Working for Yourself is Awesome
I read blogs, lots of blogs. Great big gobs of blogs. Most of the blogs that I read are written by web designers, about web design. Over the last year or so, I’ve read along as many of these professionals have decided to go solo, breaking out to work for themselves. Their experiences seem to range from many months of planning and preparation to a sudden, flippant move to self-employment. It’s rather inspiring and I suppose reading about their experiences planted a seed in my head that this was one possible direction that I could go in.
I’m currently interviewing for various IA/Interaction/Interface/Experience Design Lead positions (we do have a lot of titles in this industry, don’t we?). But in the meantime, Fixpert’s workload has really bloomed. It’s quite exciting and unexpected, but I’m really enjoying it. I suppose that my version of the aformentioned “going solo” post is that I found myself making a go of freelance work somewhat unexpectedly, and it’s such a nice surprise!
If you count Saturday as a workday — and you easily could in this new-fangled freelance world — today is technically Day 4 of me working for myself. I’m already juggling six different projects that vary widely in terms of their scale and the type of work involved. It’s really fun meeting with my clients, talking about their needs and goals, and learning more about their particular industries.
Here’s what I’ve got on the burners right now:
- Design look/feel for a triathlete e-commerce site, including logo design
- Design and code e-commerce site for a professional illustrator
- Design a logo for a group researching historic African American cemeteries
- Develop a web site devoted to finding a home for the family of a young mother seriously injured in a car accident several years ago
- Design look/feel for a programmer’s blog
- Design a logo for a math tutoring service based out of Florida
January 7th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Careful which jobs you pick up. I don’t know if you’ve worked freelance before, but learn about the Bad Project Warning Signs. Also watch out for clients who don’t have their content ready, or who don’t have a clear idea of exactly what they want the website to do. A bad client can suck up all your energy and time.
Work up an initial survey, a good contract, and clear guidelines.
January 9th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Tim makes a good point about clients who don’t have content ready. Eventually, though, you realize that they are pretty commonplace, and you learn to factor it into your scheduling. Everything is based on estimates anyway. As long as your paperwork includes milestones that are dynamic (e.g. Part II complete 4 weeks after completion of part I), clients tend to be more motivated to meet the hard deadlines.
In my experience, though, it’s just something you have to get used to. Clients need a lot of hand-holding to connect them to your side of the industry. Isn’t that why they came to you in the first place? Don’t be afraid to educate them as much as possible up front — and that includes letting them know how much time things can take, and how much you rely on their expertise for developing the content. You just might make them feel important and less disconnected from a “mystical” process.
Knowing you, Fixpert, that’s what you’ll be best at that part anyway.
January 9th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Ugh….can I edit my comments? That last part made me sound like an idiot.
January 9th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
HA HA!! I can edit your comments I think, but it’s so funny!
Thanks for the advice everybody. I do have a contract that includes milestones for my work, but also spells out what the Client is to supply, and by when. I think that’s a good idea to have dynamic due dates for milestones, to stress the fact that I am relying on the Client in order to do my part.
And of course, I do the 50% up front fee, and then the final 50% of payment due upon project completion. That seems to be a good way to break up the payment schedule.
January 9th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
At least take out the smiley?
January 9th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Ha ha, done. How is everybody feeling about the automatic graphical smiley face? I kind of prefer the classic punctuation-based emoticon. I wonder if that’s a preference I can turn off in WordPress if others feel the same way.
January 10th, 2006 at 1:24 am
Get the TextControl plug-in. That’s what I use.
January 16th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Regarding website design contracts, I insist that the client submit their content in final form before I start their website. Because clients can often take a long time to complete their material, I have this wording in my contract:
“If the Client does not supply JHM Designs with complete text and graphics for the site content, the entire amount of this contract becomes due and payable by ______________, and the Client’s site will be removed from the JHM Designs staging server (temporary hosting during development). This serves two purposes: (1) to make space available on the staging server for other sites under development, and (2) to ensure that all site content is received by a reasonable date in order to complete the project.”
I had one client for whom I completed 85% of their site 5 years ago, and never submitted the final copy - hence the wording above. The client has now asked for a new site, has submitted all material, and I requested payment up front. Otherwise I charge usuall charge 40% up front, and the remainder based on a benchmark and final launch.
January 20th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Hi Sally,
I worked with Jim when he incorporated Nowhere Inkwell. He mentioned that you were branching out, doing more freelance work. Based on the “Working for Yourself is Awesome” page on your site, it sounds like you have a lot going on. If you are at all interested, I’d be happy to chat with you some time about the tax implications of self-employment, and various strategies for dealing with them. Just let me know. And good luck with your projects!
-Tucker