Freelancing, Business and Legal Discussion

I'm a generalist, a freelance web/graphic designer. So, I deal with a lot of projects that I have a "working" knowledge of, but am not an expert. Plus, technology is changing so fast, its hard to be an expert at more than a few things nowadays. For example, a restaurant client wanted an online calendar where people can click on a date and register for wine tastings. Ive done countless contact forms over the years, though never one like that, so Im looking at all of the options, making test calendars, trying them out. Another example would be a client who runs a counseling center, and wants electronic signatures added to their referral forms, but with the option to…

Hello Everyone, As some of you I work freelance and this post regards my latest interaction with my returning client. I started freelance last year and one of my first clients wanted quite custom site so I made it for probably three time less than web agency would charge him but that was fine, beginnings. Year after the same client returns and want the same site's functionality for a different business but even more customised and with new design. I was even told what I should do: create new folder, copy the source code, rename/change few strings, few colours, and add three new quite custom pages (level of customisation I would say advanced) overall it should…

Right, taking my first steps into freelancing soon but something has been bugging me for a while. I was always convinced that no matter what, I wouldn't ship a Wordpress site to a customer. Until today when I realised that if someone wanted an e-commerce site I would 9/10 times use WooCommerce and a custom theme. But it got me thinking of where to cross the line on when to use Wordpress (being the pre build CMS as example)? I have always hated seeing people have vast amounts of clients when really I know they are just churning out Wordpress sites. I always have the WPSNIFFER chrome app and just see it picking up sites on so many freelancers portfolios. …

Dear all, I am relatively new to the business of web design but I have built up a good portfolio as a freelancer over the last 18 months specialising in Wordpress built websites. I have my own pricing system that I am happy with, (although I probably have tendency to under charge) However most of the sites I build are no bigger than 15 pages and haven't involved anything too complicated. I have the possibility of getting a very good commission for a company that has a very large website that can reach up to 40 pages depending on the content. I will of course be reviewing the layout of the site to minimise the number of pages, and they have some more advanced…

Hey So I have this hobby, let's say it's golf. Looking online for new golf balls, and socks for my clubs etc. I find all these websites which sell them really cheap etc. But my God it hurts being on their site because I think it was designed by a 12 year old back in 2003, you know the type of website I'm on about, you've bound to of seen them!! So I click on the golf ball I want "add to cart" which takes me straight to PayPal.. The site doesn't have a cart! It's just one page 4 columns Products. Description of 1 sentence. Price and add to cart. At the bottom of the page is an email address. That's it!!! Just annoys me because those are usually t…

Hi everyone, I'm WordPress Theme developer. I'm looking for a designer for developing WordPress templates and selling them on ThemeForest together. If anyone is interested, let me know. E-mail: levangabeskiria@gmail.com Best Regards, Levan

I moved from one mobile network service provider to another and the old phone number started to recieve a lot of spam - addressed to myself, and everything (charming, right?). So when I started my new contract I took a new number and have started using that, but just realised my (unused) business cards have the old number on them... Would it look quite unprofessional to neatly cross out the number on each card and write the new one in? It's that or I switch back to the old number (think that's still an option), but obviously I'd like to avoid that due to the spam influx... And no, I really can't afford new cards.

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Hello! I'm new here Hope i'm posting this in the right place. Just wanted to ask what you guys think. One of my clients asked me to send an old project PSDs again that we did together (for which he payed), most likely he didn't save the source files it seems. But more to the point he now wants to reuse the same project for an all together different purpose, aka to make it a theme (probably on themeforest). Which is of course no problem at all, but what i wanted to ask is, should charge for this? For example let's say the client payed x-amount of dollars the first time. Should i charge more, or less? What do you think? Thank you in advance! Yuriko

I've sent a few emails out to charities/one small business about free websites and don't seem to be getting replies. They go along the lines of being a local web designer (though not in the case of the small business), just starting out and looking for portfolio work, would they like a free website, and a link to the portfolio. I'm not even getting responses saying no. My email addresses do work. The other places which I called rather than emailed said either no because they were in the middle of having a website made, they didn't get enough business to support hosting costs or they didn't want a redesign because they already had someone who managed their website (that o…

