The other option that I see is to try to deliver a way better service, and just charge directly proportional with the amount of clients that request your services. Make sure you don’t work more than 8 hours a day. Charge as much as needed to cover exactly the 8 hours a day period, not more, not less. (You can set a smaller period like 6 hours/day, but less would not help evolution)

THIS IS A CORECT WAY OF DOING BUSINESS. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BECOME A PRICK TO MAKE MORE MONEY, YOU DON’T HAVE TO FOOL PEOPLE.

In addition to the 8 hour program, if you fail to achieve that, you still have to work 8 hours a day to keep it up with the technology. I suggest that in the remaining time do stuff that you can deliver for free, don’t charge for something you do in your free time. It will come back to you later and will allow you to both improve your rate and fill your 8 hour working time with quality projects.

On the other side, if you want to make money more than you want to code, than the right choice is to step out and try making just business.

First of all, you have written a very well-thought out, well focused article. I’m not sure I agree with the majority of the comments here which tend to argue about the wage that you can be earning. In one of your comments you mentioned that years of programming are an absolute worthless measurement, and I agree with that as well. Obviously someone who has 2-3 months of experience versus someone who has a couple of years may perform a little bit slower, but, for those of us who have natural talents, these measurements are meaningless.

Let me say that I’m only 25 years old, and I would argue that I’ve hit the middle of your rate-matrix as a full-time employee for a company. Not only that, but I get 6-weeks paid time off per year, benefits, have other programmers working under me, etc. So, as I see it – what you’re trying to accomplish is definitely something that can be done. The work I do is mostly in ColdFusion, Flex, Flash, and jQuery. I also love design so I’m constantly obsessing about stuff that doesn’t look “web 2.0”. I don’t tend to go far from these items. I did go to college to get the Computer Science degree and everything, but I don’t really use that as a selling point — it’s more or less something that I did to blend in with the rest of the sheep. Besides that, my college experiences weren’t all that useful, since I’ve been “programming” since I was about 10 years old starting with C++, lol.

I digress. What you need to do is come up with a value strategy for yourself. Don’t sell dollars, sell applications and results. Enterprise clients can pay a good developer $200+ per hour if they so choose. Many of these companies have lackluster developers who either a) aren’t worth their salt, b) don’t have analytical skills so they spend hours in meetings for a simple project, or c) don’t have the core skills required to complete the task at hand. These same companies pay these people $85,90,100k per year to sit around in meetings and maybe deliver a couple of good products during that said year. These companies would rather have an innovator; a programmer who is quick and can solve the complex industry problems without needing to have everything explicitly written out for them.

Sadly though, many developers lack these analytical and innovation skills – which doesn’t necessarily make them bad developers, it just puts them into that lackluster “robot” category, where they need everything spelled out for them before they start working on a task.

When you start delivering products that can reduce the bottom line of a company’s IT budget, then you really begin to offer an interesting value proposition. The proposition goes: “Well, we could pay 3 slow developers $200/hour combined or we could pay you $140-160 and get the same results at a faster speed.”

This is all attainable, but you need to prove those results. Judging by your writing and past posts, I’m sure you have the experience and intellect required to figure out the missing part of this equation. Once you begin lowering corporation’s budgets (and no, I’m not talking about outsourcing — that’s a whole different issue), your earning potential is limitless. You can do it! It’s all about attitude :)

I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know if you have any questions.

Maybe in your world it’s possible to live off of $30/hr, but what if you have a family? A mortgage? It’s not always so simple.

@ Jesse – I wouldn’t say years coding is worthless at all. Maybe in terms of raw code quality, it’s not very useful (although, I’ve seen very few bad-ass developers with only 2 years experience in my career). But, ignoring code quality, there are many other qualities that can only come with experience, time/project management, communication, pro-active problem solving, dedication/work ethic.

None of these are exclusive to an experienced developer, but the overall maturity level _tends_ to be much better with developers who have 5-10 yrs experience.

@AJ I already do that. Just not well.

@Lisa I’m must be mis-communicating.

I’m not trying to be rich, I’m trying to double my rate to see what happens and learn. If I wanted to be rich, I wouldn’t be programming; I’d be getting others to program for me.

You might not wish to double your rate, but I’m not afraid, so am.

I’m not sure if you’ve done Enterprise Software development, or worked with large design agencies. They pay extremely high rates, higher than are discussed here, for Flash Developers & Flex Developers. This is fact, I’ve been on multiple jobs. The key here, though, is I don’t pull those rates. Each party involved gets a cut. The company who got us the lead gets their 52% per hour, the hiring firm (Universal Mind, Roundarch, etc.) takes their cut (20% or more), and finally you get your portion. So, you are incorrect, there are tons of clients that can afford me and my company. In fact, we’re cheap in comparison.

I don’t have that reputation, “consultants” do. It’s called qualifying leads. If companies hear the word consultant and run, good for them; clearly we weren’t a match to begin with, or they couldn’t afford me and/or my team. Or perhaps they just had a negative experience, and would have a good one with me. However, there are clients who don’t have this aversion, thus I stick to working with them.

Maybe you can easily live on $25/hr, but that’s unacceptable me. I realize there are people in the world who make $100 a month. I don’t. End of story. I’m not lowering my standards of what I know I, and others are worth simply because I feel bad I make more than a gas station cleark. My competition sure doesn’t, why should I? I don’t see your reasoning here.

