This is a quick guide I threw together regarding Design Freelancing from home. There are many more Steps to success but here are a few of the important ones.
The first thing I find of most importance is get your Accounting or bookkeeping in order. For us unorganised designers this is probably the step that we hate the most. Fact freelance designers just don’t make good bookkeepers. If you have a decent size budget you can visit a accountant and have him/her setup a tax id and give you assistance regarding sales tax , and income tax.
Some accountants even will handle your invoicing but I would not recommend that to start, save yourself money and do that part yourself. If you are cash strapped to begin with, as a lot of people are when they start off, I would recommend program like quickbooks. This software will give you the ability to do everything yourself. There are some online alternatives like paperfreebilling.com. With them you can check and manage your account anywhere you connect online. So if you are moving about alot then this might be beneficial to you.
Next step which took me ages to get down to, was to create a General Cost/Rates Sheet. At the beginning I always quoted off the top of my head, generally made quotes based on if I liked the client or not so. In other words completely unorganised. Lets say you have larger projects like catalogs, or maybe a magento, or wordpress theme, site down with the project and try to define an hourly rate, then use the rate you determine to calculate the number of hours , you expect the project to take you. Take that final quote and add 30% to total for unforeseen “time wasters”. When you send the quote to you customer make sure you tell them that time spent might be higher or lower then quoted. State on your quote that if the time needed becomes more then 10% of original quote then you will communicate that to them. Sometimes I have noticed certain jobs that you have done before might be best to just create a fixed rate for them.
Next step is to create a brand for yourself. This adds credibility to your new business, start with a professionally designed website. You can design it yourself or have someone else do it either way, don’t spend too much time or money doing it. Keep it simple and satisfactory. If you are searching for good quality design templates you might want to give themeforest.com a visit to find suitable good looking themes for designers. The themes on there are reasonable priced without you breaking your bank.
Next step whichever is your favourite browser create a list of resources. Visit websites online and find all the best freelance oriented website. Envato.com sites being one of them. On my visualmagick news blog, I posted another article earlier on Freelance job sites online for designers and web developers. Visit that link and start bookmarking those jobs and contacts.
Marketing your services this is the part where you have to get out of your shell and go tell the world about your services. First of I would create a professional letter outlining your services. Print it nicely with your logo and contact information on it, don’t make the letter long and rambling just short and to the point. Write in a bulleted list all the things you offer. Find a list of printers maybe in your local area or phonebook. Or contact me on visualmagick.com I offer leads B2B leads for sale locations US and Canada, Europe and Australia. As well as Spanish speaking Business leads. I will help you get to you the Business that you are looking for.
This concludes this tips and tricks to Online Graphic Design Freelance from Home.
