What you need to know as a freelance programmer. Mastering freelancing from scratch: where to start and in what direction to move. Never take your workplace lightly.

07.11.2019

2.5 years ago, I was still studying at the university, getting a higher education in the specialty - customs. Being a creative person, having studied for more than 3.5 years, I realized that being a customs officer is not for me. At the age of 18, the choice to go to study in this specialty was made unconsciously.

I began to think about what I want to become. Considering the fact that we live in the period of the “4th Industrial Revolution”, when everyone and everything goes online, I realized that we need to develop in the field of it, digital. I started by learning programming languages, but almost immediately realized that it was too boring for me personally (this does not mean that programming is a boring process, just to each his own). But even then, I registered on one exchange, where people perform small tasks and get little money for it.

The main thing is to act

If you want to change something, change it. To do this, you have absolutely all the tools. Now, in order to learn something, you can only have a phone and wi-fi. Start small, keep learning and keep moving forward.

From my first order (it was the layout of one block on the site), I earned 113 rubles! And he was terribly happy about it. But since layout and programming are not for me, without thinking twice, I took an order to create logos (not one, but 4 at once!). Somehow I was lucky that the customer gave me the task, since I didn’t have a design portfolio at all, only one positive review. During the evening I completed this order and received my 1200 rubles! The stakes are going up ;)

mindfulness

Realizing that the current higher education that I received would not give me anything, but only take it away, I made a firm decision and simply took the documents away, leaving the university. It is very important to be aware these days. Don't lie to yourself and fight your fears.

Having delved into the topic of design, looked at a couple of lessons, read a couple of books, I began to feel more confident and registered on one of the largest exchanges in Runet, starting to take orders already there.

In general, in short, in the first month I earned 27,000 rubles. From scratch. Absolute zero. All I knew and was able to do before that was fill and type text in Photoshop. Every month I increased my earnings by filling my portfolio with interesting work and raising the price.

Freelancing is work

Many people think that freelancing is when you wake up at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, sit at the computer all day and do nothing special. But it's not. If you want to earn money remotely, then you will have to work, and sometimes, work even more than a regular employee. But it gives its results.

Freelancing has a lot of advantages. Now this is one of the best earning options if you want to see this world, and not sit in a gray office and spend several hours of your life driving to this very office. But in order to be successful in your activities, being a freelancer, you need to follow certain principles. Discipline and self-control is one of the most important. If you miss deadlines, do not respond to messages on time, then your success will fail. So be prepared for self-discipline.

After six months of freelancing

After 5 months, earning an average of 50-60,000 rubles, my girlfriend and I decided to fly to Spain and live there for 2 months. We rented a room through Airbnb, which was almost like a studio, bought tickets, took laptops and flew away.

Before the flight, so that my girlfriend and I would have more money and a chance not to stay in another country with empty pockets, I taught her the basics of design, showed her how to work in flash, created an account on a freelance exchange and we became a small “family of freelance designers” .

While in Spain, I also took orders, completed and made money. The euro exchange rate by that moment was already in the region of 70-80, but this did not prevent us from feeling comfortable there, because the prices are almost the same as in Moscow, something is even cheaper and better.

After returning home, to Russia, a couple of months later we flew away again. This time for 1 month, to Montenegro, to the ancient city of Kotor. Living near the mountains, breathing clean and fresh air is wonderful. But that's another story.

Portfolio

A lot depends on your portfolio, especially if you are a designer. It is important to take this issue seriously from the very beginning. It is better to have 2-3 cool, full-fledged cases in your portfolio that you pack from A to Z than 30 incomprehensibly designed pictures that you store on the cloud.

My profile on Behance (already reorganized into an agency profile, before that it was personal).Behance- a global platform where professionals from all over the world post their work: designers, photographers, global web studios, etc. It is considered the best place to place the best works and make yourself known to the whole world.

Our days

Now, after almost 2.5 years, I continue to actively develop in this area. I registered an individual entrepreneur, opened my OMO agency, managed to work with larger clients, such as TomTailor, 1-OFD, Logaster, Tulikivi, etc. There is a small team, but there are plans to expand, we need cool specialists (designers, frontend "ers, copywriters ). We are engaged in complex packaging of companies with an emphasis on modern and thoughtful design.

This year I also plan to visit the states and enter a new market. This is just the beginning.

By the way, if you are already working with Western companies, I will be glad to talk to you. And in general - if current heads of web studios, digital agencies read this article - write to me, I am for expanding ties and useful partnerships.

Respect

Respect and the ability to communicate with other people is a key success factor. Whether you are a freelancer, a businessman or a janitor. If you speak respectfully, address a stranger to you (even if you write it online on VK), do not be rude and do not bend your fingers, then you will be treated the same way. When working with clients, this is a very important point.

As a result, I will sign an action plan, a working scheme, how to switch to freelancing and start earning online:

1 - Decide what you like to do. Think about what your strengths and in what. There are many books available to help you figure this out. One of them.

2 - Find 2-3 types of activities and study them as much as possible. But don't waste months and years on it. Everything must be done quickly and clearly.

3 - Start testing your strength. Yes, get started right away.

4 - Register on the exchange, take the first orders for minimal money (or even for free, for reviews and personal experience). In addition to exchanges, orders can be searched in social networks, through your VK or FB page, through your friends and acquaintances.

5 - Decided that you want to do exactly this (let's say design)? Then start packing your portfolio and delve into this topic - read, watch, study.

6 - At the start, until you have acquired regular customers, look for new orders every day. Work harder and harder. Complete your portfolio and delete outdated work.

For whom and why?

To begin with, let's figure out who can be interested in all this at all and try to answer a simple and reasonable question “do I need it?”.

The easiest way is if you have already thought about freelancing as the main way to earn money and an alternative to traditional work. Some office workers not satisfied with the salary in the current position, others are tired of the rhythm of life from “9 to 5 from Monday to Friday”, someone is just an introvert who finds it difficult to stay in long-term contact with people. Everyone may have their own reasons, but in general, most of them have one thing in common - the feeling that something is wrong and something needs to be changed. As for me, by the end of my second year at my first firm, I lost all motivation to go there 5 times a week and it got to the point that I began to seriously think about changing my profession. Fortunately, the decision to quit and start working independently helped put everything in its place and I was finally convinced that I was doing exactly what I was supposed to. Just in the wrong place and in the wrong format. So the advice for all the doubters in this case is simple - try it, freelancing can be exactly what you were looking for.