Recessions are the best time to start a business. Recessions are the time to buy. Just because we’re in a recession doesn’t mean business just stops. Apple, who sells top of the line hardware, is doing extremely well. Go into an Apple store and ask yourself if we’re really in a recession. Porche got voted top car of the year, and is having an extremely good year. Jesse Warden isn’t Walmart, and I will never compete on price. If consumers want a deal, they can go elsewhere. Those who appreciate quality, competence, and assurance things will get done come to me, and thus I charge appropriately for that. I’ve seen my competition, and a lot who charge less… should.

Regarding my resume, 70% of the Flex gigs I get are specifically tailored to my past Flash & Design experience. Flex Developers are rare. Most companies employ Java/.NET/PHP developers and teach them Flex. Most of these comp sci grads do not have a design background, no multimedia experience, and don’t have an appreciation for UX/Design. This isn’t true of all, but it isn’t a stereotype either; it’s fact. Many of my Flex gigs are me coming in and handling the GUI portion specifically because of this past experience. Clients who need design implementations in Flex recognize a lot of their in house talent often doesn’t have these skills, thus they bring people like me on. So, no, I’m not changing my resume because that’s currently what gets me gigs that take advantage of my talents.

Regarding architecture, not sure what to tell you. I know that + design. I’m not changing my resume to focus specifically on that. I’ve gigs which needed help in both areas, and in those cases, I’ll often just hire/bring on my team members to help in design areas while I focus on architecture. For the smaller budget projects, I just do both.

Not sure I agree with the Flash Programmers. I’ve seen a lot of Flash programmers who can out code some Flex programmers, especially the game ones. I get what you’re saying, though, about the negative connotation. However, if I put Java on my resume vs. removing Flash, that’d have a major, more positive impact. Removing Flash at this point would just hurt me.

People don’t become rich by saving. There are 3 ways to make more money:

Increase your rate
Reduce your overhead
Increase your output

In software, people get rich by successful products, or by making others work for them. You need to spend money to make money, not save it. Invest? Sure, but not save.

$30 is an insult; I could go to Costco, get a wonderful position with a great company with benefits, and make that. I choose to program, not work in retail.

I’m in reality, not sure what you mean. That was the whole point of this blog post; to show others the reality.

Years in programming mean jack. I’ve seen some programmers who’ve programmed for 6 who are worthless compared to some who’ve been doing it for 2. It’s like measuring productivity via lines of code; it’s a worthless measurement.

You do not have to be flexible to survive in this economy. You have to sell clients on your value. Not everyone shops at Walmart for deals; some go to Target. Some go to Louis Vuitton.

Saying I’ll only get a few clients for a few hours is incorrect. I’m getting clients for months/years long projects doing Flex. Again, I don’t think you’ve worked with Enterprise Flex clients; the prices & lengths we’re talking here are small compared to what they’ll pay. If you get more money than me, great, please blog and tell me how. Right now, I can’t increase my output, I can’t reduce my overhead, so the only thing to do is increase my price.

I understand what you are saying but you did not get my message. I might have 3 years in Flex but I have been programming since commodore was out. And yes I am a Senior Talented Flex Developer. My friend let me ask you this question. How long Flex has been out? 1o years? I don’t think so. Jess has been into programming for 10 years! but he has not been a Flex Developer for 10 years got the nuance?:). Great I have been since 1981. I use AS since the early version. We are in the WORST recession ever! Now if Jess wants to keep his rate at $200/H great for him! and if you think it is a decent idea great for you! What I am trying to say is that you have to be flexible to survive in this current economy. Again you can easily live on $25/H rate. For example let’s take the case of Amazon. Do you believe their products rate is constantly at the maximum? Of course not often you have bestseller at 10 to 40% off that is the REASON why customers are going back , trying to find deals. Developers have NO business mind and David you are the perfect example of that. Jess if you want to sit home considering yourself as the APPLE company(analogy) with the best product and services and REFUSE to adapt and get flexible with your rates then fine! But what you will get is just a few clients for ONLY a few hours works. I know a GURU from an old programming language who change $120/H and only accept freelancing deals well this is the guy that is called ONLY when a company has an issue(code). He gets only a few hours per month of work NOT more. Jess be that guy! But for me I rather get more flexibility and I end up with MORE money than you at the end of day!

“30-80 an hour for someone of jesses’s caliber is a joke, insulting and bad for our industry. suggesting him to accept rates from 30-150 is very inconsistent and borderline thievery” David really need to come back to earth!:) Dave Do you consider yourself an Aristocrat Flex Developer to turn your back to $30/h???
You guys are COMPLETELY disconnected from the original reason why you are Flex Developers! Your first reason is because you LOVE Flex and programming , if money comes great but if you turn your back at Flex because you are a pretentious developer accepting ONLY a wage of $200/H then you will vanish especially in this economy. David obviously you got into programing and Flex programming for money issues that’s the problem! You will NEVER get satisfied no matter how people are paying you. That’s sad and I feel sorry for you David. David don’t consider my answer as an insult or rude but there are tons of programmers out there like you , they got into programming for money, they don’t love to program and have no vocation at all.
And those programmers are usually untalented, refusing to work on site because of their obvious lack of understanding of the material therefore rather accept freelance deal to hide their weaknesses. I have met so many like that so your speech David about “Insulting the industry” made me laugh, you are yourself an insult to our community.
Lisa.