

Projects for individuals on the other hand have a higher value. This is because as an individual provider you’re unique and you can define your service. The quality of service goes up when you put your name on it.

The latest trend seems to be that buyers prefer individuals. They want the new craftsman. The price is higher but so is the quality. The product is long lasting and in the long run it’s worth it. Quality becomes a part of their own brand and it increases in value. Intelligent buyers understand this as they seek the individual freelancer.

So the individual freelancer can make a choice:

A: Either become the guy for your specific service or

B: join the growing number of non-specialists in the relentless race to the bottom.

As freelance providers or contractors, when we navigate and search for jobs on the web and on freelance portals and come across a wide variety of different job descriptions, how do we distinguish the good from the bad*?

Here are a couple of positive signs I have picked up over the years:

1) The job description is well written and easy to read.

2) It doesn’t include words written in all caps, smileys or secret codes.

3) It seemingly doesn’t emphasize having various skills, required skills, and desired skills, but rather getting the actual job done.

4) There is no mention of future ongoing jobs or trials, but the specifics of the actual job.

5) When reading the job description the nature of the job becomes clear. For example, for an iPhone utility app, a wireframe is supplied.

6) There is no suspicion of the buyers whereabouts and who he is.

finally,
7) No unnecessary flattering is required, we just both want to get the job done and be awesomes and superheroes, and all the like.

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*and the ugly

A game developer has a good opportunity to try and sell his own games. However, this requires knowledge of other areas of digital economy, like marketing and sales. Making the game is the manufacturing part or the engineering part. As engineers we often forget and even fail to appreciate the other aspects of business.

When doing freelance game development in a team we have the freedom of concentrating just on the application and letting the other stuff take care of itself. However, there are buyers and bosses who are just as unaware of the whole process of creating and selling games as you are. So what do you do in a situation like that?

Do you just do your job and let the client or the team fail on its own? To play it safe that’s probably what you should do. The freelance programmer is a guy who has the privilege to witness failures and successes without them affecting his own career so there’s freedom and you get to learn a lot.

I was watching Bob Moog interviews yesterday and he tended to emphasize that he’s nor a musician nor a businessman but an engineer and a tool man. Still, when you watch his talks he’s representing and demonstrating not only his own synthesizers but others’ as well. So he seemed to have a gift for selling stuff.

So in the end if you don’t know what you’re doing maybe you shouldn’t address it even if you know the project is going to fail. Just do your job and be the tool man. However, the thing is that successful projects often mean more work and a happy returning customer for the freelance programmer. So what do you do in the end?

This is the hard head version of what to pay attention to when starting out your freelance career.

1. Define the scope of your services.

I already know what they are but when I try to put them in writing it doesn’t sound as good or it sounds wrong. Or it sounds just right but it seems nobody is interested. Maybe I’m boasting or maybe I’m being too humble. Madness!

They say: “look at the profiles of other freelancers of your area and use a similar style.”

But I don’t want to look at anyone else’s profiles! I want to do my own thing. I feel pain when I look at that guys profile.

Well, look at a profile that’s not related to your area and start with that. Just put something there, forget about it and come back to it later. You’ll refine it gradually. Study the portal and what kind of work is in need. There will be people who are doing what you do but most of the time they are busy so you’ll get your chance!

2. Do the tests on the freelance portal.

Tests? I have a freaking Master’s degree and 10 years behind me. I got what it takes and I don’t have to prove it.

Well, yes I feel your pain, but there’s a couple of a hundred guys in the same situation as you. Also, you might have worked for a company for some years and, let’s face it, you tend to get rusted doing only that one thing you’ve done there. Freelancing is about change also and maybe this is the opportunity to do that thing you always wanted to do.

OK, I did some tests but I failed. Now it says I have to wait half a month. I will wait that time and meanwhile I will self rate my abilities.

Good, this is the way to go. The tests are normally hard and especially hard for hard heads. However, “keep the rock boiling and it will gradually crumble”. Write down the questions, study and gradually you’ll pass.

I passed but I didn’t get 10/10.

That’s OK you can take the test again from time to time. But now you probably won’t have time because you have a good chance of doing some work!

3. Don’t put your company name but your own name on the profile.

Not “Digital Revolutions - we care for what we do and what you do.”?

Save the cool name and the slogan for the footer of your website. Just be you - John J., Portal Designer.

