I am just myself and I wouldn't have it any other way!!! I get up at noon, screw around or do whatever and then work at night. I charge what I want and can make as much as I want.
You do lose things like insurance and 401k but you also should be making more $$ to help cover it. The biggest issue I see with coders is that they are coders and not business people and have a hard time getting their own business. Personally I love the challenge of keeping food in my fridge and $$ in my pocket. I'll admit at first it was tough, I had to make a few sites for next to nothing just to get a portfolio started but now it's a totally different game. Once you get a few clients and if you do a good job then the referrals start coming in and things happen on their own. I haven't gone out or after jobs in over 2 years, they just keep piling on. I don't think I have gotten under 15 sites back ordered at any point for the last few years. Personally, I hate doing big sites, I like the lil business sites that you can usually get in and done in 1 -2 weeks and get paid. A lot of people skip over lil sites thinking that they aren't worth it but if you are a decent coder you can make a ton!! Say the average site is 4k and takes a week to build, well thats 12k a month or if it takes longer.. say 2 weeks thats still around 8k a month. But you also got to think long term in things you do and what kind of sites you want to do. I usually have 3-4 days a month I block off to do small site updates for people, for example today and tomorrow I am doing that on 3 sites and I should pull in around $4,500 for them over a 2 day period. You also have to think about doing small things that clients love. For example if you go to my site look at the top right corner (the flash ad), I am doing that for a holiday special for my clients for $250 which is the ad and an admin section added to their site where they can change the ad when they want or turn it on and off. Really thats a great deal for them and in the long run when the client wants a new ad made they will most likely call me and pay me to do it which ads up. The down side for me is that I just have too much business and this spring I am gunna pack up and move to nashville and probably start expanding the business and hiring people. I say down side because right now there is just so much work that I can't do it all or get caught up and then get stresses and cranky (and then come on here all pissy to relieve my stress lol). If you do choose to go on your own just know that there is plenty of business available out there!! But you will need to learn how to compete for business and your biggest competitor will be graphic designers with no html skills at all and so learned how to educate the potential customer is pretty vital. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Check out the new features and enhancements in the latest product release - download the "What's New PDF" now http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/coldfusion/cf8_beta_whatsnew_052907.pdf Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:247973 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
