The Freelancers' Show

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Subcontracting programming Assistants Subcontracting design Communication breakdowns oDesk Screening Processes CSS Mac App Development Chop-chop Pair programming Subcontractors talking directly to the clients Desired attributes of a subcontractors Can work remotely without supervision Reliability People you already know Great communication skills Problems that can crop up with delivery You are responsible for your subcontractors' work (including the screw ups) Have a contract Communicating with subcontractors Chiliproject Skitch Skype Email CloudApp Pivotal Tracker Dropbox Balsamiq Mockups AIM/iChat TeamViewer Join.me Screenflow Tracking Subcontracting Time Harvest Freshbooks Billing for the subcontractor's time Hourly with a rate markup Hourly with no markup Hourly under a fixed bid project Passing along subcontractor's invoices included with your invoices Including subcontractor's time on your own invoices Picks Canable (Evan) Presentation on Distraction (Eric) Podcasting A to Z (Chuck) Brother Labeler (Chuck) Book Club We're reading Get Clients Now and will be talking to C.J. Hayden at the beginning of July.

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Spare bedroom L-desk Standing desk Ergonomics Get an external monitor and peripherals if a laptop is your primary workstation Mouse and keyboard Monitor stand iCurve by Griffin iMac Open space is nice Geekdesk 30" cinema display apple keyboard apple mouse aeron chair windows in the room 11" macbook air Bose QuietComfort 15 iPhone Tax deduction for having your own space for work Corner desk 4 24" monitors on a mac pro 13" macbook air 8' whiteboard CXO chair by Nightingale Blue Snowball mic on a boom arm iPod on 2x cubicle showerboard whiteboard Mind-mapping Metrics iPad scratch paper monitor arms tax writeoffs for equipment purchases Office Depot document holder Bluetooth full size keyboard Spaces iTerm tmux vim Picks Avery Peel and Stick Dry Erase stickers (Eric) Weekly desk cleaning (Eric) SimplyNoise (Evan) Bose Noise Canceling Headsets (Evan) Batik (Evan) Work harder on yourself than you do on your startup (Jeff) Backup (Jeff) MindMeister (Chuck) iWork (Chuck) Book Club We're reading Get Clients Now by C. J. Hayden. We'll be talking to her at the beginning of July.

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Charge for almost everything Sometimes the estimate - if you negotiate that Coding Meetings on the phone Are you adding value? Learning new technologies doesn't count unless the client specified that technology Try to only do one risky thing at a time Do the risky stuff first You can discount time if it wasn't well spent Tell your client that you discount time Tell them about time you saved Should we bill for time managing subcontractors? If the task requires a team, then bill for the additional time managing people If the task is delegated to a subcontractor when you would be able to do it all yourself, then don't bill the client Make sure the client understands the terms of hiring you and having subcontractors Don't violate client expectations Do you bill for travel time? Look for opportunities to make the client's life better by coming out and meeting in person Bill for travel time if the travel is obligatory Working on the plane can be a way for billing for travel time Do you bill for invoicing? Don't bill for the cost of doing business Bill for email when it adds value Bill proportionally for lunch meetings or social interactions Assets vs Services (one-time vs recurring) They should pay for materials Recurring expenses (services) should be paid for by the client Don't pay for and expense hosting to the client - Make them sign up Bill for research that adds value Bill for time prototyping the app to get things right Services mean Domains SSL Certificates Monitoring Error Reporting Hosting Code Repository Hosting New Relic Missed calls Be understanding! Varies by the relationship Client smells Compensating time when sick Get enough sleep Picks   Game Dev Story - itunes store (Eric) Ze Frank's A Show - itunes store, website (Evan) The Avengers movie (Evan) Blender 3D (Evan) Blender from Noob to Pro (Evan) Unity 3D book (Evan) Tutorials on the Pixelmator website (Evan) Pixelmator - mac app store (Evan) Equilibrium movie (Jeff) iPad3 Retina Lock Screen (Jeff) Chronomate (Jeff) Lift Off book (Jeff) Working with Unix Processes by Jesse Storimer (Chuck) Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki (Chuck) The Podcast Mastermind (Chuck) Book Club We are reading Get Clients Now by C. J. Hayden and will review it sometime in June.