I developed and hosted a small website for a client 3-4 years ago. We have no formal contract but I invoice him every year for hosting and his domain name renewal. The relationship isn't good and hosting the site is more trouble than it's worth. He hasn't paid for the current hosting period which was due on March 1st. Because the amount I charge is so small I have spent a huge amount of time chasing payment but have sent him two emails reminding him that it's due. I guess that if I threaten to suspend the site he will pay up. I no longer want to host the site. Can anyone advise on the best way forward? I'm thinking of saying something along the lines of If he…

Hi Guys, I have been browsing the forums and noticed there is so much information out there about how each and everyone of you runs your business, I can see lots of struggles and issues people have had with various aspects of the business side of things. (when to go full time, am I a real developer, how do I get the clients I want, how do I price my websites, contracts, self branding, growing their business - the list goes on) And anyone in the industry would probably have a ton of questions specific to their own situation. Unfortunately responses always tend to be generic which is understandable (as this is just a public forum) yet super frustrating because in the end…

Hi guys, its been a while since ive posted on here but i am back. I am a part time developer that maybe does 1 site build a month at present. I am wanting to take the next step and aim for 2 builds a month to then hopefully take the jump to being a full time developer. What i am wanting to know is how to do other people pull in new work? Currently i am just relying on referals from people i know? But this seams pretty slow if am honest Any ideas / tips would be a great help to push my personal developement further Kind regards Stephen

Hey guys, I am new (in this forum and in UK).. I am from Austria and just moved to your very nice country.. well, I need your help or some recommends.. I am a freelancer and I want to make some very nice flyer in order to get more customers.. which (online) print shop is good..?? It should have a good balance between price and quality.. thank you for your help and waiting for your suggestions... Miri

This post is quite long so I apologize in advance. I normally don't post on message boards. I used to when I was younger but not so much these days. I am at a point in my life where I have no job, decent set of web design skills but no clients and no idea where to turn. It's becoming very upsetting and I have fallen into depression. I worked at a company for the last year and a half (not an agency or web design co) where I designed the company's website and a business web application which they still use. I've always been very interested in web design and dev. and taught myself the technologies. Alas, I am a very timid and introverted person and I maybe don't …

Just doing my 2014/15 tax return and wondering if/ what proportion of my hosting I can claim. I'm employed full time and only take on a couple of paying freelance jobs a year, I pay £190 a year for a hosting account which hosts these two sites as well as some domain holding pages/ client development previews... Most of the info I can find on claiming hosting as an expense is along the lines of: "Web Hosting expenses are allowable if they are for the exclusive use of a business website", which suggests that I can't claim (I don't even have a "business website" tbh.) but if my business is building websites? Any advice?

i have received content from a client in order to design a site from scratch. It has come to my attention that the content (text & images) has literally been copied from 3 other sites. I have asked him to provide different content but was wondering who is liable regarding copyright - me as the web designer or the client as the site owner & provider of the content?

Hi everyone, How to get lead i have find lot of methods but nothing will be use,please give me some idea to get lead for my web development services

Hi Guys I posted on here a month ago or so announcing a FREE Beta and we received some great feedback so thanks to all who commented and tried it out. I am happy to announce we are opening up for early access users to signup. Signing up before launch will guarantee you 10% off when we launch in September. But first what is SublimeCRM? SublimeCRM is a Project Management System and CRM designed for freelancers and small businesses who need a quick and easy way to manage their clients, projects, invoices, domains, contracts and more. We are constantly updating and building new features in and we at SublimeCRM truly think this is a great applicati…

Hi, As a consultant or freelancer ... How often do you turn work away in a month or year? How many projects do you turn away before you find the right project? James.

