Freelancing VS Startup

1 points by udswagz 11 years ago | 3 comments

I am a full stack programmer and have been freelancing for over 3years now. I started in my third year in school, have worked at two companies and last year i realized that there is actually no future in freelancing. My colleage and i have this startup idea and we already have potential investors but they have not given us anything yet what you suggest should i quit freelancing totally and focus on my startup and develop it full. NB: Freelancing is my current source of income though i have savings. I don't see any programmer making it big as a freelancer.

nostrademons 11 years ago |

I wouldn't knock freelancing; I've heard of people pulling in $500K+/year with it. Save up for 8-10 years and you've got your F-U money. You don't have to be particularly good (the folks I know who manage that probably aren't any better than your average startup employee or Googler), but you do have to deliver on your projects, work independently, and communicate well. And most importantly, you need to pick an industry with a lot of money. Do freelance projects for banks and $500K/year is easily within reach; do freelance projects for schools, non-profits, or small businesses and you'll be lucky to make $50/hour.

udswagz 11 years ago | |

But it's not like i can retire with that, i want to build a business that will last and that way create a passive income stream, i cannot keep freelancing forever

S4M 11 years ago |

I think you're in a pretty good position to bootstrap your startup: can you reduce your freelancing to free some time to build the MVP of your startup on the side? Once you have the MVP you can see how it goes, and you will still have an income from freelancing.

Good luck!