scaling success as a freelance app developer
DESCRIPTION
Slides from Dru Clegg's presentation given at the December BYU CocoaHeads MeetingTRANSCRIPT
SCALING SUCCESS
AS A FREELANCE APP DEVELOPER
)
WHERE I STARTED
Interior Design Program at Savannah College of Art and Design
WHERE I ENDED UP
Engineering Program Analyst at Solutionreach in Lehi, UT
ABOUT MEDru Clegg | @DruClegg
You’re indecisive most of the time
you don’t like talking
to people
b
you hate coding standards
!
YOU HAVE LOTS OF BILLS AND NO SAVINGS
#
you get frustrated easily and
lose patience
you hate refactoring
you think freelancing
is easy money
you think work will come to
you
A FEW QUESTIONSRaise your hand if…
BEGIN NETWORK SCHEDULE
SPECIALTY
VALUE
ENDHIRING SHARE
PROJECTS
HOW TO START
I
PRESENTATION SUMMARY
JOBS
BEING THE BEST
HOW TO SCALE
II
HABITS
QUALITY MONEY
HOW TO START
GET OUT THERE
B
!
I
BIZ CARDS
name, twitter, email, what you do
moo.com
EVENTS
meetups, user groups, school
activities
eventbrite.com
meetup.com
SOCIAL
keep it clean, up to date, and stay
active
linkedin.com
twitter.com
keep in touch
set reminders if you have to
ming.ly
bL 4 ]
start networking like your life depends on itNETWORK
how else will people know about you?MARKET YOURSELF
SOCIAL MEDIA: linkedin, twitter, instagram, etc.
PERSONAL WEBSITE: blogposts, portfolio, resume, contact form
ELANCE www.elance.com
YEEPLY www.yeeply.com
ODESK www.odesk.com
FIND A JOB
JOBS EXIST. FOR SURE.
Meetings
Phone Calls
Social Media
Confluence/JIRA
29 %
49 %
11 %
7 %
4 %
MASTER YOUR SCHEDULEtime management is key
desktime.com rescuetime.com
SET YOURSELF APART
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
• don’t be afraidIDENTIFY YOUR SPECIALTY
K
Troll developer communities to find out what’s going on.
BFamiliarize yourself with the latest SDKs
and APIs.
Be good at what you do. If not, no amount of business wisdom will save you.
QWrite apps and get them through App
Store review.
#Spend a lot of money
on the app store. Duh.
PUBLISH APPS DEV COMMUNITIES STAY UP TO DATE TRY OUT OTHER APPS
BE THE BESTinvest in your success
»Put a dollar amount on your time
»Learn on your clients’ dime
»Don’t lose yourself
»Everything you do doesn’t need a price tag
INCREASE YOUR VALUE• keep raising your rates
HOW TO SCALE
DEVELOP GOOD HABITS
BII
and the clients that pay you for completing themMANAGING PROJECTS
TOOLS: use tools to keep up with your project requirements and communicate frequently with clients
projectbubble.com
thrivesolo.com
triggerapp.com
podio.com
!
STANDARDS: establish coding standards inline with Apple best practices
Work to ensure your code is self-documenting
REVIEWS:
•phabricator.org
•atlassian.com
•codifferous.com
!
MANAGING QUALITY
hire those you work well with
only hire from referrals within your network
HIRING EMPLOYEES• avoid it as long as possible
FRESHBOOKS www.freshbooks.com
XERO www.xero.com
SHOEBOXED www.shoeboxed.com
MANAGING MONEY
GROUPS: volunteer to speak at user group meetings or local events GITHUB: contribute to open source projects STACK OVERFLOW: answer questions
REVIEW: reach out to other developers who may need code reviews
TESTIMONIALS: have clients write them for your website
TWEET: give advice and use hashtags
monitor your reputation and analyze your frequently tweeted topics- use www.twylah.com
MANAGING REPUTATION• share and give back where you can
QUESTIONS
and
ANSWERS
R" Go ahead. Ask away.
B