Ask HN: How to become a remote contractor?
I&#x27;ve quit my day job in 2012, found a contract with a great client on Upwork (forget how it was called at the time). Initially a 6 months project, I&#x27;ve worked with them for 2 years.<p>Got a few other contracts off that site, until one day I&#x27;ve asked one of my main clients to move out of that platform and work with me directly. Worked with them 2 years, until I got an offer in January to become a full time technical director and shareholder.<p>What I&#x27;ve learn contracting:<p>1. Increase your rates. Make them non-negotiable. There&#x27;s people that are ready to pay for quality. If a client asks you to lower your rate, they probably aren&#x27;t a good client in the first place.<p>2. Increase your rates every year, as you get more experience and technical knowledge.<p>3. Upwork was bad, and now is even worse. Move out of those kind of sites ASAP, when you can trust your client.<p>4. If you do good work, you&#x27;ll have old clients pinging you once in a while with new opportunities. So, do outstanding work, and you won&#x27;t have to look for new contracts as much.<p>5. Don&#x27;t be afraid to learn. Try not to specialise too much.  Generalists&#x2F;full stack devs are very sought after. You&#x27;ll start a contract as a web developer and soon you&#x27;ll be doing DB optimisation and securing their infrastructure.<p>6. Increase your rates.