no, downtime is going to happen sooner or later regardless of your own marketing because customers might suddenly decide to hire someone else or the project might be cancelled last minute etc.
the mindset of "I can only charge $60" is exactly the problem. you cannot sustain a living on that hourly rate on the west coast, not even at $100 or $150. do the math.
I was born in California and lived there for much of my life, including living and working in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
Downtime can happen but if a freelancer experiences frequent or prolonged downtime that’s their own failure to cultivate multiple customers, long-term relationships, reputation, and a funnel of work. Of course customers may cancel a project or hire someone else, but a freelancer who pays attention and has a relationship with their customer beyond sending invoices will have some notice of that happening. Personally I have not had downtime as a freelancer for at least 15 years.
$500/hr is full-time equivalent of $1 million/year, far above the average or necessary living wage for Santa Clara county (just over $50k/year, or $25/hr full-time)[1]. Across the US freelance programming and system admin rates range from about $50/hr to $250/hr, with some outliers at either end [2]. Very few freelancers are making $300+/hr consistently, though I know some do because they have very specialized skills, solid reputations, and can keep their funnel primed. Rates are higher for Silicon Valley/SF/LA (and NYC) but not 10X higher. And as a freelancer you don’t have to live where your customers are, so I can work for companies in SF or Chicago or Silicon Valley and live in a cheaper city, or not in the US at all.
You certainly can sustain a living anywhere in the US for as little as $60/hr, which is $120k/year full-time equivalent, well above the living wage for any American city including Santa Clara county. That’s the low-end, though. Most freelancers I know, and I’ll include myself, charge $150 to $250/hr and get that consistently from US customers for 30-40 hrs/week. That’s more than enough to live comfortably wherever I want.
The key to consistent income as a freelancer is not jacking up rates to account for downtime, but not having downtime in the first place. The best way to avoid downtime is to build long-term relationships with customers so replacing you (because you’re crazy expensive) doesn’t come into their thinking. Charging a little more than they would have to pay a f/t employee is the sweet spot. I have freelanced for customers for over a decade, at very good rates, because they can’t hire a f/t equivalent for any number of reasons.
Here’s the big secret of successful freelancing. Don’t build your freelancing practice around constant churn with short-term projects. That keeps you in perpetual search/sales mode, which you don’t get paid for, and prevents establishing long-term relationships with customers. Instead build your practice on retainer arrangements with a few steady customers, where you add sufficient value and the customer has a predictable fixed monthly cost. Customers always prefer predictable fixed costs over unpredictable invoices, and they always prefer someone committed to their business over someone who wanders from gig to gig looking for the best rate.
I recommend you sit down and do the math, assuming you are based on the west coast in LA or the valley, and need to make a living, save for retirement, pay your taxes, put kids through school, account for the possibility you might become ill or disabled, and more. It's clear you have no idea what it costs to be self employed.
I’m glad it’s clear to you that I have no idea what it costs to be self-employed on the west coast, since I already posted that I’ve been self-employed for 15 years, on the west coast. I’ve raised three kids too. It doesn’t cost a million dollars a year. Lots of people manage on less than $100K/year, which is $50/hr working full-time.
I’m not sure what you’re arguing about. I don’t have a mindset of “I can only charge $60,” you put that into my mouth. Freelancing rates for programmers and system admins range from $60 to $200/hr, across the US, higher in some regions than others, and more or less depending on skills, demand, and the freelancer’s ability to sell themselves and negotiate. Yes, I know some freelancers get a lot more than $200/hr, but they’re rare. For every one of them you can find 1,000 freelancers on Upwork competing for $25/hr gigs.
I certainly could live comfortably in the Bay Area or LA on $100 - $150/hr if I could do that for 40 hrs/week — that’s $200k - $300k/year. That would include the taxes and savings and insurance too. I know because I’ve done it. With kids.
You wrote that downtime is going to happen sooner or later. That hasn’t been my experience. If a freelancer has prolonged or frequent periods of downtime they’re doing something wrong, because the work is there, demand far exceeds supply. I’ve worked professionally as a programmer, system admin, and team lead for over 40 years, so I can say confidently that there’s never been as much work available as now.
A professional freelancer has to maintain and constantly upgrade their skills and target the market so they can get premium rates, above $60/hr. They also have to cultivate their professional network, maintain a reputation, and do everything they can to avoid downtime and non-billable hours spent looking for customers and bidding on projects. In another post I wrote that one way to do that is to develop long-term relationships and negotiate monthly retainers, which may be a little less per hour but prevent downtime and uncertainty.
While I do the math you should do the research. I have a fairly good idea of freelancer rates in the US because I’ve been doing that for a while. But don’t believe me — data is easy to find.
the mindset of "I can only charge $60" is exactly the problem. you cannot sustain a living on that hourly rate on the west coast, not even at $100 or $150. do the math.