Looking for more freelance work

[maxelcat]

Dear All

Been putting off this post for ages...

You may even be able to guess what's coming...

Had to leave my job of 15 years due to ill health about 1 year ago. I was in teaching, and haven't missed it for a microsecond. honest!

I have spent the last year getting my head together, and re-training in web developement work (done seom fo teh CIW stuff, but it was very easy). I had done this a a hobby for about 6 years, and this kind fo work has always been something I have enjoyed.

Around last september work started to come to me. I wasn't looking for it in any way - it found me. I got four paid commissions to make websites from scratch during september and October. I really enjoyed this, and now want to build up the amount of work I am doing.

Currently I am working with my sister in law, a graphic designer, to put together packages to "attack" and "attract" small local businesses. I am not looking to earn a fortune at this (well, not yet!!!!!!!!)

I have heard that there are people who work from home, liek me, on a free lance basis. What I guess I really want to know is how do you get into working as a freelance web developer - what agencies should/could I approach, what would they be looking for and so on.

I have looked on monster.co.uk, and google of couse.

I would apprecaite any tips pointers, but please be gentle!

E

"I love deadlines - I love the noise they make as they go wishing past" (not mine of course, but very ture...0

 

[mmorancbt]

First, I did not check this so I apologize ahead of time for spelling, grammatical, sentence fragments, and usage errors.

;-)

Couple questions you should ask yourself?

1) Do you have the mindset needed to be an entrereneur?
- self-directed, able to face some risk of failure, positive in the face of adversity

2) Have you determined how much you need to make right now and created an idea of how much you would like to make?

3) Do you have an ideal client in mind? When I say ideal client, you must think about what they are willing to spend and what the total revenue opportunity versus time-spent winning and working for the client is concerned. Example: small business is a vast playground. You should ensure that it does not take you more time to convince the client to spend money and later to collect that money than the work is worth.

I’ve found I can convince a company to spend $100,000.00 on a project more quickly than I can convince another company to spend $1,000.00. While this sound like common-sense, when you are starting out, it is easy to get caught up in the romance of a new client without evaluating whether it is worth it. I have a list of ideal client traits – one of them is that they have money and have a budget for my project or my type of work.

Once you have done this defining, you can start to reach out to clients who fit your criteria more easily. Look back on some of my post and others on this forum about business development and marketing. Hint: If you ask me, you can create very, very, very good income on your type of business by simply beating the streets and meeting some companies face to face.

It cost little more than shoe-leather.

Good luck.

Matthew Moran (career blog and podcast below)
Career Advice with Attitude for the IT Pro

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/career

http://techcareerconsult.blogspot.com

 

[maxelcat]

Do you have the mindset needed to be an entrereneur?
- self-directed, able to face some risk of failure, positive in the face of adversity

I honestly don't know. I have worked to other people's agendas for 20 years now, and (amongst other things of course) made me ill and was part of the reason I had to leave teaching. Being my own boss is a BIG appeal, but I know its no bed of roses.

2) Have you determined how much you need to make right now and created an idea of how much you would like to make?

...and I have worked out roughly how many clients of the type I am aiming at I need = its one a week.

Small business - that is where I was thinking of aiming to start, I have found that they are OK (done 3) in that they pay ok! It is hard work, but I don't feel I have the experince to go after the medium size (up to 50) as yet. I would prefer that though ultimately.

On ehitng that I find hard to get my head round is that there is SO much to know. I enjoy new stuff, and I find it a lot easuer to spend time mugging up on mysql or AS2 than looking for work. I know this is self defeating, but a little voice says in my head "Don't launch yet, you don't know how to do a shopping cart" or "You need a deeper understanding of php" etc etc Trouble is, due to the nature of the field, you never get to the end of it do you! (And I find it all so absorbing anyway!)

Very interesting what you say at the end about pounding the streets. I suppose one issue I am fighting is the self-confidence. However, this has to work - like I said my old career is blown out of the water (hated it anyway though!)