If you already have a job in the office that suits you absolutely and there are no doubts or disturbing thoughts about it in principle - well, I think you have few reasons to look in the direction of freelancing. If you feel like you're in the right place working for a company, then it's probably your element and a sudden change of course can only hurt. Indeed, why change something that already works? The main thing is to be honest with yourself in the assessment current position affairs.

Another category of developers who, in my opinion, should not rush into the decision to plunge headlong into freelancing are beginners with no experience, students, young and green professionals. In most cases, for you, as a developer, a year of work in a company can be more useful and productive than a few years in freelancing. Firstly, many companies have special internship programs aimed precisely at quickly obtaining the necessary practical knowledge. Secondly, you can devote yourself and your time only to improving the skills of a programmer, without being distracted by learning the intricacies of working with the same Upwork, finding clients and other less important things. Thirdly, you will get a real idea of how this whole “kitchen” is arranged from the inside: how programmers work, how they interact with each other, with managers, designers, this is a really valuable experience that should not be neglected. And fourthly, having at least a minimum amount of practical knowledge and a couple of works in the portfolio, it will be much easier to start freelancing in most cases. Thus, the transition to freelancing as the next stage of your development can be more natural and painless than a clean start from scratch.

What if it doesn't work? We dispel the main myths and fears.

Let's say that you still feel an irresistible desire to become a freelancer, but there are still too many “buts” that prevent you from taking the last step. I will try to make out the main points that I myself or my freelance friends encountered. I'm sure at least a few of the following points bother you too:

Freelancing is unstable, I have a family/credit/mortgage/rental housing, I can't take risks. A fair concern, but where there are no risks? Decisions without risks, as they say, lead to boring and predictable results. In truth, there is a chance that you will be in a less risky position in a year or two of freelancing, having, say, a pumped Upwork profile or an established client base than having worked the same time in organization X (as long as it is not Google or Facebook, of course). Any organization can suddenly be liquidated, and its employees can be reduced or simply fired. Unfortunately, this is not a hypothetical possibility and one cannot be insured against such situations even when working in a respected and established company. Not so long ago, this happened to several of my former colleagues, whom they unilaterally and without much ceremony said goodbye through an email like “Hello! You've been made redundant." People left out of such a company are much more vulnerable than an independent developer who has lost one or two clients. Why do I think so? The main reason is to find new project freelancing will still be easier and faster. At a minimum, because you are unlikely to have to go through full-fledged interviews for each position of interest, there will be less bureaucracy and delays in the process, and with 15 completed projects in the portfolio and a bunch of positive reviews on Upwork, few people will ask you to write a bubble sort during the interview process. Nevertheless, it’s still worth preparing for the transition to “free bread”: for example, saving up a certain amount in reserve and finding clients even before leaving your current job, no one can forbid you to interview before dismissal. Whether to advertise this fact to colleagues and superiors is up to you.
I won't be able to find a job and will have to go back to the office. Finding your very first order can be really quite difficult, especially when we are talking about Upwork: the deadline can be weeks and even, in extreme cases, months. The situation may be exacerbated by a lack of skill and/or lack of live examples of your work, i.e. empty portfolio. However, this is still a surmountable obstacle, in a pinch you will have to improve your skills or take on a low-paid contract for the sake of the first positive feedback and the completed project, which will fall into the piggy bank of your profile and serve as some kind of item in the portfolio. I went through this process in 2-3 weeks and already my second contract lasted about a year and brought me a lot of profit, including making my profile much more attractive due to the hours worked on Upwork during this time. Several of my acquaintances overcame the same path and in the end no one was offended, and I have not yet met the situation that someone eventually did not find a job in practice. We live in the digital age distant work is becoming a normal phenomenon even in much more ossified and conservative areas than software development, so I don’t think it’s worth worrying about this especially.
I don't know English well enough. Fair, first of all, for Upwork or any other foreign exchange. Generally speaking, if you really want to, you can also find Russian-speaking clients, even on these same foreign exchanges (I had several contracts with Russian clients on Upwork). However, it is not at all necessary to deprive yourself of most of the opportunities and vacancies due to problems with the language, so if everything is really bad with English, then it is worth pulling it up in one way or another. In the ideal case, right while communicating with a foreign client within the framework of the current project: even after a few months of active correspondence, you can make good progress in the level of proficiency, the main thing is that the person understands you, perfect pronunciation and grammar are not required in 9 out of 10 cases and most often customers understand that you communicate in a non-native language and are loyal to this. Moreover, many clients themselves may know English worse than yours. In addition, knowledge of English has never harmed anyone (especially a programmer!) and there is simply no better incentive to force yourself to finally pull it up. I started with a “standard” set - lessons at school and university, most of which, of course, was passed over by the ears. Nevertheless, this proved to be enough to find the first orders and, in a couple of years, to pull up the written possession to a more or less acceptable and not misunderstood level.
I work for a company and I'm afraid to quit... because I'm afraid that I will disappoint the company, colleagues / I'm afraid that the boss will scold me / and in general, quitting is bad! A particularly relevant point for those who work in their first company have never faced the dismissal process before. As for me, there is nothing terrible in it, it is an absolutely natural and normal procedure, both from the bureaucratic side and from the purely human side. You have already contributed to the development of the company and have devoted a significant part of your time and effort to it over the past few months or even years. The employer, in turn, kindly provided you with money in exchange for your services, both parties fulfilled part of their transaction in full. According to the law, in extreme cases, you may be asked to work out the required 2 weeks from the moment of the application if everything goes into official status, or you will be asked verbally to finish your business and complete the project, for example. Most leaders are sympathetic to this process and most often the parties disagree on a good note. The turnover in our industry is high, so most likely and especially no one will dissuade you from leaving, since the process of replacing departing employees with new ones has been established. If the bosses interfere with the dismissal process - well, here's another proof that the decision to leave the company was the right one. In the end, you have one life and only you have the right to decide what you do in it.
I won't be able to work from home normally. Really, who will force me to maintain the schedule? And how can you work when the new season of your favorite series is out or the weather is so wonderful outside? Jokes aside, but these questions will not be settled by themselves for many people and can become a real problem. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to give universal advice here, a lot here depends only on you and your personal qualities. Try to set aside a separate work room that will become your home office, where no one will disturb you. Don't want to work from home? Look for a cafe or co-working space nearby, this can be a good alternative (or addition) to working from home. Think about your schedule, what part of it will be occupied by work, and what part - personal life. In general, try to prepare yourself in advance for what you are getting into. new way development, leading to high responsibility, proactivity and self-organization. Somewhere it will not be easy, but the result of this process will not keep you waiting and will positively affect both your professional skills and other areas of your life. I also recommend reading the notorious REMOTE book by 37signals, perhaps you will find something useful in it.
What if my skills (technology stack, programming language) are not in demand on freelance? If you work with websites or mobile applications, then you have nothing to worry about, some things in these areas are more in demand, some less, the average rate may also vary, but you will find a job one way or another. I think this is true for designers as well. As for the desktop, system and low-level programming and other more highly specialized things, it’s already more difficult here, I recommend studying the demand before making turning decisions. On Upwork, for example, there are not so many such vacancies in the background of web and mobile development.

