[ErrantX]

> Learn the language of yours customers. This is something I've really got to work on, I have now idea how business people speak.

Not just their language, but their lifestyle and culture.

A big portion of my clients are Jewish; this is because an early client was Jewish and I learned the little things like... sending emails late on Friday afternoons will rarely get a response till Monday. Or, Mondays are bad days to be in touch because a lot of Jewish holdays fall on them. Etc. etc.

I picked up a ton of clients because word got around that "hey, there's this guy who is easy to work with"

> Their hourly rate does makes my brain melt.

Is that the hourly rate for both of them? (they say they work in "pair programming style"). Given the mass of skills and experience they bring that seems and extremely good rate.

[Alan01252]

Good point! Thanks Tom.

I assumed it was for one person but now you've mentioned it, that is probably for them both. In which case I guess it's less extreme on my brain.

[mluiten]

From http://thunderboltlabs.com/hire: "Development is $277 an hour per developer. Technical work is done in pairs."

Ouch. It looks like they've got the skills and marketing figured out. I think there's a great lesson in there for all of us freelancers.

[Alan01252]

Wow, consider my brain melted. I guess the next question is, how busy are these guys?