4. Describe your service

Imagine your ideal client. The people who you want to provide the service to. Use the essential phrases and keywords. Look up magazines and articles about your field and get up to date on the latest. Subscribe to RSS feeds. Got it?

OK.

That’s it! With these four you’re already penetrating the essential stuff in your journey to make the Buyer “buy” your service. The rest is just fine tuning and getting those jobs done on time!

5. And finally: it’s never ready. Good Luck!

I was a one stop shop still about three years ago. Not only did I have web programming, Java, PHP, Facebook and Flash on my profile but also music production and video editing. So I managed to get some jobs where the client knew that he will get the whole package with a better price from one source and that was ok. I could deliver the stuff and get the job done. I wasn’t delivering good quality - I was delivering just about good enough quality while being a little late on every milestone. Somehow that didn’t fit my style so I narrowed down my portfolio of services. If you take a look at my profile on Elance you will see that my services are limited to a certain area.

This is the area where I feel I’m comfortable. I can deliver stuff quickly, keep the price reasonable and even go the extra mile.

The problem today, which seems to be going away gradually, is that there are too many one stop shops. I don’t say there are too many freelance providers and too little work to do. My assertion is that there are too many people who don’t specialize.

Why specialize? You get to be good in what you want to do, you are comfortable at it and you’re making money.

When you don’t specialize you’re not that good in what you do, you’re always a little bit behind and you’re not making enough money to account for your time.

Why do buyers profit when they use freelance providers that specialize?

Let’s say a buyer wants an iPhone app called “A+” that integrates with social network B and monetization service C. Good! Mr. X can provide all of that. However, Mr. X has a problem. He has promised everything but he lacks a little in every area of the job. Not that he cannot do it but that he needs to learn a little here and there, he needs some time and while the price is low so is the quality and the delivery date gets pushed forward and forward. He asks for a raise. Finally, when everything is ready the thing isn’t as hot as it was in the beginning. It has already gone out of fashion and it’s a failure. Mr. X’s problem became the buyers problem. Nothing big happened, the stakes were low, little impact was made. The opportunity was lost.

What happens if the buyer does use providers that specialize? For iPhone app A+ he goes to the A+ guy. For social network B he goes to the social network guy and for the monetization network he goes to that guy. Each of them specialize in their area, they deliver fast, good quality and they are worth their price. The app gets launched and it’s still hot, in fashion and has a good probability of becoming successful. Lots of stuff happened, the stakes were higher and so was the impact. Better ROI and everyone profits. “Let’s do it again from the start. I have a new idea!” says the buyer.

So buyers have to change their mindsets and so do providers. Offshore is out of fashion and so is the one stop shop. If you want to be successful you got to be successful together - not just you but us.

So specialize, become the guy for your service A+ and support others in becoming what they specialize in.

About three months ago, I was heavily involved in game development projects for the iPhone. However, last month it has mostly been for the iPad. Now I’m doing stuff for also the Mac but I have some iPhone and iPad projects starting later this year. The transition path from iOS to OSX has been pretty straightforward in terms of creating the core functionality of your application. However, the user interface is different and most multimedia and graphics APIs are also different. Also, there’s more freedom which requires you to make design choices.

For the Mac I’m currently programming a 2D Level Editor that will be useful in the future for platform games and top down or side scrolling arcade games. Currently, I’m using it with a program called Texture Packer that outputs sprite sheets in various formats. I’m making the integration better and in the future I will supply a free download version.

I’m also getting started on the game engine for Dicetris. Right now, I’m looking for the best way to port my iOS game engine to the OSX.

These are my current thoughts on transitioning: It’s a lot of work and for a freelance programmer it requires dedication, will and trust that you’re going get customers on the new platform and that they see you as someone who can get the job done. It also requires you to acknowledge that this is the era of the life long learner. Well, actually we have been there for a while already but still, you never know what will be around the corner. I’m loving the ride so far.

[As an aside, I come originally from MSX Basic (which I learned as a kid by watching my big brother program). Later, I did Pascal on the PC and then some assembly on the Amiga as a teenager. Then C and Java in University and at work. (I have also had to hack PHP and JavaScript - where I might get back to even this year.) However, three years ago, when I started freelance programming, I did a lot of ActionScript 3.0 because it seemed there were a lot of freelance projects in that area. ActionScript 3.0 was very easy to grasp after Java and it is a very cool language. Then I transitioned from ActionScript to Objective-C. By transitioning, I mean not only reimplementing my collection of code snippets to the new language but also adapting to the new platform and making it your own.]