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Elance Odesk Start local Be involved in the community User Groups Subcontracting Go to conferences RailsConf Get involved in Open Source projects Screencasts Ruby DCamp Join Mailing List Speaking at Conferences Write an ebook Freelance Switch Blogging Comment on other People's sites Join and participate in forums Podcast List everyone you know and tell them you're freelance Referrals John Jantz - The Referral Engine Michael Port - Book Yourself Solid Build systems around your marketing Set the expectation at the beginning that they will give you referrals Do a retrospective or review Survey your client and if they're happy then ask for referrals Deliver underbudget and early Ask for referrals on milestones 33 touches (Real Estate) Be specific BNI Project Rescue Communicate well Set accurate expectations The quality of your website Make it easy to contact you Put together a well defined persona the represents the market you're trying to reach Talk to other freelancers Talk to local companies that need staff augmentation Never Eat Alone Picks It's not what you read, it's what you ignore (Eric) Cats trying to knock things over in my office (anti-pick) (Evan) CloudApp (Evan) RubyVis (Evan) RubyMotion (Jeff) Worth Every Penny [amazon.com] (Jeff) GitlabHQ (Jeff) Never Eat Alone (Jeff) Doctor Who (Chuck) Users' Groups (Chuck)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Developers playing Systems Administrators Automated scripting Chef Puppet Heroku Moonshine Phusion Passenger Apache HTTP server Nginx Server Setup Ongoing Maintenance Engine Yard Chef Recipes CouchDB PuppetLabs Ubuntu Debian apt apt-get CentOS LTS Releases Rails 3.x RailsMachine Rails 4.x is ditching plugins Why are you doing DevOps? Stores your Operational changes in git. Saves you time on more than one server. Copy up a script and then script the login and script run. Puppet in Solo mode Bootstrapping your server Vagrant Testing configuration Nagios Virtualbox Staging - should mirror production Chirk Slicehost Linode Rackspace Cloud Make the client pay for hosting and do the systems administration yourself Amazon EC2 & S3 Memcached Deploy with git Scaling Load Balancers Provisioning a VM PostgreSQL VPS - Virtual Private Server Redundancy Monitoring Sinatra Mail Gem Pingdom Twilio New Relic Airbrake Be Proactive screen Picks Deploying Rails (Eric) Zite (Eric) Prismatic (Evan) Wemux (Evan) Solar Clipper (Jeff) Chronomate (Jeff) Getting Things Done (Chuck) Last Pass (Chuck) Book Club We'll be reading Get Clients Now  and discussing it on the podcast sometime in June.

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion All you need is a client Business entity Startups for the Rest of Us Business Insurance iamindependent.com LegalZoom Get a Contract Health Insurance Dave Ramsey ELP's Aflac Group policies for companies SERP 401k Find a CPA and talk to them INGDirect Pay Down Debt Get some savings Disability Insurance The Freelancer's Guide to Money Bob Walsh The Total Money Makeover Financial Peace The Richest Man in Babylon Marketing Start a Blog Pay it Forward Don't oversell your abilities Take a reduced rate if you're not experienced Subcontract to someone who is more experienced Chad Fowler Explain that they'll have to pay for you to learn to do the work Contribute to Open Source Experiment with the code StackOverflow rubypair.com Picks Pick an Open Source project, find a feature request, and build it and give it to the project. (Eric) If you don't know about business or marketing, take a day a month learning. (Eric) cells (Evan) proxylocal (Evan) ToDo by Appigo (Evan) Simply Noise + Sound Blocking headphones by Boze (Evan) The Power of Habit (Jeff) If you're not a Ruby person who is a designer, donate some time to an Open Source project. (Jeff) Startup Marketing (Jeff) Remote pairing (Jeff) 48 days podcast (Chuck) Changelog podcast (Chuck) Mixergy (Chuck) Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me (Chuck)

Panel E. Scott Sweeney, CPA (email 801-756-3394) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Why you want a CPA? Accurate Returns Tax Savings Understanding of Tax Code You'll likely wind up paying taxes rather than getting a return. Home Office Deductions Itemizing Your Return Likelihood of getting audited Keep your receipts on every expediture Mileage - Begin odometer reading and ending odometer reading The IRS cannot audit you back 4 year Statute of limitations on fraud is 7 years Tax deadline for 2012 is April 17. Failure to pay penalty Filing an extension avoids the failure to file penalties Officer's salary in an S-Corp or a guaranteed payment in an LLC Wages and salary vs draws and dividends Self employment tax is 13.3% Picks Robbie McDonnell talk on goals (Eric) Freelancing Weekly (Jeff) iOS Biz Weekly (Jeff) Paleo Weekly (Jeff) Freelance Funnel (Jeff) Hootsuite (Chuck) Scott Sweeney CPA (Chuck) Contemporary VA (Chuck) oDesk (Chuck) A good bookkeeper (Scott) Excel (Scott)

The Ruby Freelancers Show 010 – Conferences at MWRC

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Ruby Java .NET JavaScript Ruby on Rails Rescue Projects Redmine Chili Project Legacy Code Sinatra Rack Spree Ryan Bigg Radiant rails_admin Padrino Plugins attachment_fu Upgrading around customized plugins acts_as_commentable_with_threading Twitter API Facebook API Email LDAP authentication Single Signon authentication "Ruby is the glue that doesn't set" Facebook Connect ACH gateway OmniAuth Facebook Graph API Minitest Minitest-spec RSpec Cucumber Spinach Coulda "I want something like

