Keys to becoming a freelance web developer

What are the advantages of becoming an independent web developer?

Becoming a freelancer by being a web developer brings some benefits, which explains the growing popularity of this status. In general,  becoming a self-employed worker, in principle, has three main advantages:

Being your boss: This is often the first benefit sought by a web developer who goes into freelance status. No more employees and hierarchy, being a freelance web developer allows you to practice your job as a web developer to your account, which concretely means that you work for you. This is among other things that will allow you to choose the missions that interest you, with the customers with whom you want to work.

Choose your schedule: not only do you work for you but as a freelance web developer, you also do the schedules you want. You organize yourself your schedule according to your priorities and your preferences (for example, you are rather of the morning, rather of the evening, you want to get your children back to school at night).

Choose your line the same way, by becoming a freelance web developer; you emancipate yourself from the obligation to work in an office. It is you who choose your working environment based, again, on your preferences.

What difficulties for a freelance web developer?

On the other hand, choosing to become freelance does not have only positive points. Otherwise, it is a status that would be chosen by all web developers. Two main disadvantages make the status of freelance web developer excluded by some people:

·         Responsibility: As a freelance web developer, you have some responsibility, on many levels. First of all, you have a responsibility towards your customers because you are personally committed to them, and you are in direct contact with them. Also, you act on your own, which means that you commit your professional wealth, but also your wealth in certain hypotheses. Whether or not to commit your wealth depends on the choice made for your legal structure.

·         irregulariIncome: Of course, you lose the advantage of wage-earning which consists of having a regular and monthly source of income. The more missions you have, the more money you will earn, but if for a month you have fewer missions, you will, in the same way, earn less money. So you take the risk of not having a regular source of income.

Web and freelance developer: which structure to choose?

When you choose to become a freelance web developer, you will have to choose the legal structure with which you want to practice and which will be used to sign your freelance contracts. It should already be known that you can become a freelance web developer by using almost all the major structures proposed in France, auto-business, sole proprietorship or company.

The benefits and weaknesses of each of these structures are briefly reviewed:

·         Web Developer in Self-Business: The most chosen status by freelance web developers is by far the status of self-entrepreneur. The advantages of this status are numerous: all you have to do is make an online declaration, there are a micro-tax scheme and a favorable social plan, no social contributions to pay in the absence of activities. On the extra hand, there are also weaknesses: limitation of the turnover and commitment of its responsibility which can be potentially very dangerous.

·         The individual company with limited liability: the EIRL is, as its name implies, a sole proprietorship which has the particularity to make you enjoy limited liability. Your wealth is not engaged, and for all that you can benefit from the tax and social benefits of the regime of micro-enterprise (= auto-business). It is, therefore, a real option to study.

·         Web developer and company creation: creating a company mean that you will create an autonomous entity with own assets, which will automatically protect your wealth. If you want to be a temporary web developer alone, you will create a one-person company, that is, a SASU or an EURL. On the other hand, if you decided to create a company of freelance developer, nothing prevents you from creating a SAS or a SARL. Formalities are heavier and more expensive, but it is often said that going through the creation of a company gives credibility to a project.