Thanks for reading :) I will try to publish the next article on Habré and in my newly created blog in the near future.

UPD: Let me add, perhaps, an explanation to the somewhat provocative headline, which aroused indignation among some commentators. So what do I personally mean by "working for yourself".

1) Working legally, you register yourself as an individual entrepreneur - an individual entrepreneur, which already partly hints at some differences compared to working for hire in an office.

2) You do not have a direct supervisor and a boss-subordinate relationship. Ideally, you are building partnerships with your customers rather than trying to be in any form of submission.

3) When you freelance, you work for yourself in the sense that you develop your own profile and portfolio. Here's a simple example: all the projects that you were involved in developing as part of your position in the company obviously belong to the company and its client, and not to you. I'm not sure about the legal intricacies, but I heard a version that the development right does not remain with the contractor, but is registered with the organization that hired him. But this is all boring, let's take another example: my friend quit his job at an outsourcing company (websites in the first place). In his naivete, he posted the projects he worked on for the company on his Upwork portfolio. A few days later, his former manager contacted him and hinted that it was not worth doing this and that the projects should be deleted. Quite by chance, the clause of the contract contained a corresponding clause confirming the legitimacy of his request. So it goes. Thus, after working for several years in such a company, a person in fact does not have projects in his portfolio, all his works belong entirely to the organization in which he worked.

4) You don’t have the “everything for the good of the company” nonsense: let’s work on the weekend for the good of the company, let’s work hard and work without pay during a difficult time for the company, let’s write an article on the company blog for the good of the company. Who needs this hypocrisy? Everyone works for himself and his personal needs and goals, working for yourself you do not need to hide it.

5) You and only you are responsible for your successes and failures. You yourself will be held accountable for your failure, but for your success, you also receive gratitude from the client in the first place, and not your organization.

Many programmers prefer to work from home, in a relaxed environment. And if you are also tired of the office, traveling to and from work, you have two ways: in the state of the company or freelancing. Domestic business has long appreciated all the benefits of remote work. About 20% Russian companies use this form of cooperation.

But there is another way that allows you to work with projects of your choice and determine the level of income yourself, this is real freelancing. Here we have collected as much information as possible about how and where to receive orders, what difficulties await you along the way, and what you need to avoid problems with the law.

Freelancer's first steps

Think carefully before you quit and go completely freelance. Weigh all the pros and cons. Make sure that you are able to provide yourself with financial means for at least the next 3 months. Perhaps at first your income will be significantly less than at your previous place of work. And no one can guarantee the availability of orders to a freelancer for a beginner.

Take care in advance to create a portfolio with samples of your the best works. This can be done after the end of the working day or on weekends. You can work on projects that are open source, create small turnkey Internet sites, if possible, take small projects as a part-time job. All this can be included in the portfolio.

It is also helpful to make your own website and post your portfolio there. You can also use third-party platforms for portfolios, for example, on freelance exchanges. But this is not always convenient. And it’s easier to link to one site in different projects, rather than uploading examples of work for each site separately.

The site is ready, the portfolio is posted. What to do next?

Service announcements

Find a bulletin board online and post on it. brief information about yourself (offer services). Sooner or later, your ad will get responses. It is recommended to use several boards at once, this will increase the chances of success.

Freelance exchanges

This method involves working within one or more freelance exchanges. Here, customers post projects, and you respond to interesting offers and compete with colleagues. Often the administration of the exchange performs the function of an intermediary also in financial matters which guarantees fraud protection.

International exchanges

99designs - a very good platform for those who combine programming with design. The advantages of the exchange: full legality, high wages, a guarantee of protection from unscrupulous customers. But there you will be taken seriously only if you have a portfolio that confirms professionalism. You will also need a passport to verify your identity.

freelancer.com - suitable for freelancers with professional graphics skills. Be sure to post a portfolio and specify a PayPal wallet.

Toptal - one of the best platforms for IT specialists, but only the most qualified and gifted will be able to work there. Designers also work here (specializing mainly in UI / UX).

Envato Studio - a platform for WordPress lovers. Most often, customers here require adaptive HTML layout of the “image” developed for them. Sometimes you need full-fledged themes for WP. It should be noted that you can try to sell your themes on the resource ThemeForest . It is an integral part of the Envato site network.

Upwork - the most famous freelance site. On average, one project here can earn 60,000 rubles. But the competition is huge, and there is a lot of dumping from programmers from the “third countries of the world”. Distinctive feature site is the presence of a large number of tests for professionalism. Their results can be used as a useful addition to the portfolio. Similar tests are found on other resources, but here they have great authority.

Fiverr - is distinguished by a large number of orders worth 5-10 dollars each (although, in fairness, you have to pay 10 times more for such work). It is advisable to work here for some time only if you do not have more profitable orders.

Gigster - only highly qualified specialists (programmers, designers, project managers) are involved here. All activities are carried out in teams.

Russian-language exchanges

Freelansim - platform from the famous professional community Habr. There are many orders various categories. Most often, site editing is required.

Freelance.ru and FL.ru - one of the most demanded domestic resources. The competition on them is even higher than on similar foreign sites.

Yukon - suitable for freelancers seeking to maintain maximum anonymity. Payments are made, among other things, in cryptocurrency.

You can also search for projects on work-zilla , weblancer and many other less popular venues.

Warning

Sometimes the customer first asks to do a test task. In this case, he should send a link to your portfolio. If he still insists on his own, demand an advance payment for test work. The best option would be to sign a contract. If this is not possible, there are two ways: prepayment or the use of "safe transactions" services, which are provided by almost every exchange. Here, the customer's funds are reserved on the site's accounts. And the payment is made after the completion of projects.