Hi, I am just starting out as a freelancer & require some advice. In order to get a portfolio of my work up and running I am trying several marketing campaigns. One of which was going to be a targeted email campaign to local businesses in my area. I have compiled a list of emails belonging to local companies who I believe could do with an update to their existing website (believe me they are terrible). All the email addresses are on the existing websites or from local business directories. I plan on sending out approx. 20 emails at a time and seeing what response I get before sending another 20. All the emails will be going to businesses and not ind…

What sort of time frame is normal inbetween emails with a client? After, say, a week, would you assume they're not actually interested anymore?

As a Creative – Freelancer or a business owner, what has been the most frustrating aspects from the list below? the biggest annoyance and why? 1. Marketing & Value based selling 2. Gaining the right clients, consistent lifetime clients 3. Understanding the psychology of what turns a prospect to a client 4. Client relationships/management

Hello web designers, 2 years ago I took the path to transition from a web designer to a business owner and aspiring entrepreneur. I made **** loads mistakes along the way. It took me a lot of time to stop making some of them, others I still make. With my fist commercial project, I didn't get a single lead although my design was excellent for the time. Now I can manage to get dozens of target customer leads in a matter of days. It makes me sad seeing so many great designers that create beautiful designs but suck at business and startups. I wrote this huge article with loads of action tips for you, design entrepreneurs. I go into a lot of details and share my…

Hello community, Me and my partner are running small company that creates modules and themes for ecommerce sites. We have a lot of clients from all around the world and usually we get quite a lot of requests on doing custom work or heavy modifications to clients stores. We have done some research and found that average level of ecommerce sites at our target geographic market is quite low and our products and expertise can greatly improve it. In addition we have faced a lot of clients who were cheated by local and offshore web developers for $X,XXX without delivering any acceptable results. For last 2 years were mostly refusing such offers in order to keep focus o…

Good morning, I am still very new to this forum so please excuse my ignorance on this issue, however I am just wondering how far I am able to promote myself on this forum. I have been on business forums in the past and there is a limitation about how you promote yourself, basically you have to pay them monthly to post whatever you like. Is it a similar system on here or is it a little more relaxed? What I would like to use this forum for is to build up networking with other UK designers and perhaps enjoy a working arrangement with some in addition to that. Am I able to put myself forward to other web design companies to work for them on a freelance basis? Am I abl…

I have skills in: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Jquery, Ajax, JSON, some PHP, adobe cs, SEO, copywriting, some marketting, analytics. Is there anything else? I haven't really aced any, but I am getting quite good with front end developing, I probably lack a bit of skill in photoshop to produce my own designs to be added to the website, my SEO is moderate, but my copywriting sucks and marketting I'm quite weak on also. I would think I had to know how to produce a wordpress custom theme for clients that want CMS websites. All my photoshop is quite weak, I can only really copy other people's work and edit it a bit, I've made logo's before. I have a feeling that I need t…

I'm going to be doing some free websites for my portfolio and there is a charity who I think would benefit from a re-design of their website. It's just a little bit out of date - not responsive at all, for instance. I'm not sure how to phrase the offer, though, or even if I should. Obviously I don't want to sound like I'm saying their website is awful or anything. How would you go about this?

I'm considering trying out freelance work and have some concerns. The primary one is, well, what happens if a client wants something you can't do? I'm fine with HTML/CSS, but only recently learned Javascript and still have problems with it. I've been trying to make an animation that runs smoothly and it makes me think, what if a client wanted this and I couldn't get it to work? I wouldn't know where to start with a shopping cart system (or PHP/MySQL, which are presumably involved), does that mean I shouldn't try until I've learned these things? When do you decide to stop learning and start looking for work? What exactly do you say when you're talking to a potential client…

First and foremost I'm curious are you a developer or a designer and what software do you use, also be nice to know what hardware you use and why so it could be a laptop, tablet etc... I'm interested in web design and development and would love to know how you get the most out of the tools available, is it the Adobe CC software or more free software online to cut back on those monthly costs.

*Sorry if this isnt relevant, or in the wrong section: I am due to start a small commercial website. I am considering a seperate bank account for this, for its construction and running costs etc. Or use a new paypal account? Or should I use my personal account until my ideas develop? Appreciate any ideas please.

