October 06, 2004 | View Comments (17) | Category: Web Business
Summary: Thinking of becoming a freelancer and starting your own company? Well I think there are certain traits you should see if you possess first before you get started.
I picked up the latest copy of HOW Design magazine because it was an award issue type thing and I like to look at magazines for inspiration (to inspire what? I have no idea). In it they have a quiz which asks whether or not you are ready to start your own design business and I felt it was a pretty good quizk. I also thought it would be cool to elaborate more on some of the points they make and offer my own feedback into what it takes to venture off on your own.
Obviously these are not all the traits required to become successful and you might get away with missing one or two, but these are just some of the things I have experienced over my short lifespan that I thought were needed.
There will be times where doubting yourself becomes a very strong option. Once you begin to doubt yourself however, your decision-making skills exponentially decrease. If someone were to tell you that you have all the design sense in the world, but no business sense how would you handle it?
You should take her comment and play it back and reassess your skills. If you find you have weak areas make sure they are complimented by other strengths and make sure to have the confidence to later turn your weaknesses into strengths as well.
Every road is not paved with gold and there are guaranteed to be stumbling blocks on the way, but if you have enough self-confidence in your skills and abilities (and are able to step away and take an objective look at yourself) then you should be fine.
Let's face it, running any kind of business on your own is a big risk. Will the money always be there? Can you guarantee that you will have enough time to invest in the cause (step away now if you can't)? Too many people think that becoming a freelancer means that you have more time on your hands when in fact your time decreases until you get a tight grasp on how you work. What I mean by this is you can't just declare yourself a freelancer and begin working on 2-3 hours a day.
In any case if you have a job and the idea of going it alone is tempting to you, take a risk by doing some projects on the side and running a side business, but do not become suicidal and quit your job to pursue your own interests. Unless of course you have a significant amount of money saved up to where you can survive a couple of months without seeing a paycheck.
Another risk that I see freelancers walk away from is the risk of taking on large projects. Working on a small five page website is nothing compared to handling a $20,000 contract for example. Are you willing to take the risks and go for the bigger treasure?
Sooner or later you may take on more people to work with you or you just need a person to do the coding while you do the design. In any case, these people need to be managed. It would be nice if you could just leave them simple instructions such as “code me a shopping cart”, but in most cases you have to go into a little more detail and manage the variables such as timeframe and deliverables.
The best people in the industry are not easily managed so don't think that just because you are friends or get along with the person that it means they will follow your every word. Managing others is a skill that takes time to develop and if you don't think you can handle it then you might be relegated to small time contracts for the rest of your life (which may be fine to some of you).
I believe the perfect scenario is when the client tells you what they want in pretty good detail and you provide it to them on the first try. This has never happened to me so admittedly I have never been fond on the managing client aspect of freelancing.
Another issue that can occur and one that several people have mentioned to me is they may be doing a redesign of a site, but the client wishes to keep the logo. The problem is that your personal preferences do not go with the logo and you think it's horrendous. You badly want to redesign it, but you can't seem to convince the client otherwise.
Managing a client is all about effective communication. Once this breaks down, every project becomes a disaster. As professionals it is easy for us to see what should be done or understand why that link color shouldn't be blue, but we need to learn to communicate our reasoning effectively to our clients. Not always the easiest thing to do.
You've seen it before. The person who couldn't design a website without the help of a FrontPage tutorial seems to also be the one with the most clients. There are too many dreamers that have this ideal that their work will do all the selling for them, however rarely is this the case. Sometimes you might come across a client who is looking to receive a bid from you because he is comparing a couple of designers and trying to decide which one to go with.
More times than not the best salesman wins in this case. Please note that salesmanship to me doesn't equate to false promises or lowballing the competition. Salesmanship (my definition) involves providing an effective presentation that convinces the potential client that your skills are worth the price of admission.
Do you find that you haven't really progressed as a designer or person over the past year? Maybe you have hit a “creative block” for some time and can't get yourself out of it. Professionals are in the constant pursuit of growth and if a time comes where they are stuck they understand what needs to be done to get out of that rut.
Professional development is one of the reasons people tell me they like to try something on their own or are looking for another job. We all like to be challenged and running your own business and trying to make it successful is as challenging as it gets.
Just because building a website is easy to you and you think you make pretty things doesn't mean that people will flock to you. Just because you can decide what you are going to wear today and what time to use the bathroom doesn't mean you can run your own business. Take the time to evaluate your skills and your passion. If anything passion is the most important trait to have.
If you don't have the passion and will to succeed then I don't think you have a chance of survival. But then again, I have been wrong before :-).
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Indeed, time management is something else that is vital. I admit to having my moments. For example, one can look at the last 24 years of my life.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
Very good post. I also think that people get this impression of "being your own boss" when they think of freelancing. Quite the opposite. You now have as many bosses as you can get work from (your clients). If you don't like the thought of everybody you come into contact with being your boss, get a regular job where you only have to deal with one or eight bosses (in the worst Office Space scenario possible), because it will probably be easier to handle.