Why your activity needs to be legalized

At first glance, the tax office does not know about your activities if no one reports about it. However, please note that your bank account will receive financial resources listed from customers in different regions. As long as there are few of them and the amounts are small, they may not pay attention to you. But is it worth the risk? If the bank considers such transactions doubtful, it has the right to block your account and is obliged to notify the tax office.

As a result, financial losses await you:

Administrative fine in the amount of 200 rubles.
13% tax on income received in the last 3 years.
Penalty, as a delay in payment was revealed, in the amount of 1/300 of the Central Bank rate for each overdue day.
Penalty for unpaid tax (if there is intent), the amount of which is 40% of the amount of taxes not paid on time.
Penalties for failure to file returns, which can be up to 30% of the tax payment.

In addition, without legalization, you lose the length of service that is taken into account when assigning pensions.

Legalization methods

Let's take a closer look at how you can legalize and completely eliminate the likelihood of adverse consequences described above.

1. Individual entrepreneur (IP)

Advantages:

Funds from the account can be withdrawn without restrictions. The law recognizes them as the property of individuals. faces.
There is no need for authorized capital.
It will be easier for you to report to the regulatory authorities.
Insurance premiums on preferential terms.
Penalties for similar violations are not as severe as for LLCs.
Simplified bookkeeping.
Significant tax breaks.
More simple circuit registration. Does not require a large number of documents.
Smaller stamp duty.

Flaws:

There are restrictions on certain activities.
Responsibility for their actions with all property. May confiscate personal belongings on account of a debt.
Significant difficulties in trying to attract investors to expand the business.
Imperfection of the legislation regulating the activities of individual entrepreneurs.

2. Legal entity (LLC)

It makes sense to create an LLC if you are planning a full-fledged business with a brand, a team of employees, etc.

Advantages:

Wide opportunities for attracting investors. If successful, it will be possible to reorganize the company into an OJSC. This will help to become a participant in the global market.
Easier interaction with partners. You can easily get installments or arrange deferrals.
You will have branding that IP does not have.
Expanded list of banking services.
You are responsible for your obligations only with the funds of the LLC. You don't have to worry about the property and savings that belong to you as a citizen.

Flaws:

You can not freely dispose of money from the account. Justification is required, because the funds belong to the organization, not to the individual.
It is more difficult to register an LLC than an individual entrepreneur. You will also have to pay more funds towards the fee.
Reporting takes a lot of time and effort.
No simplification of accounting and taxation is envisaged.

Most often, freelancers draw up the status of an individual entrepreneur. The brand in such cases becomes their own name. As their income grows, the most successful of them are thinking about creating a full-scale business with their team. The next step is LLC. Further, we will only talk about IP, since the article is intended for beginners in this type of activity.

Registration procedure

IP status is issued within 5 days. It costs 800 rubles. The order is:

Determine the type of activity.
Choose a taxation system.
Pay the state duty in the amount of 800 r.
Prepare the following documentation:
- Application for registration of IP (you need to clarify in what form to submit it);
- Copy of civil passport;
- Receipt confirming the fact of payment of state duty.
Documents must be submitted to the local division of the Federal Tax Service.
If everything is fine with the documents, you will be issued a certificate of registration of IP.
It remains only to open a bank account, and you can start doing business.

You may not have to pay all registration fees. You can take advantage of one of the existing financial support programs for start-up entrepreneurs.

The choice of taxation is an important step in registering an individual entrepreneur. Let's look at the possible options in more detail.

OSNO (common system)

The organization maintains records in accordance with general rules. Reporting is submitted once every 4 months. This scheme pays for:

Personal income tax - they are subject to income of citizens. The current rate is 13%.
Property tax individuals- the amount of payment is determined taking into account the inventory value of the property. A payment is charged in the range from 0.1% to 2.0% of this indicator.
VAT - it is charged on goods, services or works to be sold. Now the following rates are in effect: 0%, 10%, 20%.

USN - taxation under a simplified system. It involves the removal from individual entrepreneurs of obligations to pay VAT, personal income tax and property tax. All other taxes and fees are payable on general order(taxes on transport, land, water; contributions to Pension Fund and Foundation social insurance). USN is divided into 2 types:

STS income (rate 6%, reporting is submitted 1 time per year, payments are collected 1 time per quarter);
STS "income minus expenses" (they determine the rate in the range of 5-15%, reports must be submitted annually, paid 1 time per quarter).

For small and medium-sized businesses, the USN is much more profitable than the OSNO. It allows you to save a lot of money.

PSN involves the acquisition of a patent. Its cost can be considered as an alternative to tax payments. The maximum term of a patent is 1 year. System Features:

Not actual, but potential income (calculated in the Federal Tax Service) is taxed.
The rate is 6%.
The payment is made once a year.
There is no need to do reporting.
Unfortunately, if the income is less than the calculated one, the amount of the payment will not be reviewed. The funds paid will not be returned to you even if your activity turns out to be unprofitable at the end of the year.

Conclusion:if you decide to legalize, it is better to register under the USN. At the initial stages, this system is optimal.

Do not forget that in addition to taxes, there are also insurance premiums. Today's size insurance premium for IP is 32385 p. + 1% from the amount of income over 300,000 rubles. It is payable in any case, even if you are within a year entrepreneurial activity weren't doing.

Legalization for those who “combine” freelance and work

If you work in a company, but at the same time you periodically have part-time jobs, it is not advisable to register an individual entrepreneur or LLC. This will not only take time, but will also negatively affect your wallet. In such a situation, it is better to independently calculate the amount of additional income for the year and pay 13% income tax from it.

In the case when your activity consistently brings a good income, it is recommended to apply for the status of an individual entrepreneur. If the tax becomes aware of your "shadow" activities, you will face significant financial and temporary losses.

Pros and cons of freelancing: summing up

Freelancing can be done simultaneously on the stock exchange and offline. With the offline option, the client makes a decision, makes a choice, and already “warm” goes to you for help. On the Internet, however strange it may sound, you yourself are a client for a client. Due to high competition, many freelancers lower the prices for their services to the lowest possible. Therefore, before you quit your job and go freelance, think it over and weigh the pros and cons.

