Episodes

The default with freelancing is to charge by the hour and do generalist work. You might have, however, heard of value pricing and heard the idea that you should establish a niche. How should you go about doing that? View …

As you grow your business successfully, you'll have more demand for your work and, thus, more leads. Does that naturally mean you can raise your rates? The answer is more complex than you might think. View this podcast as a …

If you establish a practice and start to earn a good bit of business, sooner or later you'll have to contend with the decision of whether or not to bring on subcontractors to help you. Should you do it? View …

I resisted talking about ChatGPT as long as humanly possible, but I did wind up getting a question in the backlog about it. So, will ChatGPT replace freelance programming? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the...

If you go into business for yourself, what should you call yourself? Freelancer? Self-employed? Something else? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Enov: The IT & Test Environments Management Company

If you're thinking of hanging out your shingle or have just done so, you might wonder whether to use bookkeeping software and, if so, what to use. I have a surprisingly specific and opinionated answer for this one. View this …

When you go off on your own, at least in the US, you might be in for a rude tax awakening. In this video, I talk about what self-employment tax is, and what you can do about it. View this …

You're a freelancer and doing regular work with your clients. If you bill by the hour or, more generally, for time and materials, which meetings should you bill the clients for? View this podcast as a video on YouTube . …

Freelancers, especially newbie freelancers, can find themselves caught in situations where their only, large, 40-hour-per week client starts to treat them more like an employee than a freelancer. What should you do? View this...

I've been asked this more than once, but eventually got around to doing a video about it. Rumor has it that California is "business-unfriendly," and, if you live there, you should start a business in another state. What's my ...

It's a situation that a lot of techies can relate to. Someone comes along and offers you a stake in their business, instead of money, if you build their vision for them. What should a freelancer do in this situation? …

We've all heard the phrase "hake it 'til you make it." A reader asked me if this is a good mantra to live by. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Data: What Is DevSecOps? …

Wire Transfer? Check? Cash? If you're just starting out as a freelancer, what's the best way to get paid? View this podcast as a video on YouTube.

At the time of recording, there's a good bit of uncertainty about the economy. Against that backdrop, as a freelancer, should you approach your work differently? View this podcast as a video on YouTube.

One of the questions that came up in my reader/viewer backlog was specific to me and my background. What is/was my worst experience with a client? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Using Pytest …

There are all kinds of people billing themselves as (non-athletic) "coaches" out there. As someone looking to go freelance, is becoming a coach a good line of work to get into, specifically in the B2B/professional world? View...

It's common (at least in the US) for employees to furnish "references," which are essentially friends or colleagues who vouch for them as character witnesses. As a freelancer, should you also do this? View this podcast as a v...

When you're an employee, you probably only really think about taxes once per year. But what about as a freelancer? Well... it's a little more complicated than that. View this podcast as a video on YouTube.

In this video I field a question about how much per day or per week a freelancer should work. That's not really an easy question to answer because, in a sense, it's not the right question. View this podcast as …

If you're a salaried employee, freelancing or starting a business can seem like a major risk. But just how risky is it, actually? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Test Automation from Tricentis

Once you start taking sales and discovery calls, sooner or later you might have the impulse to start charging people for your time during this process. Should you do that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of …

A lot of the questions I field about freelancing and business come from people that are programmers. But what about data science? Can that be as viable a trade for freelancing as programming is? View this podcast as a video …

Many freelancers, especially new ones, will want to earn long-term clients. How do you go about doing that, and is it actually valuable to do? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the week: Cypress vs. Selenium: …

One of the most important (and stress-inducing) times in the career of a freelancer/business-owner is when you increase your rates or prices. Is it normal to feel guilty when doing so? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link …