I have been freelance for 8 months now, and love it, the freedom is great, working on stuff I love, all is good and I really wouldn't want to go back to the old 9-5. However... the one thing that I am struggling with and miss is the social interaction, be it bouncing off ideas, or even just chatting and having a laugh with co workers. I'm sure I am not the only one that feels this and wondered what others do to combat this? Thanks Mike

So, past 18 months I was employed by local agency, never actually worked the field before professionally. (My experience is 13 years in total, however for 11 years I just played with web templates - made them and deleted them. it was fun. made the odd free website here and there - friends school art projects required a portfolio or a friend wanted to set a hair dresser business up few years ago etc. All bespoke sites.) Well I’m self-taught HTML, CSS, Fairly confident with PHP and MYSQL and learning Java currently. CSS is my love! Just love it! I enjoy PHP highly too. Anyway, So I get a call one day (18 months ago, I’m currently out of work after choosing not to return…

Hello, I'm freelance designer from Estonia, Tallinn. Check my portfolio www.behance.net/georgi What do you think of that?

Hello All, I'm just wondering, in the past I've done fresh new sites for clients and have yet to redesign or work on a site that already exists. Can I ask how you all deal with putting up the new / test website whilst working on it? I'm asking because a client already has a domain and wordpress installed so it would be a case of installing a new theme. I am happy developing it all locally on wamp, but then once I install the theme there will still be changes to make in the admin area of wordpress and so forth, during these changes do you have a redirect stating under maintenance? It's probably simple but I'm just not clear in my head how to have the old …

I am in the process of building a paid membership or subscription website with wordpress. I have started reading through info on which themes I can use. Wow, I cant believe how expensive an extended license is for some premium themes. Can I use free themes for commercial use when the website itself (its content) is the end product without having a legal issue with the licensing? I am really new to this, please feel free to crush me with some reality haha. Is there a path one can take without paying several grand to get a decent theme used for a paid subscription site? Any help is appreciated.

Hi! I'm really stuck on a topic that maybe is familiar for you more experienced web designers. We are running a chiptuning company in Norway and we have 15 departments spread from south and all the way north. These dealers are handling software in cars. They read out the original software and ID-file (so two files that is) and the software is getting modified at our main office and then sent back. This is how they work today: - Pack the files into *.rar and sends it via email. - Sends a notice (SMS/facebook) to the main office that a file is waiting for them - We modify the software and send it back on email. - We send a notice to the dealer that file is…

Basically in a nutshell ive had it with my day job and i want to follow a career in web design. I know a bit of photoshop and html but i wouldnt say im anywhere near a pro. What is the best path to take? Should i take the plunge and a pay cut and find a job as a trainee somewhere or is there a better way of achieving the job role i really want? Is there an industry standard qualification that i could do while working in my current job? Any help would be great, so i can think about setting the wheels in motion.

Hello, I am from Taiwan and I moved to Europe where I have just started working as a freelancer. I just realised in some invoices I forgot to change my residential address back to the European one. So my bank account number is of a European bank but the address is my Taiwanese home address. Will it be a big issue? Will it attract unwanted attention from tax authorities? BTW I do not earn much, only several thousands' euros a year at most. I'd appreciate any input from you very much. Thanks so much, BB

Hi, We'd be interested to hear any advice on the following, or if anyone has had a similar experience? A potential client initially refused to sign our contract or pay a deposit, both standard policy for us- we told them that working with a contract was non negotiable, we would never do this, but that we could come to an agreement re the deposit (ie, make it a smaller upfront payment). They refused again, and ceased contact. However, they then came back to us saying that they would, after all, sign a contract, but still did not wish to pay anything upfront. Again, we told them that we could agree to a smaller deposit payment, but would need something. They said that the…