Freelancing cons

Huge number of competitors.
You need to create a solid portfolio that highlights your advantages over other programmers.
When working with foreign customers or on international exchanges, knowledge of languages is required (English is a must, preferably at least one of the popular ones in Europe (German, Portuguese, Spanish).
AT controversial situations(if the customer is dissatisfied with something) the exchange may take the side of the customer, and you will not receive payment. When working without intermediaries, only the conclusion of an agreement or 100% prepayment can protect your interests. Otherwise, there is always the risk of refusal to pay.
Unstable income. You do not have a rate, and in the absence of orders, as well as during periods of illness and holidays, you do not receive anything. Freelancers don't get sick days.
You need to keep accounts and work for yourself as a manager.

Freelance pros

You can carry out your activities anywhere in the world if you have a computer and the Internet.
You choose projects and determine the level of your income.
Freelancing can be the start of a business. Many IT companies started with freelance activities.
You can cooperate with customers from any country and receive payment in any convenient currency.
Free schedule: only you decide when and how much you work, when you go on vacation or weekends.

We remind you once again that dismissal from a permanent job is a risky and not always justified action. Before taking such a step, you need to take care of creating a financial cushion. Assess your personal qualities. Clearly state the reasons that motivate you to start an independent activity. Explore the market for similar services. Assess the relevance of your knowledge and skills. Only after carefully weighing everything, you can proceed to the implementation of your plan.

Online life is no different from real life. To lie or not to lie is your own business. But a few simple rules negatively affecting your earnings is worth remembering:

you are not 18. The stereotype of an irresponsible schoolboy cannot be destroyed by anything
Your name is Vasya on VKontakte, Petya on the exchange, and WebMoney will give out that you are Masha. Few people think at the very beginning of their journey about their virtual profile, but in vain, then nothing can be changed. Think not only about the reliability of the input data, but also about their “purity”. If a user under your nickname is on the phpclub forum asking to teach him how to program, then be prepared for suddenly lost clients.
give the future customer as much information about yourself as possible: phone, Skype, ICQ, wallet and account numbers.
pay attention to social networks. Nothing compromises the performer like a VKontakte page containing swear words, swear words, etc.
put yourself in the place of the customer and check for purity and consistency of all this information through search engines
try to write without errors and typos. I think it’s not even worth talking about swearing in communication with the customer.

Get used to living in a new era ...

First order

So, registration is done. Next, you need to try to get an order. To be honest, for the first 2 years the cost of an hour of my work aspired to 0. There are a lot of options to earn money from a programmer on the stock exchange. Important to do right choice. You obviously won’t see big orders, you need experience and reviews. So the choice is something like this:

Small hacks and modules for popular CMS systems. This work is very good, you will be able to quickly gather around you regular customers who need to maintain sites. But the disadvantages include the lack of growth. CMS for housewives do not differ in the quality of coding, which means that you will have to constantly communicate with the redneck code and generate it. This will slow down your professional growth. In any work, mistakes are made, even small ones. The second drawback is the accumulation and difficulty of identifying errors in your work. You can choke on it. After all, you do not disappear after receiving the money, but honestly and free of charge correct the mistakes made in the code. Yes, and apologize to the client for each of them. The third disadvantage of small-scale coding is the contingent that needs it. You will have to get used to being bombarded with stupid questions and requests. The fourth drawback is the high rotation of customers. In other words - a lot of talk, but little money.
Parsing. Almost perfect work, despite the moral background. There is a lot of it, it dominates among orders. At the moment, you can easily find up to 20 offers per day on Russian-language exchanges. Huge opportunities for automation of work. Everything depends on you. Learn curl, sockets, html parsing libraries and of course regular expressions. It is advisable not to go in cycles in php. Before your eyes there are many examples of freelancers who earn as little scraping money no less than Moscow office programmers who like to talk about patterns during interviews.
Small scripts. Forms, small databases and other chores for less than $100. The worst possible direction. The risk of running into an inadequate customer in this category is very high. And all because most of the orders are generated by "housewives", the very ones who stamp everything from a business card to a store on WordPress and Joomla. Having stuffed their creation with everything that can be obtained in the public domain, they run to the exchange to order the missing functionality. The trouble is that their work is not much appreciated, which means that for a couple of dollars they will be ready to take out all your brains. Also, the disadvantages include the inability to accumulate and improve turnkey solutions, Your professional growth at first will strive skyward by leaps and bounds, knowledge will be required from a variety of areas, but this knowledge is entry-level and therefore, in the end, you will stall somewhere in the middle and wallow in this slag from shit-code concocted for $ 10 on quick hand.

This concludes the choice of newcomers. Further, you will be required to have programming experience and reviews on the exchange.

We start earning

Turnkey websites or development of modules on open-source engines. Designers who need a programmer to implement projects are spinning in this segment. Also, poor web studios, to the detriment of their reputation, are asked to create a site using Joomla, pulling the design and finishing it a little. I'm completely unfamiliar with this direction.
how he avoided him like fire. Therefore, I will express my opinion based on logic, and not experience. Study popular engines: see which one gives you pleasure and go for it.
If you treat your duties professionally, then customers will definitely gather around you.
Writing small engines. If you are not looking for easy ways, then this is your choice. You will have to get used to the idea that you will not be able to get a quick return. As you grow professionally, your views on the architecture and implementation of web applications will definitely change. And for each change of views, you will have to pay with your time or money, which, by the way, are synonymous with freelancing. It is best to work with intermediaries - small web companies that will send you orders from $200 with non-standard functionality. The intermediary takes care of communication with the client, drawing up the TOR and is often a more obligatory and stable partner.
It is better to avoid private customers, otherwise you will become an interrogator, and your work will turn into continuous conversations and drawing up technical specifications. For all the time of my work, I met a tiny fraction of customers who knew what they wanted, the rest flew in the clouds. New client- it is always a risk of running into an inadequate person or a scammer. Only your own experience of communication will help to recognize them.
Frameworks. In recent years, this direction has been constantly growing. By learning one or more popular frameworks, you will not only get professional growth, but also the opportunity to work in a team on a large project. However, you should never forget that you are programming in a language, not a framework. Another danger of frameworks is that you solve problems that will become irrelevant when this framework retires. Do not repeat the mistakes of jquery programmers who have never seen clean code in their lives and connect the library to write something like
$(".btn").css("display","none");

Communication with the client

So. You have created a virtual working image for yourself and decided on the front of future work, what's next?

