|
|
|
|
|
|
by mgkimsal
5270 days ago
|
|
|
Networking by and large will be your best bet. An odesk may get you some short-term work, but it won't necessarily be all that high paying. With a decent rep on odesk or elance you might get some good gigs, but those will probably develop in to non-odesk relationships with clients ("going direct"). I don't know many people who use odesk who pay more then $20-$25/hour, and it's typically for smaller type stuff. There are people who get "I want a full copy of XYZ for $500" and a number of people who bid on that, but there's "real" projects in there too sometimes. I just have a hard time looking at elance/odesk sites as something that 'real' companies use for 'real' (read: valuable) projects. |
|
|
I know a few YC founders that pay $70/hr - $80/hr for really great Rails devs, iOS devs, and front-end engineers that are not local to SF/PA (mid-west devs or southeast devs). I think the price for an experienced Rails freelancer in a big metro is around $100/hr - $125/hr.
On the design side, I have friends in DC, SF, and Chicago that are top notch visual designers and have worked on big "brand" sites, and depending on how busy they are, they'll charge anywhere from $75/hr - $80/hr. An art director I know will not go below $150/hr bc it's not worth his time to do more work outside of his day job.
But there are price inefficiencies everywhere, and if someone fresh out of college doesn't really understand how good of a designer they are or the going rates for freelancers, then you can find someone who's good for your MVP for $25/hr.
All of the above assumes you are pricing projects on a straight hourly rate (legalese = "Time & Material Rates").
Be warned that most small business owners will want firm-fixed pricing (ie - "I want a fully redesigned site for $a,000"). In that case, you'll need to figure how long it will take for you to complete the project, add a 10% - 15% buffer for client changes/indecision, and then settle on a firm-price of $x,000.