Programmers' entrepreneurial trap: taking private jobs

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link ：http://blog.newsleopard.com/2015/05/31/ The entrepreneurial trap of software engineers - Receive a case /

I am Java Engineer background , Writing code has exceeded 15 year , Entrepreneurship is also more than 10 year , I have outsourced many projects to others , Also took over many outsourced projects , Don't answer now , Only operate the electronic newspaper sending platform , Accumulated more than in two years 5000 Enterprise users use . In the entrepreneurial circle , As long as there are entrepreneurial friends who have actively asked me , I will tell him not to answer if you can ( Of course, I know , If not to live , Who is willing to answer ? ), Because there are too many traps , I share the following for your reference ：

Because you write code quickly

Most of the engineers who usually come out to take private jobs have some seniority , You will also have your own tools and library, Therefore, you can often quickly complete the work assigned by your supervisor , I will think that as long as the customer's needs can be completed in a very short time , This project makes money .

【BUT】 The speed of project completion depends on the customer's mood , As long as he is in a bad mood , Just slow down . You think your Code Sure reuse, Finally, you find that you are really reuse It's your liver .

Because you write code quickly , So as long as customers compare prices 、 bargain 、 Press your closing time , You will think about it ： Um. , As long as I try to catch up , There should be no problem. .

【BUT】, Virtually you sacrifice your profit margin , Only make a small profit , Do you know the accuracy of engineers' estimation of completion time ? How accurate , How high is the probability of making a small profit .

Because you can earn annual maintenance fees

Take private jobs like this , As long as you answer , After the maintenance, it is difficult for customers not to ask you for maintenance , Just slowly accumulate , There will be a considerable maintenance fee to earn every year .

【BUT】, You know most Taiwanese companies have an unwritten rule , The maintenance cost budget of the same system decreases every year , Customers will think ： The system should be adjusted and stabilized every year , It's stable. You haven't done anything. Why do you take so much money ? Next , You may want to say that if customers want to add new functions, they must first come to you , Just imagine , I ask you to add new functions according to the code architecture you wrote three years ago , If you don't spit blood , It probably means that you haven't made any progress in these three years . Don't pick up the head office ? But you are so responsible , If you don't answer the customer, you can only knock it out and ask others to do it again , Do you have the heart ? So do you think this maintenance fee is easy to earn ?

Because you are very considerate of customers

Because you are very considerate of the company , It is often found in the development process that something is missing or the supervisor has made a wrong plan , You will take the initiative to work overtime to make up for these vacancies , The company speaks highly of you , If you treat your clients with such an attitude when taking private jobs , The feeling of cooperation between the two sides must be very good .

【BUT】, Of course your customers are good , Because you take the initiative to add functions to make the system better , Don't spend any more money . Add money ? The contract was signed at the beginning , How to tell customers to pay more ? Besides, this is what you want to add on your own initiative . Can I leave it alone ? B: yes, you can , But can you stand that your work can be better without making it better ? If it was originally planned, it would be wrong , Can it be accepted without adjustment ?

Because you know what the customer wants

Because in the company, the supervisor is often incoherent , But you can always analyze what the supervisor wants , You can also complete it , So when taking private jobs, even if the other party doesn't know technology , You can also complete the functions he needs .

【BUT】, Do you know what the customer wants ? No , You don't know? , Because most customers don't know what they want , And do you know there is a boss on the client ? Do you know what the client's boss wants ? No , You won't know , Because even his boss doesn't know , Is this the most terrible ? No , There are more terrible things , They will tell you that they know what they want , But you just can't do what they want .

Because you are good at planning

You are a person with a good sense of logic , As long as the supervisor tells you his needs , You can quickly draw a system architecture diagram 、 Code architecture diagram or even database architecture diagram , The accuracy is very high , So when you take private jobs, as long as the customer tells you your needs , You will soon have all kinds of architectural sketches in your mind .

【BUT】, Do you know who opened the specification ? Yes , The customer drove it , Because if he doesn't open, you can't quote , If he wants you to drive , You're also afraid that if he doesn't accept the offer after opening it, it's equivalent to doing white work . Do you think the customer's logic will be as good as yours ? So what you usually need to do is to understand the logic of the customer first , Then find out the contradiction , Then propose a better solution to Fang Eucalyptus , This period of back and forth will take a lot of time , Oh, yes , There is usually no money for this paragraph , Customers will think that you want to pick up my project , You have to understand my needs first .