Evaluation of work. Freelancers are surprisingly fond of round numbers. You give him a task, and in an hour he gives you $ 1000 with a smart look. The probability that a freelancer is a lazy person and called the price from the ceiling is extremely high, and personally, such amounts immediately arouse suspicion in me. Therefore, an important point of freelancing is the evaluation of work. Mainly work hours. The cost of an hour usually ranges from $3 to $35 depending on experience and greed. The number of hours is calculated based on the TOR. Only your own experience can help you here. I break the project into pages and blocks. For each block, I set the estimated execution time in minutes (this is where we see a real need for using all sorts of time managers). To the amount received, I add a certain number of hours to talk with the client and debug the project. We multiply the received amount by the cost of one hour of work and give the result to the client. To complete the picture, you can still reset the estimate for him. Even if the price is more than the client expected, he will hardly argue. At best, it will offer to cut down part of the functionality.
Prepayment. You can't work without prepayment. The more experience you have, the more you ask for an upfront payment. Ideally, you need to demand all the money for the project at once. already. This will save you from unnecessary communication with the customer on the topic of finance. You are a creative person and you do not need to fill your head with a financial routine. At the dawn of my work, I worked without prepayment, I proudly declared this to my customers, and this certainly helped me to find orders. The project was divided into parts and after the implementation of each of them, the client, as planned, had to transfer part of the money. But here's the problem: you completed the first part of the project, sat at the monitor for a week from 8 am to 10 pm, shipped the result to the client for testing, and... that's it. Day of silence, another. Your client is busy and greedy. One quality of his character does not allow him to pay for the work without checking, and another to allocate time for this very check. And like any cynic, he didn’t give a damn about you from the high bell tower and he doesn’t care about the delay. Will you start the next part of the project? No... Realizing that a hole is starting to form in the budget, you will take on another project. And this, in turn, is fraught with the waste of a huge amount of additional time. After all, your greedy client is not a deceiver, and in a week he will still check the project and perhaps even pay for it, but he will definitely cut the amount, noticing errors. And you will have to do the project further, and all thoughts have disappeared from your head for a week of inactivity, and you have to spend time restoring your memory. Worse than that, you no longer have time, on the other side of the country, another client is waiting for the results of your work. Such clients are quite common. Therefore, at any convenient opportunity, demand an advance payment and as much as possible.
Time estimate. I notice that many people, and programmers in particular, suffer from an overestimation of their strengths. You look at the TK, and “What to do there, a trifle” is spinning in your head and you name it without thinking about the deadline or even worse, you take one job, another, a third and you don’t understand that the collapse of time is close. It looks like it's all about to fall apart. And then at best you have to apologize to the customer. To avoid this, you need to keep a clear log of work. You should be aware of: how many hours a day, a week, you are able to spend. What is your potential for force majeure. It is very important to be able to correctly assess the amount of work, this also comes with experience. Write down how much you spent on a particular job, then analyze and draw conclusions.
Timing. Often freelancers forget to stipulate the deadlines for accepting a project. It's a paradox, but 50% of my clients take projects longer than I do them. There are no problems until you break the project into parts with payment for each of the completed parts. A freelancer is not considered a person, because he is not protected by the Code of Administrative Offenses, therefore, as practice shows, it is useless to appeal to people's conscience. People don't want to understand that they are delaying your RFP. Although I think many people understand everything and just enjoy it.
Client's choice. Can you program? This is not enough. Learn to communicate with people more. I studied for a long time, more than 4 years. And then he abandoned this thankless task. As I wrote above, it is more convenient and safer to work with intermediaries. Only his experience can save a freelancer from deception. Don't be careless and naive. Don't work on the client server. Don't work without payment. I am writing this phrase right now, but I myself know that at first I will have to work without prepayment.
TK. Here they often argue whether or not TK is needed. Everything is quite simple - TK is an extra cost. But this rule only works with old, proven, adequate clients who are confident in you, and you are confident in them. If we talk about new employers, then the lack of TK is a failed project. You leave it up to chance to surrender. If you think that TK is the answer to all questions, then you are mistaken. TK simply allows you to save time by eliminating a bunch of wrong steps. But this will not save you from an inadequate customer who changes his desires every day. By poking his nose into the TK, you will get litigation and blackmail. It is not profitable for you to argue over trifles, so you will have to swallow the insult and continue to work to your detriment or waste unpaid time arguing. Also, you can simply be put before a choice: continue working according to the tune of the customer or go through the forest. In this case, no one will pay you for the time spent. Even worse, they will write a complaint against you. A negative review in a freelancer's portfolio is like death. Few of the customers understand how much effort and time is invested in this profile. A rating is earned over the years, and deteriorates in an instant. It’s pointless that you write a negative review if, out of principle, they write nasty things in response to you and it doesn’t matter if they write the truth or lie. So make a deal. Every freelance site allows this. Let the site act as an intermediary in your contract.
Learn to refuse. If something does not suit you in the client, then it is better to refuse. It is not so easy to do this. Refuse clearly and politely. Finally, give some banal advice. Often, the client is not mentally prepared for a refusal and begins to dump the dialogue to the level of sracha. You should not get involved in a dialogue, you still won’t achieve understanding, but your mood and working mood will deteriorate. It doesn't matter to you that the last word is not yours, you should be above it. Do not try to explain to the client the reasons. An adequate person will simply say goodbye and leave, in the worst case, in English.

Good day to you, dear friends! Tell me a little secret and tell me your own fears get in the way? How many opportunities have you had to sacrifice because of an obsessive self-doubt? How often do you feel hurt and get mad at yourself for the fact that other people become successful and implement those ideas that you did not dare to implement? If you have never experienced such feelings, then I am amazed, because you are a real rock! If you are already accustomed to such sensations and resigned to their presence in your life, well, it's a pity, here I am powerless to change anything.

My article today is designed for those of you who, despite fear, are ready take risks and follow your dreams, desires and ideal life. In previous articles, I told you about the features of freelancing, showed you the strengths and weak sides the life of a free worker. Since you have a complete picture of the life of a remote worker, you have an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat it consists of, it's time to figure out how to become a freelancer from scratch.

What is a freelancer?

I am sure that many of you would appreciate the opportunity to go to your work office in a dressing gown and slippers, located just a couple of meters from the bedroom and kitchen. To make this dream come true, it is enough just to change your stable job in the company to a remote one. Interested in such a prospect? Then let's figure out what is freelance work on the Internet, and who is a freelancer.