Off to research some of the old posts.

thanks



"I love deadlines - I love the noise they make as they go wishing past" (not mine of course, but very ture...0

 

[audiopro]

I am in the same boat in the UK. Doing the work is the easy bit, it's all the other stuff that makes it feel like work. Keeping the accounts straight, chasing the clients who think I am a charity and the other mundane tasks. I find the hardest part is pricing jobs up. I usually work on an hourly rate but every client wants to know the likely cost of a project and I find it almost impossible to make an accurate guess. I was once advised, by a salesman, to estimate the job at a very high price and if the client looks shocked, don't take the job. That seems like business suicide but he is fully qualified in BS and is one of those people who can sell without trying.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[mmorancbt]

Couple of thoughts:

First, becareful of how we categorize salespeople - ie: BS. The fact is, without them or without developing some of those skills, you may as well shut down your business now. Being able to push a client a bit, as long as what you are going to provide them has value, is a great skill.

There is some great truth to what he says. I gauge client reaction and look for signs that the client will be problematic.

For instance: contractitis: when all the conversation is about how they protect themselves in the event things don't go as planned - I get worried. It isn't that I am against due diligence, it is just when that is the focus of every conversation.

I want a client who believes the handshake is the deal - the contract or signed proposal is a formality.

Another thing to consider is, as you create a financial/cash flow plan for the year, you must not figure your income at 40 hours each week. Factor in business development time, business management time, vacation time, sick time, and other non-billable hours.

Factor in training, purchases and supplied, and other expenses.

It is reasonable to think that you will bill somewhere between 25-32 hours a week, if you are good at filling your time. You need to calculate your income as being made in that time.

This will help you when you win a 40-50 hour a week project that is several months long. If you stick to that schedule, and then the project ends, you are going to play catch up on your business development, and could go a while without good billable time.

More sometime in the future.

Matthew Moran (career blog and podcast below)
Career Advice with Attitude for the IT Pro

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/career

http://techcareerconsult.blogspot.com

 

[maxelcat]

I aM uk Based too. I have only done four jobs ("paid" that is) and you are right about the pricing. I have tended to negotiate a fixed rate, based on how many days I think it will take. So far I amway out, but I figure I am quite new so I am not letting my slowness worry me too much - yet. I will speed up.

FOr upgrades/additions I work on an hourly rate unless its a majour one - in which case I do a fixed rate again. I recetnly had some tiles laid. The guy said £75/day plus costs. I thought that was great. What I didn't realise was that he was going to take about 5 days longer so it worked out pretty expensive (and it was a medicore job at best!) I figure I wont get any trades man on a "per hour" basis again. I guess many other people feel the same, hence the "Quote per job"



"I love deadlines - I love the noise they make as they go wishing past" (not mine of course, but very ture...0

 

[maxelcat]

V I gauge client reaction and look for signs that the client will be problematic.

This is very usful information - I suppose I am just desperate!!!! For work I mean!!!

But its worth thinking hard about


"I love deadlines - I love the noise they make as they go wishing past" (not mine of course, but very ture...0

 

[audiopro]

Matthew
I didn't intend to put my salesman friend down, he is a very good salesman who sells a very good quality product and has given me some work over the years. He openly admits that it is not worth his while selling my services as the comission he earns is too low.
He is in a highly competitive but highly profitable sector (not I.T.) and I have seen him operate at full steam, very impressive, not pressure selling but seems to be able to push the right buttons to get the customer to sign up. I know I must develop my own selling skills but I find it hard to pitch the sell at the right level. Most of my clients are regulars who call me when something wants sorting, I do the job, bill them and they pay. We never really discuss the amount and they trust me to do it at a reasonable price, which I do. If only the world worked the same way!

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[mmorancbt]

audiopro,

Funny, I was reading my response and thought - it sounds like a rebuttal - it wasn't meant to. I realized that your statement was one indicating a level of respect - that he was good at what he did.

