Anyone looking at turning freelance... here are my tips!!

[flashwiz]

It has been my experience that designers turn to freelancing for one of two reasons:

Either for fun or out of fear. You need to decide which "F" word is motivating you. It it more often than not the fear factor that drives designers into freelancing. Employed at a small interactive firm that lays you off due to an economic down turn. You try to find a full-time position that pays as well as your last one, but your unable to find a job in the weeks that follow. For fear of loosing say your house, car or even the shirt of your back, you have to find paying freelance clients and fast. Fortunately, when this happened to me i had been freelancing on the side part-time for several years and was able to convert some of my part-time clients into full-time streams of revenue.

For any Web designer wishing to freelance in the future, this is what I recommend without doubt. If you are working full-time right now, either inside the interactive field or in another discipline completely, I highly recommend you start to build up a small base of freelance clients. This makes jumping into full-time freelance less difficult and not as overwhelming. That way you can be as motivated by the fun factor as you are by the fear factor. The problem with starting freelance full-time is that you more often than not do not have enough clients or businees to sustain even a modest income for yourself. There is nothing more stressful than trying to find new clients simply because you have too many bills to pay. Its much better both for your mental health and your bank account if you can build up a small base of clients first.

By acquiring a list of clients and potential clients before you go freelance full-time, you can hopefully with a little determination and talent achieve the following:

Build your project management and creative management skills.
Give yourself the confidence and experience necessary to be successful.
Build a network of client connections.
Decide if you can handle the headaches of freelancing full-time.
Learn how to better manage your finances.

By doing a little freelance on the side you can learn a lot about what working as a full-time freelancer is really like. I think its crazy and a real problem when I read get-rich-quick advertisements claiming to give people everything they need to open their own profitable business in thirty days or less. It’s never that easy. Being self-employed is not for everyone. If you can not manage your own time or your part-time freelance clientele, or you have trouble with self-motivation, then starting a freelance Web design business may not be for you.

Hope this helps!!

[Toon]

Thats good advice, you know I though people went freelance so they could stay in bed a bit longer in the mornings. :pinch:

[flashwiz]

No thats just a bonus :-) although one i dont seem to have at the moment with a 5month old boy and too much work to do...

[mickhawkes]

Originally Posted by Toon

Thats good advice, you know I though people went freelance so they could stay in bed a bit longer in the mornings. :pinch:

Ha, Ha,
I get up at 7.30am and finish anywhere up to 11pm and I still don't fit everything in.
Where's these 48 Hr Day's everyones mentioned,
I think thats sposed to be 48 Hr weeks, No Chance

[flashwiz]

You must be doing something wrong then Mick to be working so much :-)

COME ON YOU REDS !!!!! slightly drunk sorry....... hehehe

[Toon]

good match mate congrats

[flashwiz]

Although we so deserved to win on the night too.... oh well.... :-) chances of us getting chelsea.....

[Toon]

chances of going all the way again look good

[zumojuice]

I think other part of freelance is balancing your life and your work effectively, something that flashwiz's advice suggests by working and see how you manage your time. But once you go full freelance, remember to keep hours.
My ex boss was a freelancer and found it hard to switch off before she moved to office space (when effectively she should then be a business and had a plan - opps) because work was home and home was work.

While it may be important to work long hours sometimes, if its happening alot, you've either got too larger projects for just you to deal with (so consider taking another freelancer on) or you've taken too much on over your time.

Maybe thats working out effective deadlines for yourself, and removing distraction from that. If you can make your home studio very different to your house, then you can invest into the work feel of it - and there for when you leave that room at 5/6 - thats it.

I heard of one guy who used to leave his house, walk around the block and then to his studio door in his backgarden - why? because this effectively gave him the gap between home and work that home businesses can lose.

[tommylogic]

...just a quick side not on freelancing, or working out of your home in general. The most important thing I ever did was to separate my work space from the "main" living area. I fyou have kids, room mates, a spouse... whatever, you know what I'm talking about.
You MUST have a space devoted to you that is yours that says to everyone else, I'm working and I'm busy, DO NOT DISTURB me. Otherwise you will constantly have intrusions, breaking your creative flow.
You could hae a screen set up iin the corner of the bedroom.. it doesn't matter as long as its a "defined space".
Hope this helps.
Good Luck,
Tommy