How do I find cheap freelance hardware and software developers?

The question was, "How do I find cheap freelance hardware and software developers?"

I warned the questioner to be very careful about what he was asking for:

First of all, you don’t want “cheap” developers; you want inexpensive developers.

Second, the expense of developers is not their hourly or daily rate. It’s the total cost of building and delivering the software and hardware you want.

In my experience, the least expensive developers have much higher rates than the more costly ones. The deliver what you want, the first time, in less time, with less trouble.

However, a high hourly rate doesn’t guarantee an inexpensive product. Freelance developers can charge anything they want, so price doesn’t necessarily indicate value.

Instead, speak to references about any developer you’re considering. Find out first hand what you’re going to get for what you’re paying.

And, by the way, don't think you'll save money by hiring individual developers. Your best bet will generally be to choose a team, perhaps an Agile team, but in any case, a team that has a history of working well together.

The Tenth Law of Pricing

The question was, "What can be said on the topic of generating revenue in a solo consulting practice?" You may not think of yourself as a consultant, but if you are an employee, you still have the problem of generating revenue, so this essay applies to you, too.

As a reply, I suggested reading my book, The Secrets of Consulting. The questioner then asked if I could supply a sample, so I provided a little sample from the book. In the chapter on pricing, I give my ten Laws of Pricing—laws that have made numerous consultants rich. I won’t explain them all here (or else I won’t get rich from sdelling my books), but I’ll give a summary along with the section about the tenth law:

FEE AS FEELING: THE TENTH LAW OF PRICING

The previous nine laws may sound overly analytical, but I don't perform this balancing act in any particularly analytical way. I just lay out several prices in a range and than imagine myself in a situation in which I'm turned down and am sitting at home, or the situation in which I've accepted and I'm doing the job. As I imagine myself in each of these situations, I notice my feelings. I find these fantasy feelings a particularly reliable guide to how I'm going to feel in the actual situation. Based on where I feel best on all sides, I set my price.

If the procedure sounds fuzzy, you may want to review the pricing laws:

1. Pricing has many functions, only one of which is the exchange of money.

2. The more they pay you, the more they love you. The less they pay you, the less they respect you.

3. The money is usually the smallest part of the price.

4. Pricing is not a zero-sum game.

5. If you need the money, don't take the job.

6. If they don't like your work, don't take their money.

7. Money is more than price.

8. Price is not a thing; it's a negotiated relationship.

9. Set the price so you won't regret it either way.

If you examine these laws, you'll realize that they don't talk about rationality, but emotionality. In other words, underlying all the other laws of pricing is The Tenth Law:

All prices are ultimately based on feelings, both yours and theirs.

It's important to note other feelings, such as how strongly the clients feel their need, and what they feel they can pay. It's especially important to understand what they feel you're worth. But most important is what *you* feel you're worth.

Oscar Wilde once said that people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Since Wilde's time, however, things have gone downhill. Now people don't even know their own price. Not consultants, anyway. There may be some consultants in the world who never wonder whether they've set the right price on their heads, but I've never met any. I've concluded that, in the case of consultants, Wilde was wrong. Consultants have so much trouble talking about prices because they know their value only too well. Or, they secretly fear that they know.

So, if you're having problems setting a price on your head, take a good look at your deep feelings of self-worth. You're probably not worth as much as you hoped. On the other hand, you're probably worth a lot more than you feared.

Disposable Programs (Part 2)

There are many reasons why a program brought out of hibernation could incur costs:

1. The hardware environment has changed.

2. The system software environment has changed.

3. The size or format of the data has changed.

4. The human environment has changed.

5. Some part of the program or its supporting material has been lost or damaged.

So it does cost to rerun an "unchanged" program, and the longer the period of hibernation, the greater the cost. But you already knew this—we all know this. Then why, oh why, do we keep tumbling into the same trap?

Part 2
I believe the answer lies in our unwillingness or inability to feed-back the true costs of programming and program maintenance to our users. Among our service bureau clients, the problem seems to have been brought to manageable proportions by the following steps:

1. When a program is commissioned, the lifespan and the number of executions must be specified.

2. If there is uncertainty about either of these figures, contingent prices are given, reflecting the differing costs.

3. The contract is written stating that the program will be destroyed after a certain time and/or number of runs, whichever comes first.

4. The program remains the property of the service bureau, unless the customer takes ownership—in which case a much higher cost is placed on the job, in order to pay for preparing the program to be taken over by other than the original programmers.

5. The customer is notified when the program is about to be destroyed, and is given the option (at a substantial and realistic price) of having the program rebuilt for further use.

6. If the program is a "one-time" program, no notification is given, but the program is destroyed—literally—as soon as the customer agrees to accept the results.

