Freelancing in India – The oriental carpet shop

According to an ancient saying in India, the secret of long and fulfilling life lies in avoiding four types of people at all costs - bankers, doctors, lawyers and police. There is only way to avoid these four types – don’t earn too much, take care of your health, don’t get into disputes with anyone, and don’t commit any crime. This must be true in most countries, but here in India - this is the most practical thing to do.

In India, the laws are very favorable to the weaker party - it is impossible (at least legally) to fire an employee or avoid payment. But, the unfortunate part is that if you go to court - only your great grandson may hear the final ruling. This practically rules out any legal recourse for many people. Therefore, any legal documents that you sign are practically useless - at least as far as YOU are concerned. The advantage is you don't need to consult a lawyer. But, the disadvantage is you are on your own. You have to evolve your own way of getting your payments on time, getting your deliverables accepted and work out the complexities of the inner workings of your client organizations.

First, let me tell you a couple of stories from the field. The first story is about the need to read carefully all legal agreements and more importantly the price of arrogance and individualism that one pays for in this country. The second story is about the need to understand the subtlety of the eastern mind.

I know of a consultant who worked for a billionaire. There was a disagreement between them on some issues - the issue was not about money, but the working styles of the client and the consultant. This particular consultant was very arrogant - one day he had a major fight and walked out of the assignment. According to the agreement he signed - he could leave with one day notice, so he thought everything would be fine, and at best his client wouldn't release the pending payments.

Two days later, a battery of lawyers descended on his house - and practically sealed everything - his wristwatch, cell phone, microwave, TV, credit cards, computer - and practically every single tiny electronic item he owned was sealed. The reason: he signed an intellectual property document, and the document says that in the event of termination of the assignment, the client has a right to verify that no confidential data was stored in any electronic medium!! Technically even a wrist watch is an electronic medium.

This poor chap couldn't even make a phone call, and his client was out of contact for a week. Finally, he had to swallow his pride and beg for pardon.

The important lesson is that be careful of the documents you sign with your clients. Any condition in the agreement must be something that you yourself should be able to establish.

The second story is my own first hand experience. In India, your clients will never dispute anything - especially about payments. They fully agree that they have to pay and they will always tell you that they have every intention to clear all the pending payments as soon as they can. They will never get into an argument with you on payments. If you ask about payments - they will talk to you for two hours, tell you how much they value your work and relationship, take you out for lunch, make you very comfortable - but they always find some way of delaying the actual payment. In the west, people are in general have an 'on your face' attitude, but here it is very subtle. It is like going to an oriental carpet shop and negotiating for price - everything is discussed except the price.

Once, I completed my assignment, and sent all documents to my client, and sent them the invoice. There is a thirty day period for all payments - so, I waited for about three weeks. Nothing happened. I contacted the finance department - they told me that they did not receive any approval from the VP, Engineering - who is the person in charge for my consulting work. I met him again - he apologized profusely for the delay for about half an hour, and in the meanwhile asked me to 'help' them with a few small things and so on and so forth. I obliged - it took another one week. I sent the invoice again to the VP and the finance department. This time, the VP took a printout of the invoice - and he wrote on it the three magic words: "please pay" and signed. I handed over the invoice to the finance department. The accountant gave me a charming smile and said everything will be done in a week's time. Well, nothing happened for another two weeks.

Again, I met the VP. This time he cursed their finance department - he said they are always very slow, don't do their job on time etc., etc. He again took a printout and again wrote the three magic words and signed. I took the invoice to the finance department. This time the accountant asked me to wait - he wrote the check and gave it to me within half an hour.

I asked the accountant that why they did not clear my payments the first time the bill was passed by the VP. The accountant said "Sir, the first time he cleared your invoice, but wrote it in blue ink. That is an instruction to us not to pay. If he writes it in green ink, then it means send the check after two weeks, and if he writes it in red ink - it means that we should pass it immediately".

This is how subtle the process could be here. I use some simple rules to deal with the eastern complexity and it works.

First, I always do one week of gift work before I formally engage with any clients. I don't charge for the first one week, and I work without any formal contract. This allows me to understand several things - most importantly I get to understand the problem I am expected to solve, I get to assess whether I could do it or not, whether the team is capable enough to solve it themselves - how much guidance they need from me and so on. Most importantly, I can estimate the culture of the organization. Metaphorically speaking - I get to know in which color the invoice has to be signed!!

A consultant has to deal with three different people in the client organization. The person who employed you, generally it is a senior manager - most often, the head of development, delivery or technology. The second person is the one who actually needs you and works with you - generally it is the development team, represented by a project manager, and finally - some one from the finance department. These three people can form a nice little triangle and play a perpetual football with you.

