Preparing for a life as a freelancer

Being a boringly cautious fella, I knew before being brave enough to launch myself as a freelancer, there would be certain things needed to be done. As a way of testing the water and giving me the confidence to finally take the plunge.

There was no plan in place, or helping hand. Everything had to be done from scratch, which looking back were lessons that taught me skills still in use today.

Your portfolio

Like I said, there was no one to call upon. I had friends and colleagues in the industry, the problem was that they were all full time employees, i.e. they knew no more than me about networking and making contacts. To begin with, I needed a site. So began the process of deciding what to put into my site and amassing a list of projects for my portfolio. Up to that point my working life was as a full time employee therefore no one in my portfolio were in fact my clients, they were my employers. Fortunately, as long as the wording suggested they were projects developed on behalf of a design agency then that would be OK.

So, the site was done. Why isn’t my phone ringing?

Finding projects

Like so many many others, my first port of call were freelance project sites such as Getacoder and Elance. By working at a much reduced rate I managed to win a few small projects. My thinking then was to win projects to build my portfolio and not to turn a profit. I was in full time employment so I could afford to make a financial loss as long as it was a project that would have given me kudos, no matter how small. Through this I managed to build a small list of clients, some of which are still with me today. Designing and developing sites for friends and family is another way of bolstering the portfolio, just make sure they don’t want an Amazon clone for free.

Finding Contacts

Events where companies get together to swap business cards and talk money are a great way to get your name out there and build long term working relationships. Go prepared with a stack of professionally printed business cards. (and not ones printed at home :) ) Don’t be afraid to go up to someone and talk business, that is why they are there. Be prepared for knock backs and dead ends, these events are attended by, amongst genuine business people, clients with a lot of talk but very little action.

Get in touch with fellow designers and developers in your area. Make yourself known for when their workload gets too much or to offer skills they may not have in house.

Finding time

Working hours implies that you have non-working hours. I certainly didn’t. Quite often my time was spent 9am-5pm working for my employer then 6pm-Midnight and all weekend working for myself. It was hard and motivationally zapping. There were times when I thought about resigning myself to the 9-5. Looking back I’m glad I stuck it out. There is no getting away from it, unless you have a stream of work with understanding clients that do not have impending deadlines, you will have to work long hours for many weeks at a time.

Work for Charities

Charities are always looking for ways to save money, whilst at the same time make money. Quite often donations are collected through their site which may require enhancements and maintenance. Offer to help.

Preparing for rainy days

With the greatest endeavour, work will at some point dry up. To prepare you for such periods, save! save! save! From your salary, put aside as much as you can afford into a separate account that you can call upon when work dries up. Call it your emergency fund. It takes the pressure off allowing you to focus on finding new clients and work without worrying about paying bills. Not having the added pressure prevents you from making snap decisions when accepting projects.

The key is to find ways to bolster your portfolio. What you need to be aware of are what I like to call, piss takers! You will encounter individuals who will see you as a way to get work done on the cheap. Over time the work will begin to pile up to the point where you no longer have time to take on projects from other clients.

Don’t be afraid to say no. When starting out it is very easy to succumb to the fear of not having work or losing a potential client. You end up saying yes to a large project with a small budget. If you feel this is the case, walk away. Trust your gut instinct. There is plenty of work available. There will be other, better, opportunities.