Welcome to the third part of my going indie series! In the previous post, I discussed building a foundation, getting started, and finding clients. In this post, I am going to discuss many of the decidedly un-fun administrative aspects of being freelance and contracting like saving for retirement and — everyone’s favorite — taxes. Most folks consider these topics to be boring and tedious, but understanding them is critical to your success. The best approach is one of curiosity. As a software developer, you might find the task of optimizing (and minimizing!) your tax burden to be an interesting problem to solve — I definitely do!

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Welcome to my next post on going indie! In the previous one, I provided a high-level overview and introduction, and answered some of the most common questions I get from folks. In this post I’m going to dive deeper into how you can prepare to go independent, how to find clients, and other tips.

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I’m excited to share that I recently released a new app, a tax calculator for freelancers called Taxatio. It is specifically for self-employed sole proprietors based in the United States — freelancers, consultants, independent contractors, and indie developers (like me!). One of the more confusing and difficult aspects of going independent is taxes. And that’s why I made this. It is a multiplatform SwiftUI app for iOS and macOS available as a universal purchase on the App Store.

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A number of folks have reached out to me recently (and over the years) asking me about my experience going indie. I originally wanted to write this reflection after my first year, but I could not find the time nor motivation. The early days of the pandemic really drained me. However, I hope these past three years of experience will only make this post more valuable to those seeking to do the same thing I did. I am writing this for anyone who is interested in trying to go independent — either with your own app development business, solo contracting and freelancing, or both.

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For the past few weeks I have been debating on whether or not to distribute a new Mac app via the Mac App Store or independently. I have arrived at a crossroads in development where I need to make this decision. I am mostly code-complete for my MVP 1.0 release. The question I am facing is how I want to spend the remainder of my time to cross the finish line.

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