What I do is to try and break the triangle. I insist that one person from the development team - either a project manager, team lead or a programmer be assigned as my primary client contact, who will have all the authority to decide on the deliverables, to sign off on my time sheets and who has to ensure that payments are cleared. This means that even though the agreement is signed between me and a senior manager of the company, the agreement explicitly nominates one person by name.

The advantage is that - programmers do not switch off their cell phones, they do not go on extended foreign tours, and they don't have secretaries. You can always call them up and go for a lunch. And, they understand which color of ink their boss has to sign. Basically, I make my internal client contact run around to clear all my payments. Once they accept this responsibility - they are in general very sincere and prompt. Contrary to all generally accepted beliefs, I found that the finance department tends to be the most efficient and prompt of all other divisions of the organizations. Once they get clear instructions, they act very promptly.

The second part of my consulting agreement is to clearly identify three types of deliverables. In India, the clients do not draw a clear boundary between the consultant and the organization. The consultant - especially if he is a freelancer - is always treated as one of their own. This has several advantages and disadvantages.

The disadvantages:

• The scope always expands.
• No clear idea of what the deliverables are - the distinction between the work and the deliverable are always blurred. You are asked to do work but get paid based on certain concrete deliverables that you have to produce.
• Confusion about who is owner for a certain area of work.

Normally, what I do is to identify three types of responsibilities and document them as part of my 'work contract':

• Primary responsibilities: I have the primary ownership for these deliverables, and I have control on the project plan.
• Collaborative responsibilities: My expertise is required for these deliverables, but someone else has the overall ownership and control on the pace of the activity.
• Participatory responsibilities: Areas where my inputs are sought - but, I have a right of refusal to participate.

Finally, it is important to get the payments on time. Suppose I expect the payment to be done on 30 of the month. If I send the 'deliverable' document on 25th, I can never get the payment on time. This is because, the deliverable is not completed when I send it, but when it is read and understood by the receiver. So, if I want my payments on 30th, I send my documents on 10th of the month - and give them two weeks time to accept the deliverable, and also I use the two weeks to ensure that they indeed make the effort to understand it clearly.

I wish all of you and your families a very happy and successful new year. May the Lord bless you to find your heart's desire.

Freelancing in India

Many young people from India are writing to me asking about freelancing. If you are also ‘bitten’ by the freelance bug – and you are thinking of writing to me, read this before you shoot that email to me.

I believe self employment will take off in a big way in India in the next two to five years – therefore, there will be lot of scope for people to be on their own. There is a need for specialized knowledge, speed and flexibility in our industry. Many people are now well connected, well travelled and they know their bearings well. All this means that the situation is ‘cooking’. It is the right time to jump in for the early mover advantage.

However, freelancing is a difficult thing to make it work – anywhere in the world, and especially in India. It is not going to be straightforward.

First, let me dispel a few myths – freelancing is not financially lucrative in the long run. People who work as freelancers do so because they love to be independent, have some time on their hand to pursue various other interests and generally be the trailblazers. It is not a road to make wealth. If you are a Peter Drucker – it may be different, but even for Drucker – he would have made lot more money if he started his own company or worked for some other big company.

There is never any ‘job’ security if you are on your own – it is always a struggle to find the next project, and do it well and have some regular income.

There are a few tax advantages – but the overall expenses far out weigh any tax advantages. For example, you have to invest in your own training, and in your own career. If you work for any large IT-Company, they take care of all your training needs. If you work for a large IT company in India, this amounts to about 50K per year (including the training expenses + the salary you get even though you are attending training). Similarly, there are many other expenses if you are on your own. These days many IT companies provide many perks – which are tax free incentives, you don’t get anything more if you are a freelancer.

Part time job, second income is completely different from being on your own. There is no comparison at all.

There is also a big difference between contracting and consulting. One is getting some work and executing it, and the other is lending your expertise to produce results. These two ways of engagement work very differently.

So, think carefully before making a move. You can always get the first couple of contracts – but can you get business for the rest of your life? I do not want to discourage anyone – but only trying to throw some light on a few dark areas that people generally don’t see.