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion 30x500 by Amy Hoy See Project Run Refactoring Redmine Redmine Tips Authoring Ebooks Chirk SAAS Freelance Funnel Newsletters iPhone Apps BDDCasts Rails Beginning course Evan's iPad app Scratch your own itch Marketing works well over time Batch up work Scheduling blog posts Bufferapp.com Budgeting time to do product development Marketing takes up the most time microconf Micropreneur Academy Why are you building what you're building? Project vs Product Momentum Marketing to build momentum 4 Hour Work Week Lean Startup How do you find a product to make that your market wants to buy from you? Yes, 50 scientific whatever,.... Product focused business - The product is the most powerful Market focused business - The market is the most powerful Opportunity cost of product development Time and location freedom Picks Seth Godin's blog post on "People think Photographers spend their time..." (Eric) 21 times (Eric) 30x500 (Eric) Tripit (Evan) Steven Baxter's manifold series (Evan) Nathan Lowell's Trader Tales (Evan) Hugo and Nebula awards (Eric) Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive (Jeff) James Bond - Ian Fleming (Jeff) Robert Heinlein (Jeff) Goodreads (Chuck) Things (Chuck) Siri + Reminders on the iPhone 4S (Evan)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Wordpress Templates Designers Branding and Design Referrals from Clients Referrals from your network Client supplied designers Designers in the family ThemeForest WooThemes oDesk eLance iPhone App design 99designs Rails Rumble Requires a ton of feedback API interviews Use a subcontractor Accountability Photoshop PSD files PDF files HTML & CSS jQuery Animations Have a designer break it up into assets Using existing design (Redmine, Chiliproject) Twitter Bootstrap UI/UX designers User testing A/B testing Should you manage designers? Website layouts Logo nerds oswd.org medialoot.com micropreneur academy elegant themes Picks Eon (Jeff) Freshbooks (Jeff) How Designers can help Developers by Matt Gemmell (Jeff) How Developers can help Designers by Matt Gemmell (Jeff) Freelancing Weekly (Jeff) Chop Chop (Jeff) Compass (Evan) First Class (Evan) Bootstrapping Design by Jared Drysdale (Eric) Font Deck (Eric) Stylate (Eric) Acorn (Chuck) GIMP (Chuck) Pixelmator (Evan)  

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) David Brady (blog witter github ADDcasts) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) JT Zemp (twitter github) Discussion Doubling your rate and doubling your business Exchange of value Communication counts Rate setting is about perception Experiment with your rate The "gasp technique" Sales confidence You may be able to charge more if you can get it done quickly. Freelance Switch Rate Calculator Take your yearly salary and divide by $1,000 Rate based on your cost The cost of employing a person is something you have to cover "Do the hustle" - Obie Fernandez What is the minimum that Rails developers should be charging? $100/hour? $150/hour? Talk to people who do what you do and see if they tell you to raise your rate If they want you to subcontract to you, you might be too low Look for subcontracting opportunities if you're willing to lower your rate and pass off the marketing, etc. Do you lower the rate or negotiate if the client wants lower? Correlation between your rate and your value Don't give discounts, negotiate your rate If you speak first, ask for $20/hour more than your normal rate so you can negotiate to what you want Put your price out there to filter requests "We fix $5 haircuts." Rescue work Fixed bids Estimate, add padding, multiply by rate, and round up Bid on putting in a bid PERT methodology Slide Rule Labs Rate Sheet Picks Shane Perlman - What should I charge? (Eric) 500 Words before 8am (Jeff) Negotiating your salary - how to make $1000 a minute  (Dave) How to outnegotiate anyone even a used car salesman (Dave) Never negotiate with yourself (Dave) How to win friends and influence people (JT) Power sales negotiation (JT) Evernote (Chuck) Talking to Experienced People (Chuck)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Separate things out by day Set a fixed schedule The downside of being hourly Flexibility Ebb and Flow with balance Get help Hire a VA Subcontractors Contracting out Design Work Cut back Batch up the work Food delivery services (frozen pre-cooked/pre-made meals) Cleaning services Batch dinners Every Sunday pay bills/expenses Balance the checkbooks Build systems Earth Class Mail Concentrate FitBit Exercise & Sleep Recumbent bike Build it into your routine Picks Happiness Tracker iPhone App (Eric) TED talk on maintaining air quality (Eric) Concentrate App (Jeff) Treadmill Desk (Jeff) Standing Desk (Jeff) Geek Desk (Evan) Finding Outside Help (Evan) Theme Forest (Chuck) Keep a Water Bottle at your Desk (Chuck) Camelbak Water Bottle (Eric) Ruby on Ales (Evan) Mountain West Ruby Conf (Evan)