When working with inexperienced users, it is not difficult to get these terms accepted. Neither is it difficult with very experienced users, who know quite well the realities of "one-time" programs that turn out to be "N-time" programs. Only the in between users have difficulty accepting these conditions, for they believe they understand about programming, but actually have no solid basis for understanding.

After a few costly lessons, they are more than willing to sit down in advance and decide whether they want to invest in an N-time program or merely in a disposable program that will actually be disposed of.

In internal data processing situations, especially where there is no true chargeback for programming or program maintenance, these lessons are difficult to teach. There is no cost to the users of specifying a one-time program and then asking that it be run N times. Without cost, there is no motivation to learn.

Where there is chargeback, it is possible to do what good, professional service bureaus do. Without chargeback, you can sometimes achieve some relief by manipulating the one parameter you have available—time. You request the user to specify a one-time or N-time program and then give different time estimates for each. The one-time estimate is shorter, but carefully spells out the procedure that will be followed in destroying the program after its first use.

At first, users will not believe this procedure will be enforced. After a few lessons, they will begin to understand and devote some energy to the decision. Of course, some users will simply attack the computing center manager, or the programmer, with an axe, literal or figurative. Such are the perils of our profession. Besides, even an axe in the forehead is better than the pain in some lower anatomy caused by an immortal one-time program.

Writers Are Losing the Fight Again

Dean Wesley Smith has written another scathing post about "agents" trying to scam writers in "the new world of publishing." Please read it: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=4096&cpage=2#comment-9194



It's a terrific post, which it has in common with all Dean's posts, but this time he made one little mistake, so I had to write a comment on his blog.

But there are so many comments (as there should be, and you should read them all), you might miss mine, so I'm repeating it here.


Dean,

I’ve been thinking about this whole scheme and decided it’s not a scam at all. It’s actually a terrific idea, with only one slight flaw.

All that it needs to make it a fair deal is to make it symmetrical. In particular, the agents have the right idea about expenses. This is a business, and it’s quite right that the partners in such a deal should be reimbursed for their expenses before any royalties are distributed.

So, I’m looking for an agent who will write a contract with me where s/he gets expenses and so do I. Let’s see, what are my expenses?

Well, there’s toner for my printer.

And several reams of paper.

And the printer itself.

And the computer.

And the software.

And my office, and its furnishings.

Let’s see. What have I forgotten. Oh yes, there’s about 20 years of schooling so I could learn how to write. Let’s figure conservatively about $50,000 per year. It’s probably a lot more, but we don’t want to take advantage of the poor agent, so we just have $50,000 times 20, which seems to come to $1,000,000 before I could write a word.

Now of course, my schooling was a long time ago, so if I hadn’t spent that money learning how to write, I could have put it into US Treasury bonds and easily earned, say, 6% on the average. And I finished my schooling roughly 50 years ago, which means the $1,000,000 would have doubled roughly 4 times since then, making $16,000,000 today.

Don’t you just love this calculating “expenses”? (That's an important part of the new agent scam contract.)

The way I figure is I’d happily sign with an agent who’d give me $16,000,000 up front to cover my expenses.

Or, since I’ve published roughly 100 books, I’d be willing to take $160,000 up front from any agent wanting to contract with me to handle a book of mine.

So, agents, if you’re reading this, better hurry and get your cash in hand and contact me before all those other agents beat you to the punch.

Yes, Dean, I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to write a retraction saying what a good deal these new agent ideas are for writers. Agents, please insist on it.

Oh, and by the way, here are two of my most recent eBooks, which you can sample at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JerryWeinberg?ref=JerryWeinberg and purchase them there, or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Why Do You Charge So Much?

Randolph's Tough Question

Randolph is one of the sharpest technical consultants in my network. Until yesterday, I'd have bet a hundred bucks that no client could stump him with a question - but I'd have lost.

When Randolph called for a bit of meta-consulting, he was so nonplussed I had to spend three whole minutes in idle chitchat, which wasn't Randolph's usual no-nonsense style. Finally, I couldn't stand the suspense, and I asked, "What's the matter, Randolph?" (Nobody calls him "Randy" more than once. It's Randolph all the way.)

"Why do you charge so much?" He blurted so quickly I didn't believe I'd heard him.

"Say what?"

"Why do you charge so much? That's what he asked me!"

"Who asked you?"

"My client. The new one."

"So what did you tell him?"

Pause. Sigh. Longer Pause.

"Randolph? Are you still there?"

Pause. Finally a weak voice said, "I didn't know what to tell him. That's the problem."

I recognized the problem and tried to reassure him. "Randolph, you're not the first consultant who's been stumped by that question. And you won't be the last."

