Why I shutdown my web development studio

[@MichaelThomasDev]

Thanks Stefan, there doesn't seam to be very many developers on KZbin who want to share their experience with us. A lot of us are out here on our own so your videos are very much appreciated!

[@StefanMischook]

+Michael Thomas Thanks for the kind words. Well, I've been doing this for a long time; that might be why I have more opportunity to put out videos.

[@BarkanSaeed]

Good point. I have a 25 people small development company and yes i make a bit more then i would have made alone. I wondered if i should quit and do work on my own. These are the reasons i am still moving forward with it and am optimistic about the future 1) I get to coach my team members to do awesome work 2) i can get sick or be away from work for a week and my team can still handle the work for me 3) I have redundancy, instead of me working for one client, the team work for multiple companies. and if one goes, i don't go broke. You can definitely do this working alone as well but with team it can be much better 4) You can practice many more entrepreneurial skills and work on things like inbound marketing, more reading and more time for your self if you learn the art of delegating and coaching the team. You can also practice on coding skills in the free time you have.

[@StefanMischook]

+Barkan Saeed - Agreed. It is a question of what you want to do.

[@Kevin-jc1fx]

As for me I would go that way also. Focus on growth and at some point you get more freedom by leveraging other people's skills, time etc. Also, with good management you can make much more than alone freelancing. Plus, some companies don't feel comfortable working with a single guy, no matter how big your portfolio is, they prefer standing on the same ground and partnering with another company.

[@kennethkipchumba2532]

Well said.

[@louwaars]

I have never come across a single video that explains the workings of growing from a single to multi people studio, so well.

[@StefanMischook]

Thanks!

[@ryanschurton]

So glad i found this channel. Can you talk about how you found clients?

[@Kevin-jc1fx]

I recently began freelancing and I am planning to launch my own studio. Even now I feel overwhelmed with the opportunities I have. Having a team would help me achieve much more, even after paying them. I don't even remember what time off is, don't even talk about vacations. I have to do marketing, negotiating contracts, running interviews, doing graphics design, database design, programming, testing, deploying, maintenance etc. It is exhausting and at some point I stop fully enjoying the process. I don't even have the time to play with a new language or make an app just for fun. I know it won't be easy to start, but with consistency, I think there is more reward for me in a grown up development company than in a one man freelancing team.

[@joonnoh1266]

You might think you were veering off-topic when you talked about the optimal number of developers on a project, but i found your insight to be quite interesting! thank you for the video :D

[@EricLaermans]

Thx, for being so frank about the 'maths' of running a studio with people working for you.

[@marcoangelo]

you are a wise guy. Good to hear perspective from someone who's been in it from day 1 and not new era developers who are jumping on the bandwagon.

[@1110001110010001]

My friend, you teach me trough your videos more then I menage to do in 7 years of my working experience and I am very grateful :))

[@StefanMischook]

You are welcome and thanks!

[@bilaltariq50]

finally some one said it the way it is.

[@stivstivsti]

What do you think about making cheaper alternative for dropbox? Writing code/adopting opensource is not a problem, the problem i think is trying to sell it, attract uses. Do you this its worth trying this in 2018?

[@youdunknow]

Pretty detailed explanation on your experience with charging rates. I'm currently a freelancing young buck looking to gain my FIRST client here in Westchester NY but it's seems as if it's really difficult to gain traction with consumers interested in building a personal website or blog for them. EVERYONE wants a mobile app, and it seems I've lost my chance to build scalable web applications, also I don't even know how to competitively quote a price for creating websites. Any advice or what tools you use to make smart rates? I've been coding now for 2 years and I'm my strengths are mostly using front-end bootstrap & HTML5 and using MTC's django. I've recently gone to a bootcamp to learn and utilize ROR

[@StefanMischook]

Well, you ought to learn CSS3 media queries and bootstrap so you can build responsive layouts - that's the first step to mobile app development. Getting into mobile application development is great, but the underlying key is in app development. There is a lot of work out there for both traditional and mobile app development. Web design only, is getting harder and harder - people want functionality in their sites. I have many videos on the business end of things.

[@kennethkipchumba2532]

Stefan Mischook what about how to competitively quote a price for creating websites. Can you say something about that as well?

[@soul.rebel1986]

Thank you for the information I appreciate your insight and advice. Still very relevant in 2019 mos def.

[@Makerdude23]

Great videos Stefan, very insightful & much appreciated.

[@StefanMischook]

Glad you like them!

[@bingwithnewlife]

Thanks for sharing :) The idea often appear in my mind. But deeply I ask myself. The result always -- I want to be an entrepreneur, not a freelancer. Thanks you so much. Like an older brother talk.

[@loslucky]

This is gold. Thanks so much for the knowledge.

[@StefanMischook]

Welcome.

[@pandonia77]

Valuable lessons learned from this video. Thank you my friend.

[@StefanMischook]

Welcome.

