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Independent Programmers' No-Win Scenario
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister writes about the no-win scenario facing today's independent programmers: 'In a knowledge economy, programmers rank among our most valuable workers, yet the current legal and regulatory climate makes a career as an independent software developer virtually a dead-end prospect.' Section 1706 of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, the hurdles and costs of obtaining health care for one's own family, a hostile legal climate in search of accountability for any defects in code — these harsh realities make it 'easy to see why software developers would give up on entrepreneurship. For many, the risks simply don't match the potential rewards. Better to keep their heads down, not rock the boat, and hope they can hang onto their jobs until retirement.' Great news for big software vendors, which will be 'ensured an endless supply of programmers desperate for the safe haven of a steady paycheck, predictable taxation, health benefits, and a shield from civil prosecution when their code turns up buggy. But where will the next Microsoft come from? A field that discourages self-reliance sends the message that the status quo is the highest goal.'"
I do well building a reselling software. I make most of my money off something I built two years ago. Working as an independent programmer for someone else may suck, but working for yourself is the only way to go. Build it once, and get paid forever.
It's hard to do anything as a beginner.
Of course, but the thing here is that you can't necessary choose the better way either, so you have to go by that. Of course it's easy to yell about "working for soulless big company like EA" from the moms basement, but that's not how it goes in the real world.
But the amount of such things you need to care of in the US isn't even bad yet. In other countries there's so many things you need to take care of it really, really puts you off. You'll be spending a lot more time trying to figure out all the overhead things than getting any work done.
You would need to right away get some lawyer to tell you everything little minor detail in law, an accountant to make sure you fill the complicated taxes correctly, take care of payment processing, and pay large amount of money for irrelevant things like health care and so on. If the workless people don't have to pay for health care, why should a beginning entrepreneur do so if they don't like to?
In beginning you really need someone. If you're an games programmer, this means someone that can handle the distribution and paying your share of it. PopCap and such might be good for a beginner.
On the internet it might also mean starting your site with no financial incentives first and hope someone picks you up, or provides funding and other expertise.
But yourself alone, as a newbie with no money to invest with - no, it's too hard.
When I started working as a programmer some 15 years ago I had an AA degree in computer science. I learned on my own and wrote some pretty fantastic code. My first job was to write a multithreading app and I did well. Now I'm out of work and I can't get a job doing stuff that I could do in my sleep because I don't have a BA and I'm 54 years of age. I can't get a job, in a month or two I'll be homeless. I have pneumonia and I can't even afford to go to the doctor, stinking california denied my medical aid because I didn't state whether i was PREGNANT or not!!! Recently I decided my only hope is to go into business myself and now i read about this situation. Not a day goes by that I don't think about suicide and can only manage to get to sleep by pretending I'm dying. How pathetic I know but that's the way it is. Its over for me.
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
I wonder if it'd be easier for independent software contractors to simply move to Canada, and then contract with US-based companies, doing work remotely?
Step 1. Form an LLC. It's not hard, you can do it yourself for under $100 in most cases
Step 2. Get an EIN number from the feds. Free and easy
Step 3. Open a checking account for your new LLC. might require a credit check.
Step 4. Get a decent accounting package.
Step 5. Keep track of EVERY business expense. Keep milage logs in your car. Keep receipts. What percentage of your utilities, etc are business related? Track it.
Step 6. If you think you need the additional coverage get E&O Insurance. It can be pricey, true. On the other hand if you LLC doesn't have a lot of hard assets, why worry?
Step 7. Get health coverage. We found insurance through a local trade group for $600 a month for my wife and I. Pay it out of the company, it's a write off.
Step 8. Work your ass off and enjoy the benefits of being able to write-off things you probably would have purchased anyway.
This should have been step 6 - get a good tax guy (or girl) to help you figure shit out.
Now get creative. Like to go to theme parks? Set up another LLC and create a website dedicated to reviewing them, talking about which ones have what etc. Now you get to write off trips to Six Flags and Cedar point as legitimate business research.
Life is far more enjoyable when you do what you want, when you want, for whom you want. All the accounting is a pain in the ass, yes, but not as big of a pain in the ass as working for Bill Lumberg the rest of your life.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Most of the rest of the civilzed world has universal health care, and none of the dire things you say have happened
Please read GP carefully. His "dire effects" are what happens when you have mandatory universal healthcare with no public option (i.e. you have to go and buy insurance from a private party), or when you have public healthcare which is non-mandatory (so you can opt-out and skip funding it). To my knowledge, there's no country which works like that today, and U.S. might just be the first one to get into that mess.
Universal and public healthcare works, of course. That's the point.
they would still be around today, and they would probably be doing at least as well as China is.
Unlikely. The U.S.S.R never developed anywhere near the commercial economy that is required to truly support a major high-technology military. They were not (and still are not) willing to allow their people enough elbow room to actually create something for themselves. Matter of fact, I would venture to say that China is doing so well because they learned from the negative example offered by the Soviet Empire, and are not making the same mistakes. Good for them, not so good for us (or the Russians, for that matter.)
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
"and most days are 12~16 hours long"
Do you have kids? Do you plan to? You work 12-16 hour days constantly and they will end up pregnant addicts. NOTHING screws up your kids faster than parents who don't have time for them.
on vacations I do have to keep one eye on my email and be willing to get up a few hours early to handle anything
That's not a vacation.
There are no sick days.
You are one car accident away from bankruptcy.
When a client makes unreasonable demands I just charge more.
No, no you really don't. Been there, done that. Over time, clients expect you to constantly get cheaper. In time, you'll find yourself competing against third-world labor.
don't let a client down even if it means pulling all-nighters until your not sure what day it is
I see you have your cardiac arrest penciled in for next year. What does your doctor think about this plan?
I've never been happier in my career.
Been there. Done that. Talk to me about how you feel after three years of this.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."