If we hit back a little in hoary antiquity and go back to the Middle Ages, it will become clear that in those days freelancers were called freelance knights. Today, this title is worn by people who work from home and work on individual projects for a fee. Freelancers can be involved simultaneously in several areas of activity and work with several customers at once.

By the way, work is far from always remote, free workers are also found among builders who make repairs in apartments and houses, and among plumbers who skillfully repair pipes. Nevertheless, in the vast majority of cases, employers and contractors find each other precisely in the Internet. They also carry their working relationships there. In general, it was the growth in the popularity of the Internet that provoked the freelance boom and made this type of employment in demand.

In some way, individual entrepreneurs can also be considered freelancers, however, in no case should these two concepts be equated. This is because a freelancer is usually one single person hired to do a specific amount of work. But at individual entrepreneur there may well be a staff that he will supervise.

Freelance work remotely is complete lack of leadership, weekdays from Monday to Friday and strict planning of the working day from 9 to 18.

Counting money: how much can you earn?

Well, let's move on to the most interesting - counting money? I am sure that many of you are eager to find out how much freelancers earn, and what you can count on if you change jobs. I must say right away that earnings on freelance will largely depend on the amount of time you devote to work, the field of activity, your qualifications and experience. In addition, in many ways, your success will also depend on the ability present your services. Based on my own experience, I can safely say that an experienced freelancer can earn 2 or even 3 times more than his office colleagues in similar positions.

Well, if you translate experience, skill, qualifications and hard work into numbers, it turns out that the average freelancer earns about $ 500 a month. Moreover, this amount can be earned both by a person without education, and by a highly qualified specialist with higher education. In the case of freelancing, customers look directly at your skills and talents, and not at the color of the diploma. It is for this reason that such a profession ideal for students who are looking for work and are just gaining experience.

It is not at all rare that freelancers manage to get 2-3 thousand dollars per month. True, such amounts are most often earned professional designers, programmers and website optimizers. If you are not going to completely abandon your main job, continue your studies at the university or want to find a part-time job for the weekend, then the freelancing profitability for you will be about $ 150-200 per month. In general, not such bad money, is it?

Registration on the freelance exchange FL.RU

Who is freelance for?

If you don’t know where to start building your own freelance career, I suggest you first figure out what How close is this lifestyle to you?. To do this, it is enough to get answers to a few simple questions.

What personal qualities and skills should a good freelancer have?

Successful a remote worker is, first of all, a self-confident, resourceful, enterprising, active, flexible and, of course, organized person. In addition, you will need to learn how to work in the " multitasking". This skill is simply necessary in order to manage to carry out several projects at the same time and meet the deadlines agreed with the customer.

How to determine the amount of payment for services?

For beginner freelancers, this question often becomes a real stumbling block. To determine the amount of remuneration for your own work, I advise you explore websites and forums, which reveal the topic of the value of the profession in which you plan to earn remotely. In addition, a win-win way to find out the cost of working from home for newbies is to find out how much an hour of labor of a similar full-time specialist costs, and increase it by 25-50%(This amount includes additional expenses such as taxes, insurance, pension contributions, equipment and office supplies). Don't forget that at least a quarter of your work will consist of activities that you won't be able to pay for (this includes analytics, marketing, accounting, and the like).

If you get a chance, try to find out how much experienced freelancers who specialize in the same industry as you charge for their services. In order not to face the problem of how to make money on freelancing for a beginner, I advise you during the first working year to work at a slightly reduced rate. This will simplify the search for clients, allow you to quickly gain experience and declare yourself as a specialist.

Do your research

If you really want to learn freelancing for beginners and become a successful professional, you will have to careful analysis.

Try the work-zilla exchange with simple tasks

Step-by-step guide "How to become a successful freelancer"

Well, now let's figure out how to start working as a freelancer on the Internet, and what you need to have in order to succeed in this business.

Get a computer and free access to the Internet. Now your way to the office and back will look something like this: turn on the laptop - you are at work, turn it off - the working day is over. Remember! When you sit in front of the monitor screen, you are a first-class specialist, no more, no less. Try to develop a habit and bring it to the level of a reflex.
Create wallets in electronic payment systems. About that, you can find out in my separate article. However, in addition to the electronic purse in this payment system, I advise you to also get wallets in Yandex Money, Qiwi. Although this way payment for freelance services is the most convenient and in demand on the network, I advise you not to neglect the opportunity to receive money also for bank cards . Keep your debit card handy at all times. Personally, I use tinkoff bank card . By the way, it will not be superfluous to have a bitcoin wallet in your arsenal.
Installing software for your work and the normal functioning of the PC. It’s not enough just to put a laptop on the desktop, you also need to take care of its “stuffing”. Install a good and reliable antivirus on your computer, office products like Word and Excel, download a handy screenshot and an Internet browser in which you can bookmark the most frequently used sites and web pages. A program for reading books and other text files in pdf format will also come in handy.
Creation of accounts in popular social networks and their design. Since you will transfer all communication with customers online, you also need to take care of communication programs. In addition to having Email and pages on social networks, it makes sense to install skype, viber and whatsapp. In general, the more options for communication you find, the better. As for the design of profiles in social networks, they should look like quite formal and appropriate. The account must contain several of your real photos, in which you look well-groomed and attractive. Whatever it was, but your profile is a kind of resume, your business card on which the employer will evaluate you.
Choosing a profession, to which you have the makings and predisposition, in which you can develop as a professional. You can read about the most in-demand professions for a freelancer in 2017 in my separate article, but for now, let's take a quick look at the list of vacancies that can be found on sites for beginner remote workers.

Main list of professions and vacancies

So that you have an idea of what a freelancer does and can find the most suitable type of activity for yourself, I decided to sketch out a short list of the most popular and in-demand specialties on the Internet services market. That's what I did:

Completing tasks from 500 rubles on the Kwork exchange

Where to go in search of work?

It can be quite difficult for beginners at first - it is not clear where to look for customers, how to offer their services, which sites to monitor in order to find employment. To make this task a little easier, I will give you a few ideas, which will simplify the process of finding the first customers:

Register on specialized freelance exchanges. There are many sites on the network that bring together free performers and customers. I will present the best exchanges for remote workers a little further, but for now I advise you to think over the structure of your own portfolio and decide what you will write in your work account.
Browse vacancies on websites, portals and web projects that interest you. It is quite possible that your favorite online store is just looking for a remote operator to process orders, or perhaps the VKontakte group needs a new moderator.
Submit job search ads on specialized sites, study the offers already available on them. For example on hh website
Use your social media page as a platform for self-promotion. I talked about that in a separate article. Now we are talking about how to present your service by writing the appropriate advertising post and stick it on your wall.
Make a separate group on a social network, where you tell about your service, and promote it. Read about it in my article.
Become a regular visitor to thematic forums for finding remote work. Forums like searchengines.ru , seobuilding, lingvoda.ru , codeby.net and phpforum.su .

