Not a techie. Earning 1.75cr a year AMA
29M , 7 yoe. Have a full time job plus running my own freelancing gig servicing multiple clients across the world
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
How can one start gig work? Which are the best domains to enter? How can a non tech person learn to become successful? I feel it is tough to find customers, how do you do that?
The only domain to enter for gig economy is where you are an expert. Trust me clients will only pay you if you can truly deliver value to them.
You can find customers on upwork, LinkedIn etc
How does upwork get you clients? Do you pitch or cold mail? If you can share your process here
Curious about how freelance and full time job taxation works. Can you shed some light? Also how many hours do you spend working a week?
Full time job taxation works as your income tax slab. I did my declarations and they transfer the money after deducting the taxes. It’s simple
For the gig, since I crossed the gst limit I had to create a proprietorship firm and get my own GST number. Now in business only your profits get taxed (Revenue - expense)
I have a CA and accountant who does this and usually I show upto 50% of my revenue as profit.
Once this is done your total income for the year becomes your salary + profits and you pay tax based on the slab you are in.
Thanks, this is clear
What sort of services are you offering in freelance? and how do you find your clients?
Found clients via Upwork. I don’t do short term gigs so basically locked all my clients into a monthly retainer.
Service: Digital advertising
Digital advertising is too broad. Can you be more specific please? Like FB ads? TikTok ads? Google ads?
Three questions:
- How much hustle you had to do in the beginning to prove your worth with zero testimonials on your freelancing job?
- What time do you think it generally takes to move the needle from 0 to 1?
- How much of a hustle are you going thru’ now juggling between both full time job & freelancing job?
Really good questions
- I really had to work a lot. I started all this while having a ftj so had to work atleast 12 hours a day
- If you work hard enough; within 6-8 months
- Right now I work 10 hours a day with job taking 2-3 and rest to the hustle. Key here is to have long term clients who trust you and can fit your schedule.
Biggest con here is the mindset. You judge all work by money. If you want to take a big initiative in your ftj you would think twice knowing that it wouldn’t give you any additional pay while doing the same work can make you lakhs more in a month with freelancing. Trying to manage all that is a challenge.
Great insights this! Keep inspiring. 👏
Why keep full time job when you are making more from freelancing? I do you sublet work or hire juniors to help?
Freelancing is lonely man. Sometimes it gets repetitive, you feel like you aren’t learning anything. Ftj is just for keeping me company and get to learn something new and work with friends. This is my last corporate gig and once I leave this company I would pivot completely to freelancing. The money difference is stark, what I am making in a whole year with ftj I make in 3 months with freelancing.
No haven’t hired anybody nor do I want to. As I said, client wants someone really skilled and I don’t have time to train anybody. Also don’t want the overhead.
Do you think the new AI tools put your roles at risk?
This thread has made me believe: A different life is possible!
100%
Just make sure that your work feels like play and then you won’t have to work any day
- Naval
I've always believed the same, just so hard to practice it for real. Every 2-3 years you find yourself in a place where you don't really want to be and it sucks.
But yes to make work feel like play is a huge goal
How do you take out salary for yourself from the business? I'm paying me 36 LPA and getting 8L taxes (pvt ltd), CA can't do much to save it either, becoming a contractor would require me to transfer the company to my family un order to save 20%
Because you have a pvt ltd firm. Laws are different there. In a proprietorship firm the individual is the business. Whatever I am earning and whatever profits are there belong to me. I don’t have to transfer anything to anyone. I have a current one where I get all my receivables
Why did you go for pvt ltd? Want to understand if any benefits are there for a freelancer.
Didn't want personal liability for contracts or hires. Also much easier to sell a business or raise funds. We're a service product hybrid so quick scalability was important. Also I'm 22 so I didn't know as much as I did before starting. Either way, personal liability was a major one.
What is your monthly take home money after tax deduction?
Between 14-15L pre tax . Please note that I pay advance tax every quarter and usually total for the year stands at ~20L
Are you making more than 10 lakhs per month after all taxation?
@Bereal I would love to connect with you for a paid consultation regarding this. I’ve worked with couple of top unicorns in the field of growth and marketing and wanted to start freelancing. Is there a way I can reach out to tou?
I really don’t think I am expert to guide you through this process really. Sometimes I just feel it’s majorly luck than skillls. Sorry
No worries. I might reply to your thread when I start my freelance journey a couple months later. (Occupied with life stuff rn). Do respond if you get a chance to 😬✌️
what has been your primary method of acquiring clients outside of India? and any learnings/changes that you had to make to your method of working for non-Indian clients?
Primary method was Upwork and it still is. Other than that you need a stellar profile there and be a really good salesman. It means you need to be expert in your field and also make the client that you can get the job done. If you lack any of this it won’t work
I am confident about all above within the country but have somehow fail to get clients abroad (apart from 1 client who was w me for 2 years from Canada). But thanks! Helps.