Ruby on Rails meets the business world Google Group

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

listro...@gmail.com (Bradley Grzesiak) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:19:11 UT

Things aren't as scary as you think they are... for now.
I'm trying to move forward into next year with cautious optimism. It's *really
easy to dwell* on the negative potential outcomes and waste tons of time
determining the possible actions that follow "what if..." Instead, I'm
trying to *merely identify* the bad outcomes, and then I *focus on the

Re: Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

steve.quin...@gmail.com (SteveQ) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:17:59 UT

My 2 lessons from 2009:
* Ask for a 33 to 50% of the money upfront - this immediately
separates the time wasting clients from the serious ones
* Work on a product that generates predictable monthly passive income
- this means you're covered for the quieter months of the year
(August, December etc)
Steve

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

mikemondra...@gmail.com (Mike Mondragon) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:33:12 UT

I think the biggest takeaway I have from 2009, other than what has
already been said by others, is that my most valuable asset are my
friends in the Rails community. Over the past three years freelancing
in Rails, all of my best client experiences were started from
referrals of other Rails developers.

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

mikemondra...@gmail.com (Mike Mondragon) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:20:57 UT

On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 4:51 AM, Aaron Blohowiak
I made the mistake this year of taking on a client without really
investigating their background. It turned out that some other
freelancers in Seattle had already fired this client partly for
reasons around billing, poor communications, and habitual feature

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

phi...@pjkh.com (Philip Hallstrom) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:04:00 UT

Awesome! There's now a scientific reason for my skipping out early
and going golfing. Excellent. Excellent! :-)
-philip

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

mikemondra...@gmail.com (Mike Mondragon) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:00:40 UT

Somewhat related to Philip's golfing advice.
"Carpe Diem? Maybe Tomorrow"
[link]
It seems like humans are prone to defer the exercising of benefits to
the point of not using them. Unless their is a deadline to the
availability of the benefits.
Perhaps that also plays into why short development sprints are also

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

phi...@pjkh.com (Philip Hallstrom) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:38:20 UT

* That they understand they hired you because you are an "expert in
the field" and that means they should trust your judgement in those
areas. Otherwise, why are they hiring me?
* That they are willing and able to accept criticism of their ideas
and are open to some back and forth discussion as to how to best

Re: Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

phoen...@gmail.com (Jaime Bellmyer) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:36:26 UT

John -
I agree 100%, and I'd like to expand a little. Don't agree to
anything sight unseen. I took a couple projects this year where I
jumped into an existing codebase *after* being under contract, only to
find messes of untested spaghetti code. One resulted in a lot of
frustration and in the end I probably looked like an amateur trying to

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

aaron.blohow...@gmail.com (Aaron Blohowiak) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:25:41 UT

*I have another developer that I'm talking with that charges half what you
charge and is estimating the project will take 75% of the time. I want to
go with you, but I can't justify the cost difference to my superiors, maybe
we can work something out? *
*
*
*The only reply I can live with is "Sure, I can work with you to prune the

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

ro...@planetargon.com (Robby Russell) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:24:13 UT

Forgot another (important) one. :-)
* Their respect for your time

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

ro...@planetargon.com (Robby Russell) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:20:38 UT

What defines a quality client? Sure there is... ability to pay you in
a timely fashion, but what about:
* Their knowledge of their domain
* Their knowledge of the web (should that matter)
* Their ability to communicate
* Their ability to prioritize
* Their ability to generate their own revenue
* Their ability to hire a good development team ;-)

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

j...@mentalvelocity.com (John Moody) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:08:17 UT

Mine is simple: No fixed bids, ever again. It's not worth it.
- John

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

ro...@planetargon.com (Robby Russell) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:05:12 UT

The one thing that has been running through my head a lot the last
year... is you're only as strong as your weakest link.
This applies to your clients, employees, business partners, and of
course... yourself.
If the weakest link isn't something you can strengthen, it's time to
replace the link or build a new chain.

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

st...@talcottsystems.com (Steven Talcott Smith) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:01:58 UT

Kapil, I agree it is a good time to reflect and share lessons learned.
I learned a lot this year -- my second full year of Rails consulting.
I take some comfort that I grew top line revenue over 60% despite
challenges and missteps. Here are some of my takeaways in no
particular order:
1) In spite of how busy I may be on a project, I must spend time every

Re: [rails-business] Rails Business - What Have You Learnt in 2009 That You Can Use in 2010?

phi...@pjkh.com (Philip Hallstrom) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:34:22 UT

- Side projects are a must. It gives you something to do when work is
slow, adds to the portfolio, and lets you try out things a client
doesn't need or isn't willing to pay for (ie. you want to play with
the latest testing framework of the month, etc.). It also scratches
that proverbial itch.