Hello all I've been asked for a daily / hourly rate for a job I've enquired about...here is some of the spec: What do people usually put as their hourly / daily rate? I used to do contract work at £13.20 per hour but felt I was underselling myself a bit...any thoughts? Web designer/developer Are you a recent graduate looking for experience or a junior looking for a new challenge? Knowledge of the latest trends in web/interface design is essential, as you will be designing websites and developing them into fully functional sites. Typical tasks would include: Creating wireframes and designs in illustrator/photoshop Adapting Parallax scrolling themes The…

There are 2 types of home learning course that can be chosen with 'known' qualifications but which is actually better? Has anyone here studied either the ACA Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash Course or the CIW MasterDesigner course? They are both alot of money but I want to do one. Has anyone here done either of them? I want something good for my CV

Hi! I want to start freelancing, website development and design. How to start? Where do you find projects? Many new projects are on popular sites like freelancer.com, but there are so many competitors in the same way. There is little competition for new sites like deziga.com but there is also not much new projects . Any advice please.

I'm launching a test site to validate an idea I have. The site collects only email addresses, however I've been told to get a privacy policy anyway. Can you recommend how I obtain a privacy policy for my test site, even though it may be taken down in a month's time. I've seen pricing of $250+ but that seems way too high, especially after reading tons of articles saying how you can launch a site very cheaply (<$100). Please clarify/give some recommendations if you're able. Thank you!

I have a product idea that I want to turn into reality, I have a few questions. What is the best method to make the blue-print for the idea, regular paper with descriptive information for every part of the product ? How do I find investors as I want an international patent and I need someone or a group to invest money so I can make product ?

Hi guys, so I haven't been around here for some time now - been super busy with business, college and work! Anyway, I'm currently 16 and have been persuing opening a business for quite some time now and things are taking off pretty quickly. I have my pitch infront of potential investors coming up next week and I am in need of some market research statistics that I have conducted myself. This will help me hugely and should only take less a minute to complete! HELP ME OUT! Ps - super sorry if this seems spammy or attention seeking, I'm just a young guy starting a business and I could use the support of fellow web/graphic designers to get it all kickstar…

Hi, assuming, a web-design project consumes 70 hours of work, how many workdays would that be? Or how long would it take for a small to medium sized company to finish this project? My boss' calculation: 70hours, 1-2 men should be 5 workdays = 2 weeks The site is nothing fancy, but I doubt 2 weeks will suffice. Any experiences? concept: 10 h = x days design: 35 h = x days coding: 15 h = x days Project: - Image, representative web site for a small company - 12-20 pages, Templates - no Back-End, Front-End only, focus on Layout, Design - we will provide style-guide/corporate design - initial content only/dummy.-content I think the calcula…

Hi all, I’m currently in a small debate involving a friend (wants me to help on the dev too) and their client. The client thinks he's over charging - I think I would most likely charge roughly the same. So without announcing the quote now, Just wondering what you would charge for this site: It’s a WordPress site. - Bespoke. Everything has to be done on frontend (apart from approval of registration and entry) Already have the PSD design, just need to take it from PSD to HTML for WordPress. Here is the wireframe http://designica.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/wireframe.jpg The idea is... Users register and enter a video (it’s a competition for dancers,…

Hi Guys, Im on attempt 11 now of my portfolio - Im soooo indecisive of what I want. So, where im up to.. Its wordpress and Im also making my first ever custom theme from scratch for it. After having some conversations with friends this weekend so many different views - Im confused. I want to blog on it, However The bloggin I ideally want to do is personal development not about the Latest android update or whatever. So I'd write a blog for example about my first theme, How I did it and why I didnt just use Twenty twelve as a base. I love to banter and im a really bubbly person - at first my portfolio was to be fun and basically Who I am, But friends where sa…

Im probably driving you guys mad over this issue ..sorry lol. I want to own my own dating website and to have full control and transfer it without being ripped off. I want to be involved and work with the designer. I will supply and pay for logos and images to be added. I can sort the hosting and domains myself too (via TSO). Ive contacted a website firm today via phone expressing my needs. So that I have it in writing, they have emailed stating that I can transfer both domain and website design (which they supplied) after a year free of charge ..email from an employee. The terms and conditions on their website state the complete opposite. This employee has said …