Now, here are a few tips:

To be successful you have to:

• Establish your credentials – credentials are not your resume, but your expertise and demonstrating that you can deliver. What you can do is to first try and get some work from internet. There are now some websites like rentacoder.com, elance.com etc., - which help freelancers find work across the globe. You can register yourself on these websites. It works pretty much similar to e-bay. Some companies post their requirements – and you can bid for projects, execute them from home. I suggest that you find out more about sites like this, and see if there is some work there that fits your skills and what you are looking for.
• Transition from ‘a skilled person’ to ‘an expert’ – you have to develop certain techniques, a way of doing your work that establishes your expertise. You have to learn to write well, communicate well, publish some papers, have a website of your own and carve out for yourself a niche. There are tons of open sources projects these days – if you participate in these projects, you get to learn the world class standards that are used today, and also you get to meet other people who are freelancers and create a network of your own.
• Have a network of contacts, friends and others from the same area. If you are working in a company – even though you don’t realize, you are part of a community which ensures that you get to know a lot of things from the environment. If you are a freelancer, you have to cultivate different kinds of relationships. There are many ways of accomplishing this – membership in professional bodies, attending conferences, teaching in universities, making contact with a group of people who work in your area (see point no: 2).
• Understand how consulting works. There are some excellent reference books on this subject. Flawless Consulting by Peter Block, Consultant’s calling by Bellman, Soloing are some books that I recommend. Read them, understand them and then think about how to go about it.
• Read a lot. You have to read many different kinds of books – not just technical books. The general thumb rule is that you have to be able to read at least 500 pages of material every week and absorb it. If you claim to be a knowledge worker – you have to have knowledge. Right? Some books I suggest to begin with: Gerald Weinberg’s books on Software Engineering, Quality Software Management and his books on consulting. Also books on agile techniques. Books on systems thinking, history and some poetry. Definitely you have to know a great deal about accounting, managing your own finances and legal aspects of self employment.
• Invest in your own career. This means that you have to have a definite idea of how much free time you will have, and how you will use the free time. If you do billing work all through the year – you will become stagnated very fast, and you can’t get business the next year. Our field evolves very fast, and for a freelancer it is very important to be on top of the technology. Therefore, it is mandatory that you have a definite plan how to stay ahead – this will include, reading a lot, attending workshops and training programs, write and communicate, teach and so on. In financial terms, you have to invest at least 30% of your revenue in your own learning at least in the initial years.

That’s pretty much it. If you are committed to it – it is not hard. Believe in yourself, make a small begining, do it well and don’t give up. That’s all there is to it.

Secrets of Successful Freelancing

Many people ask me about freelancing – how it works, how do I make it work and so on. Most often I duck the question because it is a difficult question. This article is a short guide on how to survive as a freelancer.

It is not easy to be a freelancer. Most freelancers want work, not a job – which makes it tough for them in the long run. They want freedom, they value competency, they think they bring real expertise to the table and want to continue to enjoy the challenge of work.

I always suspect the people who tell me that they enjoy learning. Learning is a painful process, why would anyone want to learn in the first place? We learn best only if we need to. Children learn so fast because it is a question of survival. Psychologists define learning as a permanent change in behavior due to a prior experience. Genetically, we are designed to resist any change – whether it is for good or for worse. Apparently in the same way we have an internal thermostat which controls our temperature – we have another instrument whose function is always bring us back to the original state. This is the reason why changing anything in ourselves is such a massive effort.

Learning is a lot like being in love – and being love is a painful experience. The separation from one’s beloved is a suffering and the lover secretly craves for that rupture involved in that longing. This is a mysterious process – much like the drug addicts cravings for a drug.

In the initial phases of my career as a freelancer, I deluded myself that my clients hire me because of my expertise, knowledge or the skill I possess. I deluded myself that I am expensive because I am very valuable. I deluded myself that doing the best job is the most important thing in the world. I deluded myself that doing the best job on time will get me my payments on time and also bring me fame and respect, and even an extension of the contract.

Well, people value those traits. As freelancers we are respected for our expertise, our knowledge and our skill. Eventually, these qualities might even allows us differentiate ourselves in the market place and allow us to quote a premium for our services. We may be valued for these traits, but we are not hired for these reasons. And, we never retain our contracts for these reasons. We retain a contract only if – as people – we demonstrate very high levels of personal integrity. If we have no personal integrity – then we cannot sustain ourselves as freelancers even for a month.

Clients hire freelancers primarily for business, economic and operational reasons. We are too expensive to be on their employee roles. We are temperamental prima-donnas who are fiercely independent and therefore in the long run we are an expensive maintenance problem that nobody wants to have on their hands. We are addicted to problem solving, and therefore we cannot stay in one organization long enough.

These are the real reasons why we are ‘allowed’ to be freelancers.

It took me a long time to understand this. Most problems between consultants and their clients arise because of ‘expectation’ mismatch. We expect to be valued for our contributions and for our love of work. Organizations value and reward loyalty – not loyalty to work, but loyalty to themselves.

