Contribute Fridays: What Would You Rather Have?
What would you rather have, better projects for less money, or more money for suckier projects?
image by helgasms!
About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
There’s no amount of money that can make a sucky project enjoyable as far as I’m concerned.
I’m a state employee so I’m obviously not in it for the money. Then again, the government isn’t usually known for their super awesome web projects either.
But if/when I start taking freelance stuff on the side I want it to be fun. I pay my bills with my day job, even if it’s occasionally dull.
Hey Amy
I just started following your tweets, and you post some really insightful links. Keep em coming!
I just started out doing the whole freelance design and development gig and I came to quickly realize how valuable better projects can be. It also seems like the better projects come with better clients. On top of that, I usually get paid at a higher rate for the better jobs. If I was going into a project with a know client who gives better projects, I will be much more excited to do the work instead of seeing the paycheck.. The end result can sometimes be compensation in itself.
Nice question Amber!
When I first began freelance developing I would totally say more money for suckier projects, because we all need money and experience is experience right? HA nope! I have learned that once I realized that I do not have to say yes to every crap project that comes my way, I was able to choose the better projects and as Alex stated, I found that the clients who have the good project ideas are usually the ones who know they will be paying for it.
Gah, Sorry about the name mix-up AMBER! hahah.
Agree with Jeremy. Sometimes more money doesn’t make a project worth it… Of course, this is the idealistic scenario… sometimes you just need the money. :-S
LOL Most of the time though, when you stop accepting crappy projects, great ones come to you
Definitely better projects. I just turned down a well paying in-house job for some company. Not a design firm, so boring job. Hoping to open up shop at home in the summer.
Glad to see others saying better projects across the board – I think it’s just something we all learn over time. Crappy projects might pay money, but usually not THAT much money, and in the end, it’s not worth the grief/frustration of dealing with them. Better projects are more rewarding, and you can actually add them to your portfolio, too!
Also, it feels oddly rewarding when you say no to your first project. Like “No thanks, I’m better than that now.”
Better projects, definitely. Fortunately, I started getting better projects when I started quoting higher fees. This isn’t a choice I’ve had to make.
In the grand scheme of things, better projects with cool clients. If all my clients were awesome and all projects fun and stress free, but low pay, I’d be happy. Who would knock awesome clients who pass bank? That’s a given. But I do value a lot of other things over money. So far my 2010 has been pretty dry, project-wise and money-wise, but I’ve had mostly cool clients. I’m content thus far.