How to become a freelancer?

How do I become a Ruby/Rails freelancer (USA)?

• I'm a 'junior' level Ruby/Rails developer that will soon be graduating from a popular web development bootcamp. Rather than seek a job with a company, I've decided to pursue work as a freelancer. I have a few questions: 1)  In addition to LinkedIn connections, maintaining a blog, and contributing to open source, how else can I make myself known and find clients? 2) What type of contract should I draft to protect both parties? Specifically something about non-payment. Additionally, am I required to have an actual lawyer review the contract for it to stand up in court? 3) What is your usual process/approach when dealing with a new client? Ie: do you first have a verbal agreement of the features, then draft a contract listing the agreed on features, etc? 4) In your experience, do clients usually prefer to be billed hourly, per project or weekly? 5) Do you use a particular piece of software to keep track of the hours worked and to send out invoices? 6) At what point do I have to obtain a business license? Can I operate as a freelancer without one? 7) What would a fair hourly rate be for my work? Prior to the dev bootcamp that I'm attending, I only had minimal programming knowledge. I've built a couple of small apps and one production quality app. In addition to Ruby/Rails, I'm also skilled in HTML/CSS and some design.  I'm located in the United States (West coast). Please share your stories, suggestions, or warnings about the life of a freelancer Thank you in advance.

• Answer:

  As a full time developer for the past 8 years, I have freelanced, worked in consultancies and a few start ups. The amount of legal clauses you need to cover depends on the clients you plan to serve. Some clients might demand additional maintenance contracts, service level agreements etc. Legal contracts are just the tip of the ice berg. As a freelancer, you will need to be prepared for more than what you mentioned above. I suggest that you find work or internship at a rails shop in your area for at least 3 months. Observe their business and project management processes. Team based processes that you learn can be scaled down to a level that will be applicable to you as a freelancer with a bit of creativity. This is not the fastest way to get you started as a freelancer, but gaining the right experience at the beginning will help you in the long term. Good luck!