The main freelance exchanges

As for specialized exchanges, for employment, I recommend that you use the following services:

fl.ru . An excellent platform for finding customers and contractors in the field of IT technologies. Remote advertisers, programmers, webmasters and designers are the best labor force and interesting projects can be found right here. Here you can create your own directory, as well as explore the ranking of the best freelancers. By the way, the same service also has a store where you can put up for sale the fruits of your intellectual labor (articles, translations, site templates, and others).

Registering an account on the fl.ru exchange

weblancer . In my opinion, the most successful exchange for beginners who are just starting to surf the endless expanses of freelance. In addition to the fact that many diverse projects have been collected here, the site administration is quite strict in ensuring that scammers and swindlers do not appear on the service.

Registering an account on the Weblancer exchange

- the oldest and, perhaps, the best online freelance exchange in RuNet. Here you will have at your disposal a convenient mechanism for searching for projects of any level of complexity, and the opportunity to fully communicate with a potential customer. For a fee, you can raise your position in the freelancer rating.
Kwork . Innovative freelance exchange, which is famous for its non-standard approach to organization labor relations between customers and providers. This site is more like a store where all services are sold at a single price - 500 rubles.
Moguza.ru - online store of freelance services at a fixed price. Here you can sell your work for no less than 100 rubles. This approach to registration of labor relations solves the problem of large volumes of work and low wages.
Text.ru . A specialized copyright exchange where you can find writing jobs, sell ready-made articles, or order content for your own websites or groups on social networks.

Use the copywriting exchange Text.ru

For a more detailed list of all the exchanges where you can find orders, I will present in the article "The best exchanges for remote workers." Here you will find sites with inexpensive, but at the same time quite simple projects, as well as with foreign, complex, interesting and quite generous orders in terms of payment.

First steps

Well, so that your job search is crowned with success in the shortest possible time, here's to you a little briefing how to act newbie on the exchange:

We do not make mistakes: what do novice freelancers “undermine” on?

To ensure your remote worker career doesn't go down the drain and end before it even starts, take a look at some of the most common mistakes almost all green freelancers make and try to avoid them.

Never take your workplace lightly.

Despite the fact that many remote workers start their career at home, it makes sense to think about renting a separate office, workplace, or at least allocate a room in the apartment, equipping it as an office. Organization of the workspace is a must. Believe me, lying in bed with the TV on is extremely difficult to tune into a working mood.

Diversify your risks and never rely on a single customer

Even taking into account the fact that many companies treat freelancers with great respect, value their work and often pay more than their regular employees, you should not fall into complacency. No matter how valuable an employee you are, it is much easier to refuse your services than to fire an office employee.

Plan for periods of downtime and unemployment in your budget

Without a temporary absence of orders in freelancing, unfortunately, there is nowhere to go. That is why I advise you save a small amount every month as an emergency reserve in case one project is completed and another has not yet been found. Such financial protection your home front will allow you to accept downtime as something integral and mundane. Oh yes, do not forget that you will need money for the holidays. Because the vacation pay in freelance is not expected, you will need to take care of the financial component yourself.

Don't let things go by themselves

Your professionalism in what you charge the customer for should be on par with your professionalism in the matter of doing business. try about a quarter of the working day to devote to administrative and marketing matters. In moments of blockage, when a lot of work accumulates, it is easy to lose vigilance, stop looking for new customers and decide that workload is a constant phenomenon. Without control own business success is not possible. Hard times and serious difficulties will arise literally out of nowhere if you do not learn business management, you cannot bring debit to credit.

And finally, a few useful tips, which will help you at the start of your career as a remote worker:

Do not be afraid of difficulties at the beginning of the journey

The ability to go through thorns to the stars will be very useful to you in free swimming. The skills of self-motivation to work, planning working hours, the ability to find clients and arranging the workplace - all this will be simply necessary at first to lay a solid foundation for a freelance career.

Be careful and don't trust anyone

Make it your rule work only on prepaid. You don't have to be too gullible towards strangers if you don't want to be left with nothing. After the project is completed in full, do not rush to immediately transfer it to the customer. Submit a small portion for review, let the employer make sure the work is done and pay for it. Only after that you can safely send him work. If the person refuses to pay, say goodbye. You leave the advance payment to yourself in order to recoup the time and effort spent on the project.

Prepare terms of reference in advance and discuss the scope of upcoming work

Detailed TOR and specified scope of work is an integral part of your interaction with the customer. This will allow you to avoid misunderstandings with the employer about what you are taking money for and what you are obligated to do, it will insure you if you are required to implement more work than was agreed at the beginning.

Learn to say "No!"

Understand that You can't earn all the money in the world, and therefore it is necessary to learn to refuse people. Calculate your time so that it is enough to complete all orders within a predetermined time frame. Do not spray, because the quality of your work and, as a result, your reputation will suffer from this. Do not rush to load all your time with orders, because no one has canceled going to the movies, relaxing, implementing your own projects and just lying on the couch.

Open IP

The issue of paying taxes is a serious and, as a rule, unresolved problem by many freelancers. Register as an individual entrepreneur, regularly replenish the state treasury with taxes and sleep peacefully. The tax authorities will not break through your doors, and pension contributions will accumulate and work for the benefit of your old age.

Connect with like-minded people

It's not uncommon for freelancers to come together and work as a team to complete complex projects. You can find a vacancy for working in a group on one of the thematic forums. It is quite possible that such cooperation will develop into the opening of your own company, and you will be able to forget about work forever. In this case, you can search for customers through the same freelance exchanges.

Summary

In general, I can safely sum up and say that freelance is a great start for your own promotion, self-realization and earning really worthy money. In addition to the fact that you will have decent income, you will gain valuable experience, find new clients and be able to create an amazing portfolio, which, I want to say, will never be superfluous. The most important - never stop and never stop developing. If you feel like it's time to grow up as a professional and go free-swimming - go for it! You will always have time to return to your old office life, so do not be afraid of change.

That's all for me, dear friends. I sincerely wish you success in such serious undertakings. See you soon!

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