Houston Ruby Brigade

Freelancers Open Forum: HoustonRuby Monthly Meetup

February 19, 2014 · 7:00 PM
Platform Houston

By popular demand, we're setting aside the Ruby part of our careers, and focus on the money making part of our careers! We're talking about Freelancing (and consulting).

Ever want to live the live of luxury, coding by the pool, collecting money without working for it! (then this isn't for you) --- But, if you want freedom, freelancing may be for you.

Come and ask our panelists questions like:

• How do you get your first client

• How do you invoice and get paid

• What tools exist to help you out?

• What's a good hourly rate?

• How to spot a good client

• What's the difference between consultants and freelancers

Our panelists of freedom loving, risk taking, freelancers/consultants

• Jesse Wolgamott

• Jonathan Birkholz

• Sammy Larbi

• Joshua Reiken

• Ben Gillin (a designer)

Note we are at Platform Houston this month. Yay Platform!

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Sammy L.

You guys who have LLCs w/ an S-Corp election (or a straight-up S-Corp): how do you handle payroll for yourself?

Also, LegalZoom or lawyer? (just curious on that, the first ? is the important one)

0 · February 20
- View all 11 replies
- Joshua R.
  
  I had my accountant set up payroll and direct deposit. The key is to pay yourself a "reasonable salary", meaning what you would take elsewhere for the work you're doing. I pay myself a low-ish salary and have set income goals. When I meet those goals, I pay myself a bonus (also subject to payroll taxes). It's a nice little psychological boost reward if I meet my goals. If I don't meet the goals, then I haven't paid myself too much and won't have to worry about it.
  
  0 · February 20
- Brian S.
  
  I have my business checking account with Bank of America. I was able to do payroll for something like $34/mo, and it worked *great*! I know there are pundits, but I've been extremely happy with BoA.
  
  0 · February 20
- Brian S.
  
  Also, filing LLC paperwork is extremely easy; I did it in one evening, by myself, online. IIRC, State of Texas has an online form you can use to register an LLC.
  
  0 · February 20
- Joshua R.
  
  My accountant uses Quickbooks and its services.
  
  0 · February 20
- Joshua R.
  
  I will take distributions at the end of the year, and the salary/distribution ratio will be where it needs to be no matter what happens, so this arrangement is flexible and works well for me.
  
  0 · February 20
- Joshua R.
  
  Also, I use a lawyer. I have someone who works in a law firm in the family, so it's easier that way for me.
  
  0 · February 20
- Jesse W.
  
  S-Corp - my account set it up for me (he also moved me from LLC to scorp using a lawyer). I pay salary+distributions each pay-period.
  
  0 · February 20
- Jesse W.
  
  I've used both LegalZoom and a Lawyer. Legalzoom was fine, but they try to upsell you a bunch. I personally like to get great consultants/professionals now. So, my advice? Spend the extra $1000 to $2000 and have it done by a lawyer/CPA.
  
  0 · February 20
- Jesse W.
  
  CPA firm, who only handle creatives like us: http://www.blumercpas...
  
  0 · February 20
- Sammy L.
  
  FWIW on the CPA front, I work with http://bartacpa.com/ and I've been very happy. Found enough money I was threw away in prior years by not filing right to pay for the service, and virtually everything is done online.
  
  0 · February 21
- Sammy L.
  
  Thanks everyone for the advice on payroll. I'll look into all those options.
  
  0 · February 21
Billy C.

I've used LegalZoom to do the LLC. Not cheap, but I was pretty happy with the result.

0 · February 20
Jake C.

Here are my notes from the meetup. I took quite a bit so I thought I'd share to see if it's useful to anyone

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s...

3 · February 20
- View all 4 replies
- Alper
  
  Thanks for sharing Jake. This is very useful.
  
  0 · February 20
- Joshua R.
  
  Seconded. Thanks, Jake.
  
  0 · February 20
- Dwayne E.
  
  Jake, These are some good notes.
  
  0 · February 20
- Jared L.
  
  I also took notes if you want to compare: https://docs.google.co...
  
  3 · February 20
Sammy L.

The app I mentioned that blocks your screen for 5 minutes on a configurable schedule is http://www.dejal.com/timeout/

0 · February 20
Dwayne E.

Does any work with Ruby API's ?

0 · February 17
- View all 3 replies
- Jesse W.
  
  Hey Dwayne --- Would you expand on your question?
  
  0 · February 17
- Dwayne E.
  
  Does anybody work with Ruby API's as functions in web sites ?
  
  0 · February 17
- Sammy L.
  
  Dwayne, can you get more specific about what you're looking for? I'd say everyone who works in any language would work with that language's APIs. If you mean APIs developed by other companies to program against their platform as a web service, then I'd still guess that most everyone who works on web stuff has used one in some form or the other.
  
  0 · February 18
Billy C.

Conflict with the ColdFusion Users Group meetup, where I'm the manager and am presenting this month. See everyone next month.

0 · February 14
Brian S.

I wish I could be there, but probably won't be. Of course, there is a slim possibility I'll end up down there next week; if so, I'll stop in.

0 · February 12