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Life as a Paid RO Dev
Posted by Happy,
in
Paid Dev Life
29 January 2015
·
1462 views
paid dev life underpaid expensive mistakes client updates
Being a Paid RO Dev seems great so far. There were some ups and downs. I would like to share some experience of mine, and mistakes that will hopefully help other paid devs out there if any.
Let's start with my msitakes before I pin point other paid dev's mistake.
Accepting tons of client:
In the past I accepted way more client than I can handle(current limited to 3). In result I got too much pressure and in the 4th client I was kinda dishonest when it came to the delivery date. I think it was fine to accept more if I was more honest and next time I sure will. But anyhow this client didn't go home sad, good thing I had another paid dev contact so I made him do the stuffs and it went well. Client was happy and I wasn't put in trouble xD But yeah next time, I'd either not accept or at least tell them with all honesty that the delivery is like this because i have other clients at hand at the moment and offer to look for someone else if they're in rush or can't accept my delivery ETA.
Underpaid:
This is way way back before I decided to be a paid RO dev and was just doing other freelancer tasks such as project management. Being underpaid or accepting projects in a rate/cost that is very low that you feel demotivated to do it is kinda unhealthy for you and your client. But it all happens at first and after a while, I got hang of it and now I mostly give out fine prices that I am happy to work with so that the client gets high quality work and I also get high quality payment xD
The challenge is when you don't even know your worth. So I have to read tons of stuff to know my worth. In the end, no matter what you do for others freelancing is freelancing, don't think you should get paid low cause its RO dev only if you're going to be unhappy for the cost that you said. Think of your hourly rate, then think how long it would take for you to finish the job and give the client a max and minimum time, with all honesty. If you finish it sooner, then he pays lesser, if you finish it at max then he pays more. Simple as that, or take the average or best guess and make that the fix quote. Be honest because if your client finds out, he's not coming back.
Experience with other Paid Devs
Now it's time to point out other paid devs mistakes based on ppl I worked with. Hopefully you don't get mad but really, I feel like everyone should know this. People look for a paid dev because of either low quality by free devs/no free devs or they want high quality service, and these mistakes are all about that.
Underpaid after all these years:
I've seen some paid ro devs with years of experience, released a bunch of stuff, but still the price is so low and guess what. The client is unhappy with the service provided. I don't know what's wrong really, or if the developer is even happy with the price. There is no problem with increasing cost if you can't do anything because you're underpaid xD I know a client that paid 120 for a guy who didn't even do anything.
Unable to update the client/employer:
I don't know if it's because the guy is underpaid that he can't even update the client for what's going on.
So far these are the main things, I had in mind. As you can see being underpaid has its disadvantage to both the client and the developer. I hope this blog will help people understand that they should ask for the right cost and clients should pay for the right cost too, and not settles for whatever they can get cheaper which is okay but don't pay till you know it's cheap but high quality.
I'm happy I made some mistakes and now have learned and grown. I hope this helps other paid devs and clients when it comes to developing pretty much anything.
Thank you for reading! have a nice day!
Let's start with my msitakes before I pin point other paid dev's mistake.
Accepting tons of client:
In the past I accepted way more client than I can handle(current limited to 3). In result I got too much pressure and in the 4th client I was kinda dishonest when it came to the delivery date. I think it was fine to accept more if I was more honest and next time I sure will. But anyhow this client didn't go home sad, good thing I had another paid dev contact so I made him do the stuffs and it went well. Client was happy and I wasn't put in trouble xD But yeah next time, I'd either not accept or at least tell them with all honesty that the delivery is like this because i have other clients at hand at the moment and offer to look for someone else if they're in rush or can't accept my delivery ETA.
Underpaid:
This is way way back before I decided to be a paid RO dev and was just doing other freelancer tasks such as project management. Being underpaid or accepting projects in a rate/cost that is very low that you feel demotivated to do it is kinda unhealthy for you and your client. But it all happens at first and after a while, I got hang of it and now I mostly give out fine prices that I am happy to work with so that the client gets high quality work and I also get high quality payment xD
The challenge is when you don't even know your worth. So I have to read tons of stuff to know my worth. In the end, no matter what you do for others freelancing is freelancing, don't think you should get paid low cause its RO dev only if you're going to be unhappy for the cost that you said. Think of your hourly rate, then think how long it would take for you to finish the job and give the client a max and minimum time, with all honesty. If you finish it sooner, then he pays lesser, if you finish it at max then he pays more. Simple as that, or take the average or best guess and make that the fix quote. Be honest because if your client finds out, he's not coming back.
Experience with other Paid Devs
Now it's time to point out other paid devs mistakes based on ppl I worked with. Hopefully you don't get mad but really, I feel like everyone should know this. People look for a paid dev because of either low quality by free devs/no free devs or they want high quality service, and these mistakes are all about that.
Underpaid after all these years:
I've seen some paid ro devs with years of experience, released a bunch of stuff, but still the price is so low and guess what. The client is unhappy with the service provided. I don't know what's wrong really, or if the developer is even happy with the price. There is no problem with increasing cost if you can't do anything because you're underpaid xD I know a client that paid 120 for a guy who didn't even do anything.
Unable to update the client/employer:
I don't know if it's because the guy is underpaid that he can't even update the client for what's going on.
So far these are the main things, I had in mind. As you can see being underpaid has its disadvantage to both the client and the developer. I hope this blog will help people understand that they should ask for the right cost and clients should pay for the right cost too, and not settles for whatever they can get cheaper which is okay but don't pay till you know it's cheap but high quality.
I'm happy I made some mistakes and now have learned and grown. I hope this helps other paid devs and clients when it comes to developing pretty much anything.
Thank you for reading! have a nice day!