My response was more general - not necessarily directed at you or as a "how dare you". So, no worries.

Bad salesmen - are bad. Good salesmen (salespeople) are great! I am less a saleman and more of a solution-centered conversationalist. For sure there are techniques I've learned from sales professionals I know but it is couched in a true passion for making my client's more effective at conducting their business.

I think that is an important distinction. It is okay - in fact it is great - to be very profitable providing services to clients as long as the services are a great value.

One of the phrases I was taught by a friend in sales, and I use it frequently, is:

"Price is only an issue in the absence of value."

Good luck!

Matthew Moran (career blog and podcast below)
Career Advice with Attitude for the IT Pro

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/career

http://techcareerconsult.blogspot.com

 

[Shippwreck]

Hi,

Well looks like there's a whole bunch of us as i'm starting out with a web design business too!

In terms of what you should be learning, HTML and CSS are your basics and i then moved onto PHP and SQL... The funny thing is like you said, its such a big field that there is always more to learn. However what i have found is that if someone wants something like a shopping cart for instance, then even if you have never made one before, there are plenty out there.

Now i would never condone just blindly using and trusting code, i always go through every line making sure i understand it before i use it, but there's nothing wrong with taking code given for free and using it in a billable job. Most of the time, the licences say that you can't charge for the code, but you can charge for time spent installing and modifying said code. I also leave in any credits as otherwise thats just not fair on the original coder and plus if you say its all your work and the customer subsequently sees part of the code elsewhere... well somethings gonna twig!


On the billing side... over estimating can be very useful, especially for image. Ie if you estimate it'll cost £2500 but say to the customer £3000 then the customer is ecstatic as they have just saved £500, however if you think it'll cost £2500 but for whatever reason you overrun, you either loose £500 or have the awkward conversation about the extra £500. The trick is to make sure you don't over estimate so much as to turn the customer away!

http://www.tazforum.thetazzone.com

"Google is god...of the internet" - Me

 

[audiopro]

I enjoy creating the code from scratch rather than adapting other people's code. Not sure if using 3rd. party stuff saves any time in the long run as any additions, outside of the function of the original code can be a nightmare to add. I have written all kinds of little apps to make the job of creating web sites easier and learnt a lot along the way. I hear talk from the 'pros' about VB Net and all kinds of wonderful tools but find I can accomplish all my requirements using a combination of

Visual Foxpro - for client side apps.
Windows Task Scheduler - To get regular updated data onto the server.
Photoshop/Image Ready for making pretty pictures.
Wordpad for writing HTML code
and Perl to take care of server side scripting.

Marketing myself as a web designer is difficult as the world and his wife appear to be able to produce websites using a variety of programs. I have picked up quite a lot of work recently during social conversations with friends of friends, who have been told by these 'out of the box' designers, that the feature they require on their website is impossible to implement. I think the best marketing is getting out there and talking to people. I am never slow to mention to people how I may be able to help them and sometimes it pays off and work comes in. I like the word of mouth approach to advertising but it takes a while for the results to show.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[burtsbees]

First, I did not check this so I apologize ahead of time for spelling, grammatical, sentence fragments, and usage errors."
"...Do you have the mindset needed to be an entrereneur?"

You misspelled entrepreneur---forgot the "p"...not to mention the absence of a comma after "this", and the unnecessary comma after "fragments". That's just the tip of the iceberg...

Sorry---couldn't resist.lol

Burt

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Web development, like any field, is pretty broad range. What languages/softwares do you use? You mentioned that you and your sister-in-law are puttign together something universally called a "portfolio" for prospective clients to look at...good idea!

Like you I do lots of freelance work on the side, and every time potential clients ask me for prior work or samples of work that meet their goals/expectations.

I don't do any kind of advertising of my freelance work, clients find me purely based on "word-of-mouth" from past clients or they've seen my work and contact me. But many ppl also post on community sites for work which you can look into.

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com