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.
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Turn your hobby into your profession web designer
1. 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.
2. Freelance Web design
In today’s internet-driven world, having a well-
designed 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.
3. Specialising Developing your business
There are many different aspects to A large amount of business may come
designing an effective website and from other freelancers or small
many skills involved in its creation. businesses who have either just started
Many designers choose to specialise in up or are getting the online side of their
a certain area of design, for example, business up to speed. Therefore it is
Joomla web design, ecommerce web important to network with other
design, graphic design or Word press freelancers and small businesses. You
web design. As a web designer you should also network with other
could also chose to specialise by freelance web designers. Instead of
vertical, for example, you could seeing them as competition; view them
specialise in creating online dating as a people you can share knowledge
websites or websites for financial with.
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.
One way of building links with other
You could also think about offering freelancers and web designers is by
additional web services so that your establishing a strong social media
clients can come to you for more than presence, on sites like Facebook and
one service and you will be able to Twitter, to accompany your website and
extend the client relationship. Clients portfolio. Make sure you regularly
who are redesigning their website may discuss the latest trends and
also be interested in mobile web design, developments in the industry via these
graphic design for banners, e-commerce channels, add lots of influential contacts
(online shopping) services, SEO services, and even blog about your thoughts. This
and copy writing services. will help you build up a wide range of
contacts in the industry and you will be
Whilst there are obvious advantages to more likely to attract work from
taking on a greater range of work, you prestigious clients.
must ensure that you don’t spread
yourself too thin. As a freelancer you You could look into further training
will be solely responsible for the options to keep your skills fresh. But
completion of all work, so by taking on there is no substitute for experience;
too much, the quality of work may often you can get the best training and
suffer or you could deliver late on advice from other freelance web
projects. designers who have been working in the
industry for a long time.
4. 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-to-
date with industry developments.