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion Fixed bid Time and materials Give a budget to the client Scope creep Do you renegotiate the contract on scope creep? Short fixed bids can help manage costs and risk Customer management Fixed vs. Hourly is a discussion of risk Provide options for a fixed bid Multipliers for each unknown Risk is added for each new technology added to the stack Alan Weiss Start up with a courting period and then renegotiate after the courting period Shorten the scope of the project When you lower your bid, remove features (value) from the bid Charge more! Picks Find a Mastermind or Group of people who do what you do (Chuck) Heil PR-40 Microphone (Chuck) Other dynamic (Chuck) Behringer XENYX (Chuck) Roland R-05 (Chuck) Resounder (Chuck) Adobe Audition (Chuck) Million Dollar Consulting (Eric) The Consulting Bible (Eric) Peepcode Play by Play (Eric) Destroy All Software (Eric) (anti-pick) iMac Microphone (Evan) (anti-pick) Eric Davis' Internet Connection (Evan) Math Minute Additions (Jeff) Steel City Ruby Conf (Jeff) Mass Effect 3 (Jeff) Star Wars the Old Republic (Evan) Transcript CHUCK: Anyway I’ve got to hang up and get off so-- EVAN: Yeah, whatever. ERIC: Yeah you got what you need out of us. I see. CHUCK: Yeah exactly. EVAN:  At least you kiss us after you f--- us. JEFF: That has got to be the sound. CHUCK: Hey everybody! Welcome back to the Ruby Freelancer Show. On today’s panel we have Eric Davis. ERIC: Hello. CHUCK: We also have Evan Light. EVAN: Hi! CHUCK: And we also have Jeff Schoolcraft. JEFF: What's up? CHUCK: Now we’ve kind of been a quite bunch this morning, so we have to see how the show goes. So we were discussing what we want to talk about and one of the things that somebody brought up (and I’ve been asked a few times) is whether or not to take fixed bids. And I'm pretty sure I know what you guys are going to say, so if anyone wants to chime in and share their opinion on whether fixed bids or hourly, or either one or both are okay, go ahead. ERIC:   Well why don’t we start with actually defining what fixed bid is, because I see people say, don’t do fixed bids. But they actually don’t mean the same thing on someone else. CHUCK: Okay, so when I say fixed bids, what do you think? ERIC: For me, it’s basically a set cost, typically a set of features and then there will typically be like a set deadline which goes wishing by usually. CHUCK: Right, and then the other side of the spectrum is every hour I work, you pay me X amount of money right? ERIC: Yeah and some people consider that hourly. CHUCK: What else would you consider hourly? JEFF: Not government based, we will call fixed bid from fixed price and that's all the expenses everything, you are doing for whatever scope the project is, rolls up to some big number. And the other to way to do, is time and materials. So, you charge for every minute you work on that project and every pencil you buy or whatever you do to clear it up. But that is the other, I don’t know, vernacular terms I heard for those two billing concepts. CHUCK: Right. I want to see you code with a pencil, that would be fun. JEFF: Sometimes it will be faster. CHUCK: It's easier to debug. You just turn it over and use the eraser right? ERIC: Yeah I actually do it lot on index cards, when modelling or whatever, just kind of write stuff on index card. If it's not going to look like it's going to relay just throw the index card away. It’s a lot faster than removing code. CHUCK: That's true. That’s kind of an interesting planning phase or I guess modelling phase. And you can do agile, so that you are consistently updating your model as you code.

Panel Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Rails Summer Camp) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Evan Light (twitter github blog) Jeff Schoolcraft (twitter github blog) Discussion George Bush misquote Cashboard Non-payment/Late payments Lack of Communication Working for a client is like a dating relationship Subcontracting Blame Local vs. Remote Corporate Culture Find clients who are willing to learn Communicate before you fire the client Watch out for people who push back on non-negotiables in your client The client must sign a contract It makes a difference if the client appreciates your work If things become emotional, just nod and say "Thank you for the feedback." Watch out for long silent spells Zero Bullshit Policy We want clients to be more like business partners rather than masters (with us as servants) The Shrink Principle Have a website 3 day reminder from the billing system F*** you, pay me. Make sure you get a deposit Be helpful and professional Punctuality for meetings Overused relationship metaphors Fire them as soon as possible if it can't be saved Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port Picks The Secret of Consulting by Gerald Weinburg (Evan) The SaaS class at UC Berkeley (Jeff) The SaaS book for the UC Berkeley class (Jeff) Stanford on iTunes U for iOS (Jeff) FutureRuby talk by Dr Nic (Eric) F**k it (Eric) Hubspot (Chuck) The Third Tribe (Chuck)