"But I've got to go back there tomorrow, and I don't have an answer. I need help."

Turning the Question Around

Well, yes, Randolph did need help, and perhaps you do, too. Do you hesitate and stammer when your client asks this dreaded question? Are you ashamed to explain to your employee friends who make one-third of your hourly rate? Do you feel guilty that you make so much more than your spouse, who works much harder than you? And how do you handle yourself when the IRS asks you the same question? Well, I'm your meta-consultant, and unlike your IRS agent, I'm really here to help you.

First of all, I'm going to advise you to meet this question head-on by turning it around. Instead of emphasizing how much you're getting, emphasize how much they're getting. Many clients are unclear as to just what they get in return for your fee. This is not surprising, as your fee covers a wide range of intangibles. That's why you need to break out the various components, which I've done in simple ABC format so you can remember next time you're put to the question:

A. Attention. I suspect my clients would be astonished to discover how much time I spend thinking about them and their problems when I'm not "at work." I might be hiking in the woods, or reading a magazine, or taking a shower, and a thought comes to me about something that will help my client. For example, I was driving back from Los Alamos last week and suddenly realized that I'd spent the whole distance from Jemez Springs to Corrales working out a transition plan for a client in Ohio. I could have been enjoying the enchanting scenery - and perhaps I was. But most of my conscious mind was in Cleveland, developing the plan. Supper had to wait until I had the details in my Mac.

And that's just conscious attention. I don't know about you, but I often dream about my clients' problems, often awakening in the middle of the night with solution ideas. This happens so frequently, I keep paper and pencil handy on my headboard, where I've mounted a high-intensity lamp that won't awaken Dani when I'm scribbling away at three in the morning.

B. Barring Competition. While working with one client, I won't work with a client who competes directly with them in the area I'm working. This exclusivity sometimes reduces my opportunities for paying work, but clients may take this service for granted if I don't point it out to them.

C. Celebrity. As my reputation has grown, I've noticed that my clients are quite willing to use it to sell their product or programs within or without the company. They may not be aware that this use of my reputation creates a risk for me. If they make a mess, some of the dirt rubs off on me.

Ah, I've now run through ABC, but there are more items in this alphabet.

D. Dexterity. My clients unconsciously expect me to be on call, not only for the planned activity, but also for unexpected emergency jobs, incidental questions, idle speculation, and all sorts of administrative work such as rescheduling at their convenience. Moreover, unlike their employees, I get neither sick days nor vacation days. When I say I'll be there- and sometimes when I haven't said - I'm there. Even when I'm not there, I've implicitly or explicitly restricted my other activities so I'll be able to respond to their needs in a reasonable time.

Moreover, although I don't get sick leave, and I don't participate in their health benefits, I'm often expected to work under pressure, at odd hours, in inaccessible locations - all the while operating at top efficiency.

E. Education. Speaking of top efficiency, my clients don't pay directly for all the education I bring to the job - not just my formal education, but, for example, the thousands of hours I spend reading in related fields. I figure that in a typical year, I read the equivalent of two books a week, perhaps more. Very few of their employees devote this kind of personal time to their own development. And, when they take a seminar or attend a conference, their employer pays for them - but not for me. (Well, sometimes they do, if it's directly related to their problem and nobody else's.)

F. Flexibility. My clients can release me in a minute if they no longer need my services. Even in these days of downsizing, they don't have this cheap kind of flexibility with their employees.

G. Gratuity. Although I may charge clients for out-of-pocket costs, such as transportation and hotel rooms, I don't charge for meals, supplies, reasonable phone calls, faxes, mailing, and so forth. All these gratuitous expenses save paperwork for my clients, and they're lumped in with my other overhead - my own office space, utility bills, computers, software, network services, professional services, and the like.

H. Honesty. The work I do for my clients can sometimes literally mean the life or death of a project or campaign. This is a grave responsibility, and I accept it fully and do whatever is necessary to give full value. And, unlike an employee, I offer my clients a money-back guarantee of satisfaction with my work.

I. In-house Labor. Nowadays, most consultants/contractors are paid by the hour, or sometimes the day or week. This method of payment tends to emphasize a single tangible component of what my client is getting - my face time toiling on their premises. If they look at me as simply another grunt, grinding away in their office, no wonder it's hard for my clients to understand why my apparent rate is larger than that of their typical employee. They're missing all the other letters of the alphabet.

ZZZZZ. Sleep. Of course, I do have to sleep once in a while - and, unlike some of their employees, I'm not charging them for this. Even when I dream about them.


So there you have it, my Abecedarian cheat sheet that will prevent both you and Randolph from ever again being stumped by a client's question.