[teaspoon]

These "freelancer" heuristics are dubious. Despite that fact that 100% of my income last year is printed on one 1099 or another, I satisfy less than half of them. A year ago, I satisfied zero of them.

I use an @gmail.com address because I don't want to worry about getting spam-foldered when I email a new client. I don't have a business license because sole proprietorships don't need them in CA or anywhere else I've worked. I've never furnished my own consulting agreement because every company I work with already has one they're comfortable with. I only gathered the other paraphernalia of freelancerhood after a long period of being too busy with freelance work to do so.

Notwithstanding false negatives like myself, these heuristics might help you identify who among your consultants cannot be persuaded to become an employee. But they're a poor proxy for judging diligence, reliability, or any of the other qualities you should be measuring by portfolio work and references.

[sidmitra]

You're not an out-lier actually. I think you're among the hundreds of freelancers who're just quietly doing their jobs. Some good, some not so good. Their rates tend to separate the chaff from the wheat pretty quickly, even if they're from a third world country(like myself).

This article is mainly to satisfy the authors whim, that what he's doing is what everyone else is doing, based on reading so many freelance/productivity blogs.

All that matter is how communicative he is, in clarifying things and what he delivers with each iteration. Even good freelancers, won't satisfy you sometimes, depending on how their workload is.