[@peaceful4you408]

Your right. its wayyyy better to work on your own. It nay take you longer to complete a project but you can still be just as productive as several people working for you. Then, of course the most rewarding part, you pocket all the money to yourself. I would say from my experience, the best ways to work as a web developer is either freelance with a dozen full of clients or being employed with a company. These 2 options offer higher salaries, more stability, no overhead, and just overall least stressful and a more satisfying experience. I had a small web development business for years and it was one if the most financially stressful decision I made in my life. I'm now employed as a full time web developer (front end) at apex systems and make almost 3x what I made managing a company of my own. I get benefits, and everything else. Id rather be managed than to manage and as a firmer manger myself, I have established high respect for my current managers because I know what they have to go through on a day-to-day basis. Its not fun for them most of the time and I can tell. Been there done that.

[@tagifts]

That is just the personality Ryan. You are great at coding (assuming here), so you have no problem "being managed". People that are entrepreneur at heart hate to be managed. What you found stressful as a manager, those guys will enjoy that. Just saying.

[@markozec88]

Hi Stefan, considering that you have a lot of experience, have you ever worked with people from the eastern or southeastern Europe where labor is cheaper, for example, Serbia-Croatia-Bulgaria ... where wages are $600-1000/m, do you have any good/bad experience from outsourcing from there(quality of code, communication ect.),and what's your general opinion on outsourcing code, projects or part of projects from overseas?

[@StefanMischook]

+marko88 It can get messy quick because of language issues and distance. Though you have many English speaking countries around the world, the subtleties of communication are lost to a certain extent when communicating over a long distance - then add in cultural differences ...and things start to move really slow. If you can set up a location in the countries of origin, where you have on the ground managers, then it can work. But I have seen too many times, where people outsource and they end up with projects that take much, much longer than expected. ... Savings that could have been had on the per hour basis, are lost with the extra time it takes to get a working app - if ever. A good friend of mine just experienced this. After 5 months, he is still waiting for a finished app. Problem is, the developers are overseas and they take a week or so to even answer an email. He has now spent more than it would have cost to develop it locally - and he is 5 months into this, whereas with local development, he would have had it in 30 days. Nothing special about this story! S

[@markozec88]

+tenminutetokyo This is not about bottom feeding, this countries have much lower living standards, but that have nothing to do with quality of work, actually people who make "america great" comes from countries like this, because they are willing to push hard. But not all of them are good programmers, you have to find one, so it's like lottery, you may have some bad experience some one else will find the opposite. So let's don't generalize things with "Bottom feeding mentality", it's more like political anti-socialist issue not the business one...

[@LivinginSouthChina]

i think the link in the description doesn't work ... at least via my vpn .....

[@reyazahmed9320]

Hi Stefan, should I learn Spring MVC in 2016 or is it going to be outdated soon? Or should I look into Django/Python about which I am hearing a lot of these days? Please advise.

[@StefanMischook]

I answered this in another comment. I think you've seen it. :)

[@LukeAvedon]

Love, love your videos man.

[@StefanMischook]

Thanks!

[@fikri.abdoul]

Thanks stefan for sharing your invaluable experience ;)

[@StefanMischook]

Welcome

[@Jimmyageek]

Nice Explanation

[@nadxyz]

you are a wise guy! i would love to enroll in studioweb programs of yours!

[@StefanMischook]

Check out: shop.killervideostore.com/ ... You access to StudioWeb there. Much more coming soon.

[@floydrudolph7509]

Thanks Stefan.

[@floopy312]

"The problem with frameworks is that they are limited, there's only so much you can do". Aren't most frameworks flexible enough to do whatever you want with them? and if not, you can always tweak them a bit to adapt them to your needs, can't you? Thanks for the video, it was very informative.

[@StefanMischook]

+floopy312 - frameworks are vert flexible.

[@jondyason336]

great video. thanks a lot!

[@COMB0RICO]

Interesting talk.

[@damindadineshimaduwagamage9044]

do you think if there is a future for web developer? Now, there lot of content management site such as wordpress and drupal to do the web development . One can easily make website without a developer. Don't you think web developer as a career is unstable

[@damindadineshimaduwagamage9044]

+tenminutetokyo And Why did you reply me with this answer? What makes you to give me this answer to my comment/question

[@StefanMischook]

+Daminda Dinesh Imaduwa Gamage - Not at all since Wordpress and other apps like them have limits. In fact, many jobs for web developers are related to working with Wordpress and Drupal etc ... In short, there is plenty of work for years to come. Although, it will shift in terms of the specific tasks. But that is nothing new.

[@damindadineshimaduwagamage9044]

+Stefan Mischook Thank you very much

[@studiocity10]

thanks, this is VERY useful information!!

[@StefanMischook]

Thanks.

[@LivinginSouthChina]

good video, thanks

[@amyp.575]

Still apply in 2019?

[@bloodaxe5028]

Should have sold it.

[@AviPars]

can you speed up your videos a touch, you talk very slowly

[@AdrianValenzDesign]

He talks how he talks. You can speed it up on the KZbin player settings.

[@AviPars]

Adrian Valenz Design doesn't work on mobile. but I always do this on desktop

[@MuminovicGoran]

Learned patience yet? If not, keep quiet.