Will Bridges

Being an independent contractor isn’t always fun. Sometimes you have to write lengthy quotes or proposals that end up being a waste of time because the client isn’t interested. They just wanted to see what effort a project would take and then they go somewhere else with your quote and get it done for cheaper.

Sometimes you have to put in long days (all the time, pretty much) especially when you first start contracting or come back to it after a long time. Also, sometimes you have to put up with additudes, people who don’t know what they want, or unreasonable deadlines. Many times you have to tell people what they want when neither of you are really sure what they want. Sometimes you can even go without a check for a whole month… or more if you really are being lazy or underbidding yourself. Then, there’s the magic of making a bid without knowing a person, the company, or it’s internal politics. Many times it’s the people and the politics that slow a project up and not the programmers. So, taking a stab at a bid can be difficult if you haven’t fallen on your ass a few times.

But, there is a payoff to this life. You set your own schedule. You take the jobs you want and you are responsible for your success as much as you are your failure. You can learn what you want to learn, be more involved in the programming community, be a leader in the fields of business and programming, and finally make as much money as you want to. Plus, you can spend more time with your family (if you decide to draw yourself away from work long enough). Further, you aren’t working those extra hours to fill the pockets of some company who is giving you 1/100th of what they are making.

There are some basic rules you must follow to be an independent contractor:

• You must not underbid yourself!
  This will get you in to more trouble than you know. If you do underbid, only do it slightly. Most likely, if you underbid it will be your bills that are late and your rent that isn’t getting paid. There is a point where you will actually be paying them to do the work.
• Make your client and potential clients love you.
  You need to establish a friendship with your clients right off the bat. If you don’t have charisma naturally then figure it out. Read some books, take some seminars, or just get out in the world. People are more apt to do business with their friends because they like you. Just don’t let your clients take advantage of you when they do become your friends. A couple small favors here and there are good though.
• Understand the client’s business, throw in extras!
  Each client has a field and a business. Make sure you do as much as you can to understand that business and think about ideas to make them more profit. Sometimes you have a little extra time left on a project if you bid correctly. Take that time to add a couple extra features here and there that are cheap programming wise but wow your client and improve their business. Delivering just enough is good but going beyond gets you loyalty and respect. Besides, the more money your client makes the more money they can spend with you later.
• Networks & Relationships
  Build networks of people. Do a superior job on a project and they will most likely tell friends which will give you more clients. Join Chambers of Commerce and socialize in the business community. Be they guy or lady they want to have a beer with but also the person they believe is capable and trustworthy. Each client is not a one time relationship. Remember a good business relationship can bring you many projects and if you come up with ideas to improve a person’s business you can create your own projects. I know in the first rule I said ‘Never Underbid’. However, sometimes a business with great potential is worth shaving some money off a project for. As long as they know you are doing it and you can charge them a more reasonable rate when the tool you made makes their business grow to where they can afford it. Trust your instincts but remember this is a tricky path and it won’t always go down the way I just described.

A friend once told me he ‘works to live’ and doesn’t ‘live to work’. This is the proper mentality. But, also work smart and you will never have to work hard. There is other info you can use to do well in contracting. I’ll write more later. But, be on the lookout there are good books everywhere and look to people who are doing good to find out their secrets. No successful person can be an island.

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I am building my first plugin to Ruby on Rails called acts as meta model. I’m actually nearing completion. I think I have about 3 more weeks or so. It will allow a Model to use dynamically created fields that are defined by rows in another table. This is good for generalized products such as real estate software to manage several different real estate websites that each want different things for property fields or inquiry fields.

Acutally some real estate software I am building is what lead me to build this plugin. So, look for it to be out soon. The long awaited acts as meta model.

