Hello all,

 

I'm fairly new to all this so please bear with me.

 

First off, I'm a developer, not a designer (well, I can design but I'm a coder first and foremost).

 

I've got a question about how to present yourself when looking for business. I tend to try to be honest with people and admit that 'it's just me', sure I have someone who does the books and sure some other friends and family help me out sometimes but basically I am 'it' right now.

 

Looking around at the competition though, a lot of one man bands blatantly lie and pretend they're bigger than they really are. Sometimes I am tempted to put in the 'royal we' when writing copy... should I? I don't think so... but I'd like a second opinion.

 

I can't help but feel a lot of people are put off by the 'size' of my company, which is a shame because I've worked for a lot of big companies in my past and know from experience: bigger does not always mean more professional.

 

So, professional ways to present yourself as a 'one man band', without coming off as a lame weekend-warrior? (incidentally I am not, I work on this full-time ).

Edited May 4, 201214 yr by WBD

Depends who you are targeting.

 

If you are going for work for corporate companies, present yourself as a business.

 

If you are going for work for small local businesses and individuals, present yourself as a one man band.

 

The former, because I believe they prefer to do business with a registered company than a freelancing individual. The latter, because I believe smaller, local businesses and individuals prefer the "personal" touch.

 

I'm not one for bigging oneself up with nonsense copy though, let your work and your credentials speak for themselves.

Small businesses mainly but I've worked as a contractor for larger ones before.

 

I have a registered limited company, I don't really see any point calling myself a 'freelancer', as I'm not.

 

I agree about 'bigging up' - trouble is it's early days and I don't have a large portfolio.

I've overheard a few people on twitter and the like discussing this.

 

The general view seems to be that pretending to be a 'we' when in fact it is just yourself is a bit sucky.

 

The only downside to this I have found is clients are more likely to give you the runaround (payment wise) when they know it's just you, rather than if they were dealing with some corporate entity.

 

I know because I have tried both approaches. I only use the 'we' now for projects I am collaborating on.

Edited May 4, 201214 yr by oakleaves

I've overheard a few people on twitter and the like discussing this.

 

The general view seems to be that pretending to be a 'we' when in fact it is just yourself is a bit sucky.

 

The only downside to this I have found is clients are more likely to give you the runaround (payment wise) when they know it's just you, rather than if they were dealing with some corporate entity.

 

I know because I have tried both approaches. I only use the 'we' now for projects I am collaborating on.

 

Hmm... yes. Quite true.

 

My first customer is actually a really nice guy and if he wanted to he could have totally screwed me over but rather than do that he gave me quite a lot of very sound business advice, like for instance: ask for 50% up front, before you do any work. Sure they can still dick you around but at least you've got something. I would never do something 'all work upfront and no pay'. That'd be crazy.

 

and... it doesn't matter how good your idea is, 'how are you going to market it' is the important question.

 

Collaborating / Networking is something I've been thinking about... I'd like to get to know a few people over here that do the same or similar things I do (I'm near Loughborough, East Midlands).

I'm of the belief that if it's just you... you should always use 'I'. Being honest and transparent in today's world is refreshing, and you can see a trend in the small and medium business community towards that progressive style of doing things.

 

You might lose some huge corporate clients, but they are usually a huge pain in the ass to work with anyways due to all the hoops you need to jump through to get anything done, so maybe that's not a bad thing?

 

It's perfectly fine to use 'We' when there are actually two of you.

 

One notable exception: I see absolutely no problem in using 'We' if you have honest intention to add people to your team through partnership or employment or whatever, it's less hassle than having to switch pronouns on all of your marketing collateral when you grow.

Just been through this issue myself.

 

I was avoiding using WE at first and was just using the business name instead.

 

But now ive decided, what the hell im a one person business so im going to use it as a selling point.

If you're working through a Ltd company, go with the "we" if it's at all helpful. It's not disingenuous because it denotes that you're speaking for the company rather than for yourself (nobody needs to know that you're the only employee).