{"id":39321,"date":"2023-05-09T16:02:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T20:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=39321"},"modified":"2023-08-28T09:31:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T13:31:50","slug":"going-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/09\/going-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesse Squires<\/a> (Mastodon<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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I am writing this for anyone who is interested in trying to go independent — either with your own app development business, solo contracting and freelancing, or both.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

For me, the first year was full of learning — how to keep my books, how to deal with taxes, how to continue saving for retirement, how to structure my days, how to manage my time, how to get shit done, how to take time off, and the list goes on. Be prepared for this in your first year and do not give up. My second year was all about making refinements and optimizations to all the things I learned in year one. Finally, in my third year I started to feel like I had everything figured out — I was on autopilot and coasting through all those tasks that were previously bumps in the road. Currently, administrative tasks are a breeze, I have consistent work with long-term clients, and I am able to make time to work on my indie apps.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, splitting time between client work and indie projects is much easier said than done. You must prioritize what actually earns you money, which is contracting\/freelancing. It is very difficult to balance both types of work when you are first getting started. […] What I have found is that it is best to allocate full days to one or the other. Each week I try to do only client work Monday through Thursday, and do indie work on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jesse Squires<\/a> (Mastodon<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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When I look around the indie dev community within the broader Apple developer community, there is one characteristic that most indie devs share — they do more<\/em> than just write code. There are too many indie devs that I admire to attempt to list them all here, but they are all involved in more than only<\/em> writing apps. They write blogs, they speak at conferences, they produce podcasts, they are involved in open source, they publish newsletters.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In many ways, I really lucked out on the timing<\/em> of my involvement in iOS development — iOS was still somewhat nascent (I started around iOS 5) and there were more opportunities back then for open source to fill-in gaps in the SDKs and improve the APIs.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

When you put all of these things together, you end up with multiple positive feedback loops<\/strong>. Open source gives you valuable experience in programming and project management, it gives you topics to blog about, and it helps build your portfolio. Those experiences and portfolio pieces help you land competitive jobs. Blogging gives you exposure and recognition, which can help you speak at conferences. […] Speaking at conferences helps promote your open source work, blog, or podcast. Each of these contribute to building your résumé, leading to even better job prospects. Everything provides more experience to learn from and write about on your blog or present at a conference.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

So far, for the past 3 years, all<\/strong> of my clients have come to me through friends and acquaintances — former coworkers, fellow conference speakers, folks in open source, and other people that I have met during my time in the tech industry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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These are just a few of the numerous pleasant experiences I have had with independent software developers. I cannot say the same is true of big corporate developers — not even close.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

When I buy and use software from an independent developer, it feels like I am establishing a relationship with the person or small team that built it; it feels like we both have a stake in the success of the product. But when I use software made by a massive company, I can feel the power imbalance in the pit of my stomach.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n