Hit Subscribe Freelancer Q&A
We’re publishing the freelancer Q&A series as a podcast. Hope you enjoy!
Episodes
In this installment, a question submitter wonders whether it would be better to earn promotions into leadership before leaving the salaried world, or whether to leave as an individual contributor. Which is the right path?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- CSuite Content published a practical guide on how often executives should post on social media, including benchmarks and stra...
Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- Enov8 published a helpful guide to data masking tools (and they also define data masking, if you're interested).
- Our friends over at CSuite Content published an interesting guide t...
Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this?
Join us to learn more.
View this podcast as a video on YouTube.
Links of the week:
- Enov8 has a helpful guide to test data management.
- The DataOpsZone community site has a handy explainer about the concept ...
Sometimes a client is looking for labor and expects you to bundle in the strategic piece. For instance, they expect architecture to come along with a software development project. How to handle this?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- Enov8 recently published a take on application portfolio management best practices, for you enterprise fans.
- Spin has a round-up of the top SSPM ve...
Depending on fate to bring you business can lead to gaps between projects. How do you setup some kind of sales funnel and get leads into it to avoid these gaps?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- Enov8's guide to data masking.
- This comparison of Logstash and Fluentd from Sawmills.
- Tricentis's ...
You're collaborating with your client on a time-sensitive deadline and you get sick. How should you handle that? Whose problem is it, ultimately?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- Enov8's list of enterprise architecture tools to be aware of in 2025.
- This introduction to the subject of log parsing from Sawmills.
You've got a full-time job but want to go indie, and you line up your first contract. How do you think about how much runway you need to create between current savings and that first contract, for when it expires?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- A post from Sawmills, which introduces log parsing, explains its importance for transforming unstructured logs into actionable data a...
If you've built an audience on a platform other than your own website, how do you go about turning that following into a marketing funnel for something you're offering?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- This post from BlinkOps explains Identity and Access Management (IAM) automation.
- A Testim blog post that provides an overview of six JavaScript editors.
- A Sawmills post that giv...
It will sometimes come up that a prospect or client asks you to implement something that's either too vague to work or a flat-out bad idea. What should you do in this situation?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- This round-up of application portfolio management tools from our friends at Enov8.
- Regression testing for Workday, from our friends at Tricentis (also in German and Japa...
If you're a programmer (or, generally, a labor-based freelancer), is it a good idea to sell strategic advice as a kind of "up-sell" to your normal offering?
Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management
- A beginner's guide to volume testing
I do a lot of theory in this series, but here's something practical. How would I recommend someone price an hour-long training session to teach social media tactics to a salesforce? Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
- Sprint Scheduling: A Guide to Your Agile Calendar
- Not only do our friends at Tricentis offer Tosca, a powerful end-to-end testing tool, they also have sites availabl...
Sometimes, a client may ask you to sign a non-compete agreement as a prerequisite for engaging with them. Should you do it? How should you handle this situation in general? Join us to learn more.
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Links of the week:
The default with freelancing is to charge by the hour and do generalist work. You might have, however, heard of value pricing and heard the idea that you should establish a niche. How should you go about doing that?
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Links of the week:
As you grow your business successfully, you'll have more demand for your work and, thus, more leads. Does that naturally mean you can raise your rates? The answer is more complex than you might think.
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Links of the week:
If you establish a practice and start to earn a good bit of business, sooner or later you'll have to contend with the decision of whether or not to bring on subcontractors to help you. Should you do it?
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Link of the week:
I resisted talking about ChatGPT as long as humanly possible, but I did wind up getting a question in the backlog about it. So, will ChatGPT replace freelance programming?
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Links of the week:
If you go into business for yourself, what should you call yourself? Freelancer? Self-employed? Something else?
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Link of the week:
If you're thinking of hanging out your shingle or have just done so, you might wonder whether to use bookkeeping software and, if so, what to use. I have a surprisingly specific and opinionated answer for this one.
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Link of the month:
When you go off on your own, at least in the US, you might be in for a rude tax awakening. In this video, I talk about what self-employment tax is, and what you can do about it.
View this podcast as a video on YouTube.
Links of the Month:
You're a freelancer and doing regular work with your clients. If you bill by the hour or, more generally, for time and materials, which meetings should you bill the clients for?
View this podcast as a video on YouTube.
Links of the Month:
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