Freelance app developers: 6 Tips for all star professionals

Competition in the mobile app industry is a proven fact. That’s why it’s not always easy to stand out as an app programmer, especially for freelance app developers. However, you must take this with a pinch of salt as, indeed, it’s possible to succeed as a mobile app freelance programmer if you work on it. By doing so, it will be possible to find work as freelance app developers.

However, it will always depend on what’s your idea of success. If you are thinking about making a smash hit, getting to be known worldwide and earning thousands of euros per month. Better take that idea out of your head. Even though this is not something impossible, it’s only relegated to a few as, for instance, the case of Flappy Bird. We’ve discussed achieving professional success: getting good jobs, obtaining customers, having a high income and even becoming a top freelance programmer recommended by industry players. That’s much easier to achieve if we work hard on it.

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In this article we want to give out some tips that we consider to be key and essential if you want to become a successful freelance programmer. Our views come out from experience, since in Yeeply we have been working with experts who meet these requirements and are climbing the ladder to success through perseverance and tenacity. Are you up for cooking the recipe for success?

1. PURSUE EXCELLENCE IN YOUR WORK

As a freelance programmer, you must persevere daily in delivering excellent work. There is no road to success without excellent results. You must seek perfection in the product or service you offer. Freelance app developers have to seek perfection in the code delivered to their customers and in product design −if they also take care of that part of mobile application projects. And not only in the work delivered but also in all other related efforts. The ambition to succeed as a freelance programmer goes along with excellence in results and seeking perfection in everything you do.

2. OBTAIN AMBITIOUS PROJECTS

When choosing a project, it’s clear that we will not always have access to projects from big companies. It would be unrealistic to aspire to develop a mobile app for Facebook or Google, for instance. In the first place, because as freelance programmers we cannot cover a project of such magnitude. In the second place, because such large companies have departments that are dedicated exclusively to mobile application development.

As freelance app developers, we must be ambitious but at other levels. We can focus on getting projects from large companies that do not have a development department within their workforce and need to develop an app. In other words, a good target customer is a company wanting to outsource mobile application development.

3. FREELANCE APP DEVELOPERS: KEEP TRAINING!

In fact, we have already discussed this matter on more than one occasion. We did so, for example, when discussing the mistakes made by freelance programmers that should be avoided at all costs. One of those mistakes was to not keep on training.

There is a simple reason for this. Everything in the Internet changes very quickly. Something working well today might not be useful tomorrow. So, even if you have experience in some areas −or even if you are one of the best Android programmers out there−, you have to keep on training to be up-to-date with new advances in operating systems.

A clear example of this is the appearance of Lollipop, which brought innovations and changes to mobile application development. We will never succeed if we don’t keep on training and catching up on the latest novelties unfolding in the industry. We must be at the forefront of mobile application design and be the first to create innovative apps and apply new techniques.

4. TIME IS MONEY, DON’T WASTE IT!

One of the most important things about being a freelance developer −or rather of being a freelance or self-employed professional in general− is organizing and managing your time. Time is money, as everybody knows, but this couldn’t be truer if you are a freelance programmer. One of the advantages of being a freelance developer is that you can work at any time of your choosing. There are no physical boundaries or schedules.

This is precisely why you are solely responsible for managing your projects well and not wasting your time. The best thing you can do to optimize your time and manage well your job is to have a schedule of tasks to carry out and be consistent with it.

I.e. to fulfil what you have planned in the schedule. No one will check that you do your work until the day it gets delivered: you are solely responsible for what you do or don’t do.

It must be taken into account for the sake of good professional managing that being self-employed has a number of taxation features that are different to those applicable when working as an app developer within a company. You will have to pay special attention to taxation and tax paying if you are a freelance app developer and devote some time to these matters.

5. TURN YOUR SMARTPHONE INTO AN OFFICE

This is one of the advantages offered by the new technologies: smartphones, tablets, laptops… In short, with Wi-Fi and mobile devices we can work from virtually anywhere. From an airplane, a train, a cafe, while we wait for a colleague in a restaurant or even from your mother-in-law’s house on a Sunday at noon.

This is why we are telling you that your Smartphone can be turned into a mobile office by using mobile applications. Another advantage of this way of working is uploading and saving your work on the cloud, which makes it accessible to you from your Smartphone or from any desktop computer.

6. COMMUNICATION & PR

Being a freelance developer means marketing yourself as a professional to sell your services. You must be skilled in public relations and a good salesman if you want to succeed as a mobile app freelance programmer. You are no longer selling a product or service from a particular company but selling your own services. This is why communication and personal branding are two of the most essential components towards building confidence in potential customers and getting app projects.

If you’ve just started off working as a freelance programmer it may be hard to find mobile application projects. For this reason, in Yeeply we give you a helping hand to succeed as a freelance programmer. What do you think? DO WE WORK TOGETHER?