It was a difficult learning. But, after I realized it, it is not too hard to internalize it. The following eleven rules are a direct consequence of this realization. If you practice these rules – you may not become a world class freelancer, but you may be able to survive as one – which is no mean accomplishment in itself.

1. If you are a Socrates, be prepared for a painful exit. Remember - Socrates did not complain about painful exits.
2. Do not blame the stimulus for the response. You are the one who seeks problems – so, never blame the client for giving you the problems. How you experience the problem and your (in)ability to solve it belongs only to you.
3. The estimation of the self must be tempered by the knowledge of the self.
4. A King will never ask his general whether he is ready to defend the country. The fact that the general is still in his job means that he is ready to do so. Therefore, the King will only give marching orders.
5. As a consultant, the only right you have is to do your duty. Always remember that it is your right. Fight for it, protect it but never allow anyone/anything to deny this right to you. Most important – don’t deny it yourself.
6. A freelancer works for cash - not for kind. Therefore, we don’t get paid twice. You can either take a check or receive gratitude. Learn to prefer the check to gratitude.
7. Always do a thankless job. The only thank-you note you can expect is the payment made on time.
8. Be thankful if you get some work to do, and you get regular payments. These are the only two objective measures that you can use to assess yourself. The rest are delusions.
9. The Shareholders control the company, the founders operate the company, the employees are the company, and a consultant is associated with the company. All data modelers know that association is the weakest relationship – it has no integrity constraint imposed on it. It is the easiest and most convenient relationship to terminate. No reason or rationale is required to terminate it – because such a termination does not break down the underlying system.
10. The success of a consultant is directly proportional to how fast he/she makes himself/herself redundant to the client.
1. Solve that problem as quickly as you can and get out.
2. If there is no problem to be solved, get out.
3. If you cannot solve the problem – get out.
11. Luxuries that a freelancer cannot afford:
1. Anger – never walk out of the contract in anger. Don’t leave especially after you have had a fight with your client over some issue.
2. Resignation – an employee can resign. A freelancer cannot. There are only two ways to exit: either complete the assignment, or get fired. Sometimes getting fired is not as bad as we imagine it to be.
3. Procrastination – you sell your time, so it does not belong to you.

The Weinberg touch to Rule No: 11:

I had some difficulty and even used to get angry with the last rule. I felt that there was something wrong with it – it did not sound right. But, I kept it – because, it served me very well in my initial years as a freelancer. My discomfort also meant that there is something deeper lurking inside that rule. I was confident that I will eventually discover what it is.

Recently I posted these rules to Gerald Weinberg’s Shape Forum. Jerry disagreed with this rule and suggested a very subtle shift to this rule. The nudge he provided suddenly threw light in the dark corners of the rule and the full beauty of the rule suddenly became evident to me. So, I dedicated the Rule Eleven to Gerald Weinberg.

I call it the Weinberg Touch:

11a. never leave anything behind – especially your anger.

11b. An employee has an option to resign – a freelancer has an option to renegotiate.

11c. Your non billing time is more valuable than you’re billing time.

11d. Getting fired is never as bad we imagine it to be and it is more often than not a blessing.

Effective application of these rules however requires some tact. Here are two Nasruddin stories that capture the essence of these rules and how to practice them:

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Whose Servant Am I?
Mulla Nasruddin had become a favorite at Court. He used his position to show up the methods of courtiers.

One day the King was exceptionally hungry. Some aubergines had been so deliciously cooked that he told the palace chief to serve them everyday.

‘Are they not the best vegetables in the world, Mulla?’ he asked Nasruddin.
‘The very best, Majesty’

Five days later, when the aubergines had been served for the tenth meal in succession, the King roared: ‘Take these things away. I HATE them!’

‘They are the worst vegetables in the world, Majesty’ agreed Nasruddin

‘But, Mulla, less than a week ago you said that they are were the very best’

‘I did. But, I am a servant of the King, not of the vegetable’

The Gold, the cloak and the horse

‘I cannot get a job’ said the Mulla, ‘because I am already in the service of the All-Highest’
‘In that case’, said his wife ‘ask for your wages, because every employer must pay’
Quite right, thought Nasruddin
‘I have not been paid simply because I have never asked’, he said aloud
‘Then you had better go and ask’

Nasruddin went into the garden, knelt and cried out: ‘O Allah, send me a hundred pieces of gold, for all my past services are worth at least that much in back pay’

His neighbor, a moneylender, thought he would play a joke on Nasruddin. Taking a bag of hundred gold pieces he threw it down from a window.

Nasruddin stood up with dignity and took the money to his wife. ‘I am one of the saints,’ he told her. ‘Here are my arrears’

She was very impressed.