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I’ve been working out just about every day for the past week and I feel much better. I have had anxiety attacks in the past. The doctors wanted to put me on medication but I don’t believe in that. I think if I’m having anxiety attacks it’s my body trying to tell me something. My body is trying to tell me it’s under too much stress and it doesn’t like the way I’m living. So, I go to the gym and work out, drink a lot more water, meditate some more, and generally just live more healthy. This seems to correct the problem. I believe putting drugs in my body would just cover up the problem and enable me to live the same unhealthy lifestyle as I was before. So, just say ‘no’ to drugs, even the legal ones the doctor tries to shove down your throat for some imagined disease when it’s really your body trying to send you a message. Not all prescription drugs are bad, you just need to question and research drugs before your doctor puts you on them. There’s lots of information out there. RemedyFind is a great place to find experiences with pharmicuticals and alternative therapies from real people.

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I’m so pissed I didn’t register to vote. My friend Jackson got me the forms to register but it got to be late on the deadline day and it completely slipped my mind because I was so busy. However, I could have swore I registered to vote when I got my Tennessee license. Maybe I should go to the voting place and check it out to see if I’m on the list. Then, maybe I will be able to vote. I really want to. It’s a thick race here in Tennessee and I really want to do all I can to see the democrats back in power.

Let me clarify. I don’t just want to see the democrats back in power just because I’m a democrat because I’m not. I have a lot of conservative values. I just believe these aren’t the republicans that I learned about. These republicans want to take away rights with constitutional amendment, they are corrupt with power, for the corporate interest only (it seems), and generally destorying the middle class by policy. There are some republicans that aren’t like this but from what I’ve seen the current administration and friends of the administration are like what I describe and I can’t stand to see them in power.

I’m in an interracial relationship which would have been illegal not to long ago (yes, it was illegal at one point in time) until we realized this was none of the government’s business. Who people fall in love with and marry is none of the legal system’s business and it never should be. Every time I think we have come so far as a society it seems I find out we barely moved at all.

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Looks like I will be doing a new reservation system with all the bells and whistles for allstarlodging.com. This will include converting their old PERL system to Ruby on Rails. This will be a tedious 3 month project. I did their system in PERL & Mason before, (which is what the current system is). This will be my first independant large Rails project. But, I will have a reservation product to resell when I’m done. Cheers, crack open a beer for me.

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I’ve finally decided to start a blog. I’m going to discuss all sorts of
things on here. I’ll discuss my family, programming, my travels, and
general observations. Let me start by discussing myself a little bit.

I’ve been a web developer and programmer for 8 years. I’ve had my own
business for about that long. I’m originally from Front Royal, VA and
currently I live in Nashville, TN. But, I’ve lived in:

• Portland, Oregon
• Medford, Oregon
• Ashville, North Carolina
• Jackson, Mississippi
• Jupiter, Florida
• Winchester, Virginia

I dropped out of school and started my business developing web sites
when I was 17. I got some lucky breaks by doing some cheap websites to
learn and build my network up. The primary programming language I have
used over the past 8 years has been PERL. So, I used what I knew of PERL
and a book to help build a couple banner rotation system and a shopping
cart. From there I was able to build other programs as I built a network
of clients.

I worked solely for myself for about 5 years on various contracts. Then, I decided to become a programmer for FEMA (Federal Emergency Mangagement Agencey). I worked for them for a year doing windows programming. It was a terrible experience. Almost nothing ever got done working for FEMA. Politics kept everything moving slowly. The mindset was to spend as much money as possible. I left after a year.

I then went to work for a small development firm in Winchester, VA called Iveka. Iveka still remains a client of mine. I enjoyed working for them and convinced them to build some generalized software products. This was my first crack at product development. I learned quite a bit. 20 sites of Iveka still run off of my software.

I then went to work for a company called Outdoor Central. I learned Ruby on Rails got enjoyed a renewed love for programming. OC was in the process of switching an enterprise level of application from PERL to Ruby on Rails. This was a great experience and I learned tons about Ruby on Rails. However, I hungered for more experience with less politics.

So, finally I went back to work for myself after three years of doing side work and working for someone else on salary. I just had a son about 8 weeks ago on Sepetember 11th so it was a difficult decision to drop my saftey net of a salary but I’m glad I did and I hope I never turn back. The only thing that bothers me now is writing requirements, proposals and in-depth planning but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m ready to do what is required of me to show off my unique creativity and skill set.

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