Vinnie Garcia (http://blog.vinniegarcia.com)
With my uncanny ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time and to take exactly the wrong decision, I have never thought seriously about going into freelance web design. But there is no chance of me ever getting a job working for someone else and just today I was thinking 'hey, perhaps I could start advertising as a web designer'.
Perfect timing then, Scrivs. Thanks for putting me off. There has to be a pool of unemployed to keep the wages down. Someone has to do it. I seem to have the right traits. Watch out for my soon-coming article on how to live happily on a shoestring:-)
Peter 01010 (http://www.01010.org/)
Some people suffer from the uncanny ability of telling the client exactly what is on their mind only to find that the client doesn't really like blunt honesty too much.
But I wouldn't know from experience...
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
Finding a balance of what is appropriate to tell a client, and inappropriate to tell a client is something you have to work on.
In the initial stages of a freelancer you feel the need to forego some of the important initial procedures. Their are 5 basic stages (8 if you want to go in to real depth) of web design, and they are:
With your requirements, you are looking at a huge chunk of the process. Too many people are so willing to overlook this step, and go straight to the design. I know, because I am guilty of doing this myself. But as time passes you see the need for this stage.
With a requirements document, you pound out the true specifications of what you are to be doing, what you are charging, and how long it is going to take you to do this. Employers find it more professional, and it protects your ass from your employer.
Had you not created a requirements document, the person or company employing you could easily tack on more work during, or after you completed the rest of the stages. With this document, you save yourself from doing work that was not discussed before the following stages.
To me that is a very important part about being a freelancer. You need to provide your customer with what they asked for, and have the discipline to follow through with it. But you also have to withhold the ability to protect yourself from some bullshit that you would inevitably deal with down the road.
Ryan Latham (http://www.unmatchedstyle.com)
There is the contracting aspect of freelancing as well, don't forget. I do some freelance projects on my own but the majority of my work involves me going in to a web agency as a specialist, doing my part of the project while they deal with the client and the budget, and then handing it off to the rest of their team to finish up. You have to be on top of your game but I get to do the work I enjoy for decent money without having to worry about all the stuff Ryan's mentioned above... The projects change every couple of months so I don't get bored; I work with a new set of people every project so it's very sociable; people in the industry know other people in the industry so recommendations get passed around. On the other hand, I am more a slave to other people's schedules than normal freelancers. It's all down to personal preference...
Mike Stenhouse (http://www.donotremove.co.uk)
Of those things you mentioned, I think self-confidence is the most important. You have to have enough confidence in your skills to charge enough money for your services or you go broke. You also have to have the confidence to turn down a potential client because you know the project isn't right for you, not just accept anyone that offers you money.
geeky (http://www.simplygeeky.com)
Mike, good point. I have done pure contracting for some people in the past and it was much easier than doing full on freelancing since all you have to worry about is doing your job and not messing with any clients. Problem is finding people willing to contract you out.
But if you are good I guess this wouldn't be as much of a problem.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
There is a literally a book's worth of material to be covered on freelancing, as I'm sure many would agree (Warning: another "book I almost wrote" story ahead - how odd). I was writing a chapter for a freelancing book by GlassHaus right when they folded (d'oh!). I've been through the freelancing mill twice, so I'd add three:
Flexibility - You have to be able to handle the ebb and tide of workload. In other words, week one you have 18 hours of work. You kick back, sleep late, golf 9 holes, etc. Week two you have 90 hours worth of work - bye bye family! Rinse and repeat. Standard 40 hour work weeks are tricky to come by. And the trait of being flexible extends to lots of different aspects of freelancing.
Politics - You have to be a bill collector :(. It's hard to strongarm a company for money when you are trying to get more work out of them! Sometimes it's massaging the right person or some kind of give and take on the next project.
Communicator - Maybe this goes along with self-confidence, and part of it is knowing your subject - but you have to be able to connect with your clients every time you open your mouth. Because you are selling yourself, every time you communicate you solidify/break apart (hopefully the former) the trust they have in you. That means no BS-ing allowed, you always have to be on your game. And that same skill goes hand in hand with the management and sales skills already mentioned. Being a good communicator is an underlying skill to some of the traits already mentioned.
So far in my career freelancing has been the toughest "job" I have ever had, hands down. It can be rewarding, but it takes loads of hard work and then lots of what is listed on this page.
Tom
Tom (http://www.pixelmech.com)
I love freelancing, it gives me the freedom that I want being as young as I am, yet it still gives me some income. However, Keith wrote an article about it not too long ago, and it is truer and truer for those who only do freelance work (and are young).
What Mr. Robinson wrote was about creative conflict. A lot of people think that as a freelancer you are going to have the ultimate creative control over a project, something that we all want. But this is far from the truth, freelancing not only takes discipline, but the ability and willingness to break away from something you want to do.
