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I find good how you ask things and the approach you are taking.
I am not and haven't been independent. I have worked for a contractor company, but I had to search for customers for a while.
First contact is always a PITA. I felt like an encyclopedia vendor, ringing on the door of a house and trying to sell my product. And many times it is dammed to fail because the potential customer doesn't want to loose time with something unknown.
I don't know how things are Taiwan. In Germany one of the best opportunities to know people are the companies expositions. But at the end... it is not to know much people what gives you projects, it is that people knows you.
In my case... My company had a re-structuration. CEO and some other high rank went picking some workers and grounded a competitor company. The last project they got was a chaos, bad calculations, too cheap conditions and, and, and... The luck in that project was 2 things: that a very good manager from the central took over, that I was in that project. He got ride of all economical questions and I was able to finish my part, the part of a colleague that left with the others, finish the wish lists (payed in extra bill) and find two errors at customers side that could have cost more than 500k €
12 Contractors started in that company. 18 months later only 3 remained. At 24th months, I negotiate a 50% more charge with the customer and they blindly agree, at 30th month they tried to recruit me.
One year later my sales manager told me, he had won a big project with a new customer that explicitly demanded me as a head programer for the team. That project came due to someone I had worked with and changed to a big company. When they needed something in my action area, he explained his bosses about my company and me.
What I want to say is... in Europe to gain a new customer from the scratch is not easy at all. But once you have had your first one, if you do your job correctly, the probabilities to get new ones raise quite fast.
Which leads me to... although I strongly agree with F-ES answer. I see it actually a theme of balance and risk acceptance.
If you have no contacts at all, AND (big AND) if you have money to survive for a while... then I would go for a "freelancer" project knowing the risks explained by F-ES and others in this thread, but assuming them consciously just to get the opportunity of you being there (Visa, paperworks and so on). Once there... is totally different than trying it from Taiwan.
If not... I would try to get an international customer with a subsidiary in Taiwan, rip my ass off to do a very good job that impress them (even with not a big economical profit), and then try to get a project within that multinational but in another country... then another... and so on. Somewhen you will know enough people to jump to other multinational and so on. On the best case, they will come to you and ask (as it happened to me).
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Freelancer sites, as much as job-seeking ones, are definetely places to avoid if someone is looking for a serious contract or job. They are cheap (if not free) for the user and cheap (if not free) for the customers, and the rule "you get what you pay for" is golden and always valid.
This is based 50% from my own and friends' experience and 50% from having seen from the inside the development of a handful of these sites.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
"just eat it, eat it"."They're out to mold, better eat while you can" -- HobbyProggy
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To be honest, I've no interest in helping move jobs offshore - potentially lowering my own earnings and adding further grief to the difficulties of local developer/job-seekers.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Hi there,
well you are jumping in a pool of sharks i guess. From the point of my view, as far as my experience got with freelancers and the experience with foreign programmers i can tell you the following.
If you want to get into the EU/US Market, i mostly speak for the EU market though, you have to get a name, reputation and/or have a big chunk of luck.
To start you guys might have to bite through a hard time, because your location is not the best as you maybe know. To tell you how i would look for another freelancer:
-I'd check the websites/forums famous in germany for good people (There is your first hurdle, no one knows you there)
-I'd look whos suitable for this task and time and fits into the budget (I'll start with the lowest budget possible, might be your chance to get in) An example budget would be a ~50k for 6 months (Depends on the Tasks i would hand, this 50k would more be for a developer than programmer)
-Then i look for things i personally like, e.g. availability at the office, especially for the beginning
That are 3 main points you might have to think about and start calculating. Think about your team, do they have different specializations? What project could possibly be open for more than 1 person?
Your big winning point could be "cheapness", i don't know how much you need p.p. but i guess you could bid under most freelancers here.
The team thing, yeah a team is basically good, but you have to organize it fitting. Special abilities, knowledge and stuff, you have to play those cards to either get a bigger project and filling out more roles or get multiple things. I personally want an engineer, a "true" programmer doesn't fit the needs, for that i could take a student or cheap apprentice on programming(You can't beat that price probably). I would need someone who thinks and has ideas to drive it forward. Do you have such personell, qualities and skills? That would be important on most things. Think about it when you develope your team forwards
And to the worst, the location, so far i heard, things tend to go to scrums and short meetings that have no fixed shedule, so i guess at some point you guys have to decide wether you stay where you are or get to the country you want to work. Telephoneconference is not always sufficient.
So...
To get into a market i guess you have to take nearly everything you might get to then get reputation step by step. Or have a big chunk of luck, getting the chance to prove yourself on a big thing.
Maybe you could also start by filling holes/niches in the countries you want to start. Put everything you did on your presentation, show them what you did and that you did it good!
But after all, there is no master reciepe for that
And don't get me wrong, but here, programmers from Taiwan don't have a good rep at all. You'll have a hard time overcoming prejudice i guess.
Nonetheless i wish you luck on your trip into the wild seas of the freelancers.
Rules for the FOSW ![ ^]
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}
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Thank you all very much for taking the time to respond. I just figured out how to upvote I learned quite a lot from your replies. It seems we have quite an uphill battle ahead of us. And I was unaware of this stereotype about Taiwanese programmers
modified 20-Jan-16 21:36pm.
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๑๒๓๔๕๖๗๖๘๙ (10)
IMPORTANT - Take care for the small differences (4th and 5th letter)!!!
Hint: What you see are not letters but Thai numeric signs...
Hint: Those believe, count every step in their life
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
modified 19-Jan-16 5:45am.
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It is not...
1B 5W
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: It is not... Oh yes it is...
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Well google translate thinks it's 1234567890, but that ain't a word!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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As always Google got it a bit wrong - it should be 1234567689, and it meant to be a hint...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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According to Google 676 (the bit in the sequence which stands out) is a Restaurant, but that doesn't fit (other than being 10 letters)
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Never ate there...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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1B 3W
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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OK another guess to get some more B/W clues - clothesbag
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0B 4W
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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flummoxing = 1B
Describing = 1B
Doesn't that mean the g is the correct letter in the correct location?
clothesbag should be at least 1B too, or am I missing something again
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Display Name Taken wrote: Doesn't that mean the g is the correct letter in the correct location?
Why?
It may be, but it could be the "X" in FLUMMOXING and the "S" in DESCRIBING if there is no "G" in the solution.
(Not saying it's them, I have no idea what the solution is)
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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And even there is a G it doesn't mean that the 1B goes for that letter...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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You have a problem with your deduction...That 1B goes for different letters...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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I told you it was me...
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DESCRIBING = 1B
FLUMMOXING = 1B
CLOTHESBAG = 0B
I'm sensing that the N is the elusive black here?
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Or "I"...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Why do you assume that 1B goes for the same letter?!?!?!?!?
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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