Does anyone freelance?

[CodeCobbler]

I recently learned the difference between Freelancing and Contracting.

Freelancing: paid per deliverable, not in a team.
Contractor: paid a rate, in a team.
(perhaps some might suggest in IR35 or out)

I have done some freelancing through contacts a long while back. It was good but difficult to line up enough work.
I vastly prefer freelancing but it doesn't seem to have that much of a market in the west, for IT anyway.
No platforms exist for it that are any good. I get a strong sense freelancing is for the artsy types or 3rd worlders.

However contracting pays vastly better, with lots of greasy agents at the ready to place you in some subpar role. But I still have some trouble viewing it as a proper business. I see it as essentially LARPing as an employee for cash.

Am I wrong? Is this really the state of the market?

[Lance]

why is a contractor paid a rate and not in a team?
That might be one form of contracting but it's not all.

I also don't see there's a difference between freelance and contract. If you freelance without a contract you're daft.

I think your assumptions are flawed.

[WTFH]

I recently learned the difference between Freelancing and Contracting.

Freelancing: paid per deliverable, not in a team.
Contractor: paid a rate, in a team.
(perhaps some might suggest in IR35 or out)

I have done some freelancing through contacts a long while back. It was good but difficult to line up enough work.
I vastly prefer freelancing but it doesn't seem to have that much of a market in the west, for IT anyway.
No platforms exist for it that are any good. I get a strong sense freelancing is for the artsy types or 3rd worlders.

However contracting pays vastly better, with lots of greasy agents at the ready to place you in some subpar role. But I still have some trouble viewing it as a proper business. I see it as essentially LARPing as an employee for cash.

Am I wrong? Is this really the state of the market?

You're using your own terminology to try to justify something.

For me, a contractor is someone who comes in to deliver a project (or part thereof). It may not be one single tiny deliverable (like a 10 line piece of code), but could be several pieces that are part of a larger project. They come in because the client lacks the in-house skills, and once the project has been delivered there is no longer a requirement for someone to have those skills in their organisation full time. The overall project may require multiple people with multiple skills working together as a team to deliver the project.

If you're going to force your terminology and definitions on others, and the bit about not being part of a team is something that is important to you, then that's your choice, but it probably limits how much work you can get, and telling others they are not a "proper business" because they come in and work on projects in teams is not going to be popular with people who have a different experience to you.

[WTFH]

One other thing, if you're paid per deliverable, not in a team and it's the same client over a period of time, you're more of a disguised employee than someone who does project work.
Do you bid for the work?
Are there others who win it sometimes?

[jamesbrown]

They are basically synonyms although "contracting" in the UK tends to be understood by the general public as synonymous with the building trade and, around here, primarily IT.

Contracting is essentially any fixed-term contract for work (whether fixed price for fixed deliverables, time and materials for fixed deliverables or time and materials) that is not a contract of employment (which could be indefinite or fixed term). Freelancing is basically synonymous with this, but probably has a slightly more bohemian flavour or set of industries in the UK, like finger painting.

Also, contracting as understood in the UK is pretty different from contracting as understood in other jurisdictions. Either way, your understanding is wrong.

[CodeCobbler]

They are basically synonyms although "contracting" in the UK tends to be understood by the general public as synonymous with the building trade and, around here, primarily IT.

Contracting is essentially any fixed-term contract for work (whether fixed price for fixed deliverables, time and materials for fixed deliverables or time and materials) that is not a contract of employment (which could be indefinite or fixed term). Freelancing is basically synonymous with this, but probably has a slightly more bohemian flavour or set of industries in the UK, like finger painting.

Also, contracting as understood in the UK is pretty different from contracting as understood in other jurisdictions. Either way, your understanding is wrong.

Wrong about what exactly? Both work to a contract. So your definition is also vague.

For years I never understood the difference, to me it was always just one word or another. Yet I believe a lot of people (US, EU) consider these different.
Now I understand the key difference is in the contract terms.

If you are paid per hour worked, you are a contractor, if you are paid for an outcome, then that's a freelancer.

But I guess to many its just a word choice thingy.

[jamesbrown]

Wrong about what exactly?

About your naïve, mechanistic, essentially made-up definitions. Even within the UK, "contracting" is understood very differently by the average poster on CUK and the general public, so I don't know how you imagined such a distinction between "contracting" and "freelancing" could be made with a straight face.

[WTFH]

If you are paid per hour worked, you are a contractor, if you are paid for an outcome, then that's a freelancer.

But I guess to many its just a word choice thingy.

It's your word choice, and I notice you're not mentioned teams in this reply.

If someone is taken on by a company to deliver part of a project - i.e. the outcome is the project delivery - are they a freelancer in your eyes, or because the project takes several months, do you say they are effectively an employee?
When I take on a role, it is to deliver a particular project. It's not to be an extra bum on seat. I agree what the desired outcome is, and estimate how much effort is required to deliver that. There will be an associated approximate charge from my side to do that.

Now, if you are paid for an outcome, with no agreed rate up front and no billing plan, then you're either delivering work for 6 months or more unpaid, where you absorb all the associated expenses, etc, and then submit one single invoice at the end. Either that, or you're submitting invoices in a way to generate payments to you before delivery of the outcome.

And if you work through an intermediary - e.g. a consultancy firm - then you're definitely NOT a freelancer

[Paralytic]

Am I wrong?

Yes.

[d000hg]

Typically a Freelancer would be external to the company/team and a contractor work alongside, but realistically the terms are interchangeable. In the UK there is a suggestion a freelancer is doing smaller pieces of adhoc work (like RentaCoder) and a contractor is on a longer stretch and therefore more 'serious' but that seems local culture. For instance some broadcasters (who are inside IR35) describe themselves as working freelance, and in other countries the terms have subtly different implications.