61 - Reflecting on freelancing and Reading Company of One

Last updated Dec 1, 2022 Edit Source

• Daily log

I’ve been consuming a lot of content about freelancing and gig work recently, including reading the book Company of One by Paul Jarvis. It’s been a great book so far and is getting me thinking about my priorities and how to move forward.

My desire to freelance was spurred by the desire to start my own freelancing/services business. I’m really interested in creating a business and entrepreneurship for the following reasons:

• I want to do some marketing, accounting, sales, etc. along with programming and solving problems. I see this as a fun way to learn more and gain more leverage.
• I want to create my own company culture of asynchronous work, and be able to define my own hours.
• I don’t want to have a limit on my earning potential.

I’m still digesting what that entails and how to get started, and am starting to understand the following:

• I will need to have concrete, marketable skills to make this work.
• If I transitioned to freelancing right now, I would probably make less than I do now after taxes, health insurance, retirement saving, etc.
• I will need to focus my skill-set in order to raise my earnings and improve my business.

Given that zero-knowledge and crypto doesn’t seem to be my bag - at least not right now - I need to figure out what to do to move forward towards this goal. The way I see it, at this stage I have two responsibilities: acquire and refine skills, and make sure that those skills align with the market needs. To that end, I see a couple of things I could do:

• Continuing to explore, but with a tighter band around my current skill set.
• Talking with some target customers to understand their needs, so I can tailor the skills and experience I’m gaining towards where I want to go.

In the end, I think getting the necessary skills and experience through traditional employment is an inefficient route. I think hackathons and independent learning could speed this process up, given that it is informed by the market needs and shared in public.

I'm a freelance software developer located in Denver, Colorado. If you're interested in working together or would just like to say hi you can reach me at me@ this domain.