Presently, made suspicious of by the succession of delivery men carrying food, clothing and furniture into Nasruddin’s house, the neighbor went to get his money back.

‘You heard me calling for it, and now you are pretending it is yours’ said Nasruddin. ‘You shall never have it’.

The neighbor said that he would take Nasruddin to the court of summary jurisdiction.

‘I cannot go like this’, said Nasruddin. ‘I have no suitable clothes, not have I a horse. If we appear together the judge will be prejudiced in your favor by my mean appearance.’

The neighbor took off his own cloak and gave it to Nasruddin, then he mounted him on his own horse, and they went before the judge.

The plaintiff was heard first.

‘What is your defense?’ the magistrate asked Nasruddin.

‘That my neighbor is insane’.

‘What evidence have you, Mulla?’

‘What better than from his own mouth? He thinks that everything belongs to him. If you ask him about my horse, or even my cloak, he will claim them, let alone my gold’

‘But they are mine!’ roared the neighbor.

Case dismissed.

The Joys of Freelancing

Many people ask me how to become a successful freelancer and how and why I became one. Most often I had to repeat the same story with some variations every time. So, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to write a small note on "Joys of Freelancing". Later, it struck me that it is an ideal opportunity to experiment with Fiction.

This is my first attempt at writing fiction. Let me know what you think.

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Chapter One

In the summer of 1999, we moved from California to India. The reasons for relocation seemed quite obvious - at least and strangely - only to us. My wife Padma and I work in the technology industry – we were in the land of opportunities for more than three years by that time, and both of us fared reasonably well. That was the time of the dotcom era – everyone was really mad - bordering on the insane. The whole of Silicon Valley was buzzing with activity. We used to work sixteen hours every day, at least six days and almost seven days a week. The family life was non-existent at the least, every one would talk about stock options, career jumps, number of patents filed, products that they developed, hundred percent salary hikes, the newest swanky cars that they bought etcetera, etcetera. The only break from this routine is when some friends call you for lunch and they would invariably throw in their wedding video for free, and gently insist that you watch it.

In short, we were a bunch of boring people. We were ashamed to look at ourselves in the mirror each day morning – we looked like zombies. Once in a while life gets boring and that can be managed, but the worst thing to happen to a human being is when he becomes a boring person. There is no story to tell – imagine what a nightmare you have come to become if the only thing that you can show your friends is your wedding video!!

But the Wedding Videos had a concealed message for us. The people in India seemed interesting, happy, boisterous, cunning, good looking and even charming. I wanted to be in the video – not watching it. I wanted a part of that action. So, one fine day, just like that I snapped my fingers and decided that it is time to go back home.

I had to communicate and then convince my wife. It is easy for captain Picard to say their mission is to “boldly go where no one has gone before”, but how do you tell your wife that you are about to “do boldly what no one had done before”? I knew instinctively that it was not going to be easy. She has an inherent mistrust when it comes to my radical ideas that disturb the already well established family rhythm. She can touch my ideas like a spoon dipped in honey. She will then take it out, drip it off the honey patiently, throw it into the dish washer and set the washing temperature to one hundred degrees Celsius. So, if one reason is sufficient to convince my friends, I need a million reasons to convince her and plus one more.

I thought about it carefully for a couple of hours, rehearsed it many times in my mind. Padma was busy in the kitchen. I slowly got up from the sofa in the living room, went to the kitchen walking like the ET. I cleared my throat a couple of times. “I have been thinking about this for quite some time now. I am now convinced. We are going home” I said as sweetly and as resolutely as I can.

She didn’t pay any attention. I repeated again. She seemed to consider it and I saw a flicker of pleasant thoughts shine in her eyes – I was hopeful. “I also want to go home, but it is impossible to get a vacation now” was her first response. Then I had to break the bad news. “No, not for vacation!! I mean we are going back for ever, for good, permanently, never to come back again”. She dismissed me with a simple “Okaeey. We will think about it. What is the hurry?”

For the next couple of months, we had many arguments, discussions, different points of view, and counter points of view. Padma’s logic is very simple and straight forward. Her point is we made such an enormous effort in coming to US, we were there just for about three years, just settling down to that life style, we just bought a car, both of us had very good jobs – both from a work content, and salary perspective, and we just started to see some real savings. She never wanted to settle in the US, but she wanted some more time. On my part, I had no logic at all – only a very deep, inner need to get out of that mad place, and an instinct that it is the right thing to do. May be she was right – but, I didn’t want to find out. More and more reasons only strengthened my determination. For once, I was the instinctive wife and she was the logical husband. Finally she relented and even convinced of it herself.

To be continued ... though I don't know when I will get around to write the second chapter.