Flying Solo on the Web

Remy Sharp's story of becoming a freelancer, shared advice and what you can do to connect with the web community.

Transcript

1. Flying solo on the web Remy Sharp • Portsmouth University http://www.flickr.com/photos/bored-now/4980859475/
2. Hello students \o. •Freelance web work •Finding the web community
3. Wha…who? http://www.flickr.com/photos/fromthefront/8046625498
4. Left Logic
5. full-frontal.org
6. Book
7. Side & Open Projects
8. How I started
9. •Didn't finish university •Sandwich year with a startup (for 9.5 years!) •Agency with side project, that became the product
10. Growth
11. Commuting = Spare time = Productivity
12. Going alone
13. Why freelance?
14. "Freelancer"? I digress.
15. Why not?
16. Isolation
17. Cafés
18. Co-working spaces
19. Shared office
20. Income
22. Change of (physical) situation
23. Admin
24. "non billable admin"
25. 1. Accountants 2.Book keepers 3.freeagent.com
26. Having to plan your own work
27. You're responsible for your own destiny.
28. The good parts
29. You're responsible for your own destiny.
30. Variety ☛ Always pushing yourself
31. •Side projects •Experiments •Distractions "I bet you couldn't..." •Different disciplines hardware hacking, etc
32. Get work from your existing connections
33. Let work find you
34. Pay
35. Your day £rate h p://cole007.net/blog/130/freelance-rates-survey-2012
36. How to quote •letsfreckle.com •getharvest.com •toggl.com •Spreadsheet
37. Contracts!
38. Finding the web community
39. Share
40. 1 2 3 h p://adactio.com/journal/1550/
41. Source != DOM
42. Blog
43. "I've nothing to say" http://www.flickr.com/photos/27082909@N00/4352017762
46. Twi er, IRC, Stackoverflow
47. Get published
48. Speak at an event
49. Learn
50. Where to start •scrunchup.com (for young devs & designers) •khanacademy.org (CS) •Subscribe to podcasts (huffduffer.com) •Newsle ers (html5 weekly, etc) •Books (!) •Videos, YouTube
51. What? • The trinity: HTML, CSS & JavaScript • Browser quirks, OS quirks, device quirks • JavaScript libraries jQuery, Angular, Ember, etc, etc, etc... • Developer tools • Responsive (design & implementation) • PhotoShop, Fireworks, etc, etc, etc...
52. What? In truth: All the things :(
53. What? Devs: learn some design & typography Designers: learn how to code a web page
54. Network!
55. Network in real life http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcthiele/6419183469
56. Network in real pubs http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcthiele/6419183469
57. Meetups
58. If there isn't one: start one. h p://lanyrd.com/blog/2012/evening-events/ h p://www.quirksmode.org/coh/
59. Conferences
60. How do you find them? 1. meetup.com 2. lanyrd.com 3. linkedin.com
61. Cornerstones 1. Learn (and from your failures) 2.Do something you love (and get paid) 3.Meet people IN REAL LIFE! 4.Have a supportive partner
62. Be hungry. Questions? — Thanks, @rem