Why IndieHackers Hate Freelancing?
As title says.
On every post I read here recently that mentions freelancing, I get a feeling there's a bit of hate towards freelancing.
Common things I hear are:
It's not scaleable
you're trading hours for money.
What is wrong with it not being scaleable and trading hours for money?
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I am and have been a freelancer myself and not experienced this kind of "hate" on here at all.
I think the main thing with the
is that the main focus on here seems to be to make recurring revenue or "passive income" where you do the bulk of the work upfront and then enjoy the fruits of your labour afterwards whilst continuing to develop the service, product of the software.
Comparing freelancing with most of the people here on Indie Hackers is not a good comparison to make because in a sense as a freelancer, yes, in essence, you are working basically as in any other job by trading your hours in your day for money. That's not to say that freelancing can't yield HUGE returns. I read somewhere about a wedding photographer that started out as a freelancer and now takes $60 000 per shoot so freelancing for sure is scaleable. The scaling just more often than not needs to be done with the pricing instead of the number of customers since there only are so many hours in a day.
Correctly said. Most of the folks here are focused on building stuff that hopefully generates recurring revenue unlike freelancing which is gig focused. Two different things!
Well said!
There may be some 'general dislike' for freelancing, but I also think that many people on IH are actually freelancers for part of their week. It's a common way for many people to make sure they can afford their rent and work on their IH-project simultaneously.
Nothing wrong with it, but (as a freelancer) I'd say it's not all that different from being employed, which again is not "wrong", but not exactly what the average Indie Hacker aspires to be doing :)
I think a mix between freelancing and building your own business is ideal if COL is low and you can afford it. Truthfully it is pretty hard to be able to get jobs for less than 40h/week, which is pretty hard for long-running/large contracts/jobs.
Obviously there is nothing wrong with trading time for money and offering services that are not scaleable. And you can make a lot of money this way. For example, I know a lot of lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants that do just that. However, most workers trading time for money are not highly paid.
Most IH have valuable skill sets that make earning a high salary in a traditional job almost a given. So I think there is more opportunity to take risks and explore scalable business ideas. Most people who have high paying jobs that involve trading time for money are just happy to have there job.
Building a business that is scalable and does not involve trading time for money is pretty much the goal, once you have had a high paying job (but with less autonomy). However most professions simply do not offer this potential. Some businesses do not scale easily. Many businesses that IH are involved with offer this rare upside.
In my opinion, freelancing can be a great way to gain more experience and boost your career.
Important to start by saying that there is a huge difference between permanent employment and contract work. Freelancers don't have holidays, sick pay, bonus, and other company benefits. In return, you are your own boss and you will decide whether or not you take on a contract position. Also, you can move companies and negotiate better pay more often while expanding your professional network.
When the company wants to hire a freelancer, they don't want to buy X hours of work but they are looking for a person with specific skills. For instance, they are looking for the Node.js developer to develop auth service for their new product. It's up to the freelancer to decide how he wants to bill his clients. You can charge your clients per hour, per day, per project, or something similar. From my experience, the collaboration with the company will not be the same as you're employed there. They will expect you to come in with the required skills, deliver in time, and leave the company.
There are 2 ways to scale your freelancing business:
You will gain more experience while working with clients and sooner or later you will be able to charge more. However, your time is limited and at some point, you will need to hire people to scale.
You can think about developing a freelancing business as developing software. You develop a billing strategy, marketing strategy and sales pipeline instead of developing features. You should find a client and work with him as a proof of concept. Repeat it a few times, improve your service and save money. Hire people and scale your business.
In the end, your business is your product, you are working for yourself and not somebody else.
I think indiehackers' "hacking" corresponds to hacking your finances.
Why do you ask?
Just out of curiosity.
I've seen someone post that only 1% of products listed here make more than $2k a month.
I might be comparing apples and oranges, but making $2k a month as a freelancer is way easier.
I always thought of IndieHackers as a place for digital entreprenuers not only startup founders.
I'm just curious why people don't like something that really works and makes money.
Freelancing is just another form of employment. True indiehackers want to have their own products, not working for someone else.
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