As a younger freelancer people suspect me to know how to do what I do, they do not expect me to know anything about some more of the business sides of it. I preach standards, they say Internet Explorer, I say CSS they say tables. My clients are educated, but their education stems from about 6 years ago and refuse to bend. And as a freelancer if you want to stay a freelancer, you will be doing a lot more bending than your clients will.
Freelancing also lets you get drunk while you work, and I am impressed: 7 beers deep and only one spelling error.
Ryan Latham (http://www.unmatchedstyle.com)
Good article and comments so far.
For me, as a full-time freelancer, the biggest adjustment I've had to make is realizing what Job Number One truly is.
In my opinion, if you're a designer, developer, writer, whatever, then designing, developing, writing, whatever is actually Job Number Two.
As a freelancer, what's Job Number One?
The first order of business is to generate and manage leads. I have had to wrap my mind around the concept that every single person in the world IS a potential client or KNOWS a potential client.
Sure, many of us know how to promote ourselves online, but don't forget to have business cards on you AT ALL TIMES to help promote yourself offline.
Remember "ABC" from the movie "Glengarry Glen Ross."
A = Always
B = Be
C = Closing
ABC = Always Be Closing
Learn it, live it, love it. Stay busy. Reap the rewards. Good luck.
Dale Cruse (http://www.dalecruse.com)
Anyone can be a freelancer - as long as they have plenty of people to borrow money from.
Bill (http://www.ghettocooler.net)
I don't think it takes that much money at all! You just got to start small so the risks and costs are small and move your way up slowly as it grows.
Iteration is the key.
David Jones - Elegant Design (http://www.elegantdesign.co.nz)
From the point of someone who could drive to Scriv's house in under an hour in heavy traffic (partly because of distance and partly because I've lived here long enough to know traffic patterns), the hardest thing I've tried is to find a client. My friend and I have started a company — we do web design/data systems (integrated if need be) for small businesses (or anyone we can get) — and we've gone so far as to drive to places and call places out of a phone book to gauge if a data system was needed so that we could sell one. Web sites are hard, at least for us, to sell in Tampa for some reason. It's not like we don't have the chops to do full systems either. We can even create touchscreen POS terminals for chrissake, but we've gotten like no responses to anything.
We even tried to offer a free service for small businesses to get our name out and to build a directory of businesses in South Tampa (mostly because I hate not being able to find local shops selling what I want). Some people were even skeptical about that! We didn't even mention money. We dropped our cards with a paper stating what the service was about when we went to places who signed up (like 5 out of 7). Apparently free, no-obligation publicity wasn't good enough for some people.
Scrivs, if you're able to get clients in this area I commend you. My friend and I are having a hard time doing that. We had one, and he didn't want to sign our contract — we're not going to open ourselves up for unlimited liability! Two of our friends have their own company and they sometimes outsource work to us because they don't know how to do it, or they don't do it as well. That just doesn't seem fair. We're college students, we are very professional, we're comparatively cheap (professional work for amateur price), we make it perfect because it's the only ground we have to stand on, and we can't get work.
So Scrivs, if you ever have too much work.... :)
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
Nice article. Interesting to me as I recently got fed up at a graphic design job and quit on the spot. The people there were really rude and just had a shitty attitude about everything so I left.
I had been doing a little freelance on the side and had been teaching myself web design during the past year or so. So, with pretty much no money and not really any paying clients I decided to try freelance. Here in my town there are 20-30 graphic and web design companies but only 1 or 2 actually produces nice design. [For example, a guy I do some freelance ad design for got a site for his company from a local web company in town..before he knew me. Well, they charged him 1500$ for a pretty crappy looking site and they used maybe 2 css styles throughtout the whole site...tons of font tags, tables...useless code] He wants me to fix his site but I have even posted questions in the css-d list asking if I could attach a style sheet..they said the code was crap and to not bother with it unless I recode his entire site.]
Anyways, I'm know my visual design skills are much better/more modern than most or all of the companies around here so I'm using that as a selling point. Not saying I'm the gretest but for around here...I know my coding isnt perfect and I have a lot to learn but I'm using some small sites I've done and am working on as learning tools.
BUTTTT, I also have applied and interviewed with a few companies looking for designers very recently and will probably accept a position if offered. Freelance is nice and all but it's hard starting out and I dont have enough clients to pay the bills. Literally, I'm 750$ behind in rent but do have $600 coming soon for a site and a tax return from previous job so I'll live.
If I had at least one small site to work on each week that I could charge 500-1000$ for I would definitley stay freelance. It's been a GREAT learning experience though. I'm learning new coding everyday and I love it.
David
David (http://www.davidrossdesign.us)
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#1
Also, if you have a tendency to procrastinate like I do, freelancing is not the way to go.
Derek (http://www.onethreeone.com/blog/)