CFP closes in one week! Hurry Up! | jsday 2012

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:12:51 +0100

Cats vs. Snow :-) (Taken with picplz.)

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:22:15 +0100

Cats vs. Snow :-) (Taken with picplz.)

Ugly panorama, but shows how much snowbthere is… (Taken...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:37:03 +0100

Ugly panorama, but shows how much snowbthere is… (Taken with picplz.)

Clicca qui per fermare la più grande minaccia alla libertà di internet!

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:08:00 +0100

Clicca qui per fermare la più grande minaccia alla libertà di internet!:

Un nuovo trattato globale darebbe carta bianca alle multinazionali per controllare tutto quello che facciamo su internet. La scorsa settimana abbiamo fermato le leggi censorie americane. Se agiremo ora potremo far sì che il Parlamento europeo affossi questo nuovo pericolo. Aggiungi la tua voce ora!

(Taken with picplz.)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:08:38 +0100

(Taken with picplz.)

Frida in “Stress da shopping” (Taken with picplz.)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:32:31 +0100

Frida in “Stress da shopping” (Taken with picplz.)

eclipsed: questa è per pochi intimi BEL-LIS-SI-MA

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:27:00 +0100

eclipsed:

questa è per pochi intimi

BEL-LIS-SI-MA

Why not, why not…

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:31:27 +0200

Why not, why not…

quacos: Chi te l’ha detto?

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:30:08 +0100

quacos:

Chi te l’ha detto?

Photo

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:50:39 +0100

One year later...

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 22:08:03 +0100

I’d like to start this blog with a bit of background: one year ago (almost one year, actually) my work, and obviously my life, has changed: I left my old company (which I was a founder of) and went back to freelancing, after five years of hard work and struggles and fun and long hours and all the things you do to make your dream come true. So why did I leave? Long story short, during these years my two partners and I grew different ideas about how to run our business, with ever increasing distance also in personal relationships. At some point (mostly after getting to know something I didn’t like at all) I decided that enough is enough and left - with a bit of a drama exit, I must admit.

Apart from personal frictions, what I disliked most about how things were going was:

I practically had no choice about the technologies I could use
we weren’t networking with other companies nor professionals
we weren’t attending conferences to see other perspectives and increase our knowledge (apart from the phpDay which *I* organize, so no one could prevent me from attending it :) )

So things have changed and, after one year, luckily I can tell that they have changed for the better.

Freelancing has pros and cons: being on your own means that you are the only one who you can count on, but that also means that no one will ever act differently than they say; there’s no one which you can turn problems to, but also no one who you have to report to - which in turn means that your schedule is infinitely flexible: I love being able to do my personal stuff and my work independently from useless time schemes. As an example, yesterday morning I was snowboarding in Folgaria, and tomorrow I’ll be working pretty hard. Yeah, yesterday was a Friday, tomorrow is a Sunday, and queues at lifts are pretty shorter on Fridays :) As a counter example, I happen to be still working at 3am, although not that often.

All in all, here are the things that have improved:

I (almost) doubled my salary :)
I work from home (with my beautiful cats)
I can choose the technologies and methodologies that I think are better
I can work on mobile projects
I can attend interesting conferences and even talk at some
I can network and collaborate with great companies and professionals

Some little advices for wannabe freelancers:

study a lot, both buying/borrowing books and attending conferences
choose carefully the people you work with (a little on this later)
network with other professionals in your field
be (and stay) humble
take your time: you can’t work 24/7 and hope that the quality of what you deliver will remain high (that’s called sustainable pace)
but don’t waste your time (time is your key resource): plan your daily work and apply some time-boxing technique to help you maintain focus and review how you did (I recommend the pomodoro technique)

Why choosing the people you work with? You work, they pay, right? Wrong! Working is a social aspect of your life, so if you choose your friends, why not choosing your clients? Moreover your clients will pay your bills, rent, loan, so you should trust them at least as much as they should trust you. And trust me, I’ve seen clients that you people wouldn’t believe…

I’m no freelancing guru, but I’d be more than happy to give advice if I can ;)

Cesare D'Amico

CFP closes in one week! Hurry Up! | jsday 2012

Cats vs. Snow :-) (Taken with picplz.)

Ugly panorama, but shows how much snowbthere is… (Taken...

Clicca qui per fermare la più grande minaccia alla libertà di internet!

(Taken with picplz.)

Frida in “Stress da shopping” (Taken with picplz.)

eclipsed: questa è per pochi intimi BEL-LIS-SI-MA

Why not, why not…

quacos: Chi te l’ha detto?

Photo

One year later...