Turn your hobby into your profession Freelance web designer
Each month we look how people have successfully turned their hobby into their profession. This month we continue this feature with web design. Here we will be discussing the most important factors and issues you may come across when you set up your own business as a freelance web designer.
Freelance Web design In today’s internet-driven world, having a welldesigned website is essential for running a successful business. A huge proportion of business is conducted via company websites. Therefore web designers are in great demand and play a very important part in the online business environment. There are many factors to consider when developing a web site. It is often the initial point of contact between the customer and the company so the website should be visually attractive but also be functional. The website must help the user find the information they are looking for and make it easy for the user to make a purchase. Because of the technical requirements and huge importance of web design many companies call in professional web designers to develop a robust website. It is common for web designers to begin their career working at a web design or a digital marketing company before becoming freelancers. This is because it is important to know how your role fits in with other digital services. However, this is not essential. Technically you don’t need any professional qualifications to become a web designer, you could be self-taught. However, any relevant qualifications (for example, in graphic design) are likely to impress potential clients. The most important demonstration of your ability is your portfolio, which will be discussed in this post. This is a fast changing industry so it will require you to keep up to date with developments in software, best practice and skills.
Specialising
Developing your business
There are many different aspects to designing an effective website and many skills involved in its creation. Many designers choose to specialise in a certain area of design, for example, Joomla web design, ecommerce web design, graphic design or Word press web design. As a web designer you could also chose to specialise by vertical, for example, you could specialise in creating online dating websites or websites for financial services providers. This could help attract clients, if you become well known for your high quality of work in a specific type of web design.
A large amount of business may come from other freelancers or small businesses who have either just started up or are getting the online side of their business up to speed. Therefore it is important to network with other freelancers and small businesses. You should also network with other freelance web designers. Instead of seeing them as competition; view them as a people you can share knowledge with.
You could also think about offering additional web services so that your clients can come to you for more than one service and you will be able to extend the client relationship. Clients who are redesigning their website may also be interested in mobile web design, graphic design for banners, e-commerce (online shopping) services, SEO services, and copy writing services. Whilst there are obvious advantages to taking on a greater range of work, you must ensure that you don’t spread yourself too thin. As a freelancer you will be solely responsible for the completion of all work, so by taking on too much, the quality of work may suffer or you could deliver late on projects.
One way of building links with other freelancers and web designers is by establishing a strong social media presence, on sites like Facebook and Twitter, to accompany your website and portfolio. Make sure you regularly discuss the latest trends and developments in the industry via these channels, add lots of influential contacts and even blog about your thoughts. This will help you build up a wide range of contacts in the industry and you will be more likely to attract work from prestigious clients. You could look into further training options to keep your skills fresh. But there is no substitute for experience; often you can get the best training and advice from other freelance web designers who have been working in the industry for a long time.
Legal documents It is important to create legal documents with your clients to protect your rights and deal with problems, should there be any. The first thing you need to do is create a contract with your client that sets out all the terms and conditions of the project. You should also create a copyright agreement. As a web designer it is important to protect your work, prevent your work form being miss-credited and have control over who can use your work. It is extremely important for you to research copyright law and be able to apply it your work. The way you charge for your work should also be discussed with the client before any work is carried out. There are two ways you could chose to charge for your work. The first method is fixed-price. This means that you charge a fixed price for a set project which you agree with the client ahead of time, irrelevant of how long it takes to complete the work. It can be difficult to determine a fixed-price for a project before actually completing the work, however this method also means that designer’s with efficient methods for saving time won’t be unfairly penalised with a low cost. Alternatively, you could choose to charge your clients per hour. This method means it is much harder to be under or over paid for a project. However, this also means that you will need to fill out timesheets and there needs to be an effective way to transfer timesheets back and forth between yourself and the client. For this you should look at small business accounting software which allows you to track the time you spend on each project and generate flexible timesheet reports to pass onto the client.
Summary Success as a freelance web designer ultimately depends on your ability to establish yourself in this highly competitive industry, and also your ability to network with others. There are relatively low entry barriers to establishing yourself and experience will be your greatest asset. It is a fast moving industry so you need to take a proactive and innovative attitude to finding work and keeping up-todate with industry developments.