Because you have a team

Because you have some contacts in the industry , I can write code myself , Find another business expert 、 Master of art editing , This is the smallest unit , You can divide the work , In this way, there are fewer problems with private work 、 Go more smoothly .

【BUT】, Because you have three people , So you can only take care of >= 3 Personal projects , This kind of project is usually a little larger , Because of the above reasons, the case will be closed very slowly , If you don't close the case, you can't get money if you get stuck in this project , New projects cannot be taken over , What do I do ? Yes , Add people , So your team becomes 4 personal , Next you can only take care of >= 4 Personal projects , What if there is a big project at this time ? Yes , You will fall into an infinite circle , Until you never get a bigger project .

Because you want to use the customer's project to train

As Forrest Gump said ： Life is like a box of chocolates , You never know what will be the next taste . So you never know where the next project is , But when you start to have a team , When you have to pay your salary every month , At this time, there is a small project , Anyway, I don't know when the next project will come in , This is just enough to pay the team salary and can be used for military training , This is also very good .

【BUT】, One feature of taking private jobs is that if you take this project, you will reduce your ability to take the next project , Because manpower and time are always limited , If you take a small project and there is no manpower for a big project , Do you say everyone is angry ? Unfortunately, the owner of this small project is particularly troublesome ( For the above reasons , You know the probability is not small ), It's not their skills that you hone the team , What you have honed is our body and soul , Slowly, there will be a general incompetence , The voice of the exhausted armed forces came out … Why don't you develop a small product to train yourself ?

Because you have a way to deal with customers

Your personality is very good , In the past, when I was in the company, I could get along well with manufacturers or customers , You can pick it up , What cannot be answered will also block , If you come out to pick up private work and deal with customers, there will be no problem .

【BUT】, Customers have hundreds of models , You have a set of skills for customers , Customers have several sets for you , He can negotiate 、 bargain 、 Pressing time 、 Add function 、 Delay acceptance 、 The accountant is missing 、 The boss went abroad ….., Finally, I blame you for taking so long to deduct a sum of money from you , Said, ： Aren't you professional ? You are friends in the development stage , In the acceptance stage, you will become both parties .

Because you never lack customers

You never need to develop by yourself , Customers come through friends' introductions or customers' referrals , This is much better than ordinary companies , Others don't want customers yet .

【BUT】, Have you ever thought about it , You have all the advantages mentioned above , The point is that you are cheaper than others , People don't look for you , I want to find you . So did you make money ?

Because you have signed contracts

In order to avoid the above unnecessary problems , You must sign a contract to protect both parties in every project , It's no problem to follow the contract .

【BUT】, The other party has legal affairs, do you have ? Do you have money from the other party ? Do you really want to fight a lawsuit ? You are really sure that you are absolutely right in the process of cooperation ? There is a way to regulate all the functional details in the contract 、 Operation process ? The contract has a large volume , Your client will sign with you ? therefore , Can you really follow the contract ?

When was the last time you wrote code happily

When I have the same ability as you , I once said a word ： I hope my last action before I die is to press 【Enter】, My motivation for writing code is not to make money ( Of course, making money is very important , But if it's just making money , I can go direct selling 、 Selling insurance 、 Work in a big company … ), To be precise, it's not just about making money , My motivation comes from the fact that the code I write can be used by many people , Really help a lot of people , And many people say well .( believe me , If you really do this , In fact, you also made money )

But since I took private jobs , At best, I can only help my limited clients , To be precise, maybe only some people who really use the system , Only these people will say I'm good , Others will only think that's what you should do , But as long as he leaves at the final acceptance 、 He is angry 、 All efforts are gone . So at that time, I had only two moments to be happy , One is to receive a deposit 、 The other is to receive the final payment , It's painful for a long time , When multiple projects are carried out at the same time , In fact, all the time is painful . I still remember a sentence I often said ： Received your cold check , My heart feels warm .

Of course, someone must be doing a good job , It's just that other people's success is difficult to replicate , But the failure of others can be avoided , If you can avoid the trap I mentioned above, you can't guarantee your success , Because this is just the tip of the iceberg , I have left the state of private work for a long time , Many things are forgotten and don't want to think , I just hope you decide to take private jobs , Think about it , Do you really only have the option of taking private jobs ? If possible , I would suggest that you should develop your own products and services .

Write it at the end

You can leave a message below to discuss what you don't understand , You can also ask me by private message. I will reply after seeing it . Finally, if the article is helpful to you, please remember to give